The Devonshire Arms Hotel is a former pub located at 38 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy, in the state of Victoria, Australia. It operated as a hotel from 1843 to 1920. It is Fitzroy's oldest surviving building and Melbourne's oldest known extant hotel.
The Devonshire Arms Hotel opened in 1843.[1] The hotel was erected and owned for 50 years by local entrepreneur Francis Clark.[2] Clark had arrived in Melbourne in 1840, and became manager of James Palmer's lemonade and soda factory. He opened a butcher's shop near the corner of Bourke Street and Elizabeth Street in 1845, and later another shop in Richmond. He bought speculative property around Fitzroy and Alphington, and lived a prosperous life. Although he hailed from Essex, the hotel was given the name Devonshire Arms, owing to the pre-goldrush population of the area being principally from the south-west of England.
It was one of 27 Melbourne hotels forced to close by a July 1920 meeting of the Licensing Reduction Board, formally being delicensed in December that year.[3][4] The building was raided by police in January 1921, who seized alcohol and laid charges for selling liquor without a license, but the charges were dismissed.[4][5] The building later operated as a hostel.[6]
The building is now part of St Vincent's Hospital, housing the hospital's Department of Addiction Medicine.[7]
^"PETTY SESSIONS". The Melbourne Courier. Vol. II, no. 150. Victoria, Australia. 3 December 1845. p. 2. Retrieved 11 August 2019 – via National Library of Australia. ,...Transfer of licenses; Mr. Joseph Cowell Passmore applied for the transfer of the license of the Devonshire Arms, now in the possession, of - Mr. Francis Clark. Granted...
^ ab"LICENSING CHARGE FAILS". The Herald. No. 14, 001. Victoria, Australia. 26 January 1921. p. 9. Retrieved 22 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
^"RAID ON A DELICENSED HOTEL". The Age. No. 20526. Victoria, Australia. 11 January 1921. p. 6. Retrieved 22 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
^"When Boots Were Imported". The Age. No. 24, 995. Victoria, Australia. 25 May 1935. p. 19. Retrieved 22 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
