Duke of Kent Hotel - Latrobe Street and Sutherland Street, C.1926
This hotel stood at the corner of Latrobe and Sutherland streets (a little west of Elizabeth Street) from the mid-nineteenth century. Newspaper advertisements for the hotel in the late 1850s describe it as being in an ‘airy and healthy’ part of Melbourne, and having ‘first-class accommodation’. Its proprietor at that time, B Isaacs, advertised it provided board and residence during Passover, as well as “Kosher rum for sale”.
By the 1860s, the Duke of Kent Hotel was owned by Thomas Bane, father of the photographer of this image. At the time of the hotel’s demolition in 1928, it was described as one of the early landmarks of Melbourne. It was replaced by another Duke of Kent Hotel, which was three-storeys and designed by W & R Butler and Martin, the contractor F G Farr. The 1920s hotel has, in turn, been demolished in recent years when the site was redeveloped.