The Victoria Hotel

The Victoria Hotel is a large sandstone hotel built in 1867 by Lockwood and Mawson. It features an Italian Romanesque style on the main front, which faces north, and has a French pavilion, slightly domed roof over the short flanking wings. The design is influenced by the Grosvenor Hotel in Victoria, London, particularly in its massing and roof line. The ground floor has arcaded windows, while the first floor features colonetted lights with archivolt heads. The second floor has a pierced stone tympanum, and the third floor has plain similar windows. The short wings have large canted bay windows with polished granite Corinthian columns at the front and pierced stone parapets. The main entrance is marked by coupled columns, a deeply moulded arch leading to a fanlight, and a pierced balustrade above. The steeply pitched slate roofs have carved bracketed eaves cornices, and there are oeuil-de-boeuf stone-framed dormers in the French 17th century style.