Town Hall Hotel, South Melbourne

The Town Hall Hotel in Bank St, South Melbourne is another Melbourne pub that received a deco make-over in the 1930s.

According to Pots, Punks & Punters, the St Kilda Historical Society's excellent history of St Kilda and South Melbourne pubs by Becky Aizen, the Cosmopolitan Hotel was in operation here in 1868.

It was renamed the Town Hall Hotel in 1881, probably as a result of the construction of the magnificent South Melbourne Town Hall a year or so earlier. The town hall is also located in Bank Street but it is almost two blocks from the hotel so to me it is not an obvious name to choose.

The art deco re-modelling was undertaken by architect, F Morsby in 1936.

The central section is topped by two flagpoles and features a fin with three chrevrons just above a recessed band decorated with vertical ridges.

A small curved balcony is also decorated with a variation on the chrevron theme in the form of a shield.

There are no art deco details inside the Town Hall Hotel but it may be worth a visit on a Tuesday evening to sample their $12 chicken parma.