On Walkabout In: The Historic Hotels of Beechworth

Prior Posting: The Beechworth Historical & Cultural Precinct

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The historic city of Beechworth has a number of historic hotels spread across the city that are beautifully restored and still open for business. Some of the hotels are known for their association with bushrangers and other famous characters in Australian history.

The Nicholas Hotel is known for being the place that Ned Kelly had a bare knuckled fist fight against Wild Wright in 1874 that he won:

Kelly had did three years in jail because Wright had asked him to look after a horse that Kelly claims he did not know was stolen. Kelly got in fight with a policemen who saw him riding through the town of Greta with the horse and accused him of stealing it. The grudge between Kelly and Wright was settled with a fight here at the Nicholas Hotel.

The Empire Hotel is right across the street from the Nicholas Hotel:

The most notable thing about the Empire Hotel that was built in the 1850’s is that it is the only hotel in town that has burned down twice and rebuilt in 1867 and 1879.

Go to any small town in Victoria and you are bound to find a “Commercial Hotel” and Beechworth is no different. The Tanswell’s Commercial Hotel in Beechworth was originally owned by J.D. Fisher who had the hotel built as a wood structure in 1853. The hotel was sold to Thomas Tanswell in 1861 who rebuilt the hotel as the brick structure you see today in 1871:

Word of mouth is that the Commercial Hotel has excellent bar meals. My wife and I didn’t stick around for dinner because we wanted to hit the road back home before it got to late.

The Warden’s Food & Wine located in an old pub building on the southern portion of downtown is supposed to be the best place to go to try out local wines:

Not all of the old hotels serve as restaurants either such as the Beechworth Gallery seen below:

The old gallery building is located just outside of downtown and is a beautifully restored structure. The building is currently for sale and the asking price for the building is a cool $1 million dollars.  There are many other old hotels that primarily serve as restaurants scattered around the town as well. All of them are beautifully restored with some of them still providing hotel rooms for the night.

Next Posting: The Historic Churches of Beechworth

Note: If you have stayed or eaten at any of the old hotels of Beechworth please leave a comment of what you thought about the hotel.