Victoria Hotel

In the 19th century during Queen Victoria's reign, it was popular to name public buildings and parks in honour of her. Hotels were no different and there were many trading under the sign of Victoria Hotel  in south-east Queensland. The Victoria Hotel in East Street was already in existence in 1861, owned by J. S. (James Stewart) Ogilvie. It was situated directly opposite George Thorn's residence (later known as Palais Royal) and in 1863 next door to the new Bank of NSW. It was a brick &  stone structure with verandah of about 18 rooms including bedrooms for guests and family, servants quarters, cellar, kitchen, parlour, coffee rooms and store rooms. There were stables and hen house too.

In 1863 Ogilvie decided to sell the Victoria Hotel at auction however the place did not sell at that time and he carried on. Instead, he called for tenders to perform alterations to the building and erect a new hotel frontage. Shortly after this at the beginning of the following year, the hotel was advertised to let and George Campbell Ross became the licensee. At this time, the Victoria Hotel was located close to Corporation Saleyards and S. Shillito & Son and the Highland Home Hotel was now opposite the Victoria in East Street. The Ipswich - Toowoomba coach departed from the hotel on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. 

As was all too frequent in colonial times, the Victoria Hotel was gutted by fire 27 March 1867.  Outbuildings survived the blaze although hotel interior and contents were lost. The fire occurred at a difficult time for the hotel. The publican George Campbell Ross and his wife had both died recently with Ross's executors in control of the license and an auction held the previous May for furniture and stock in trade of the hotel. It appears that at this point the Victoria Hotel in East Street ceased to function.

In 1883 Daniel Kennedy applied to the Licensing Board to open a public house in Brisbane Street in a house owned by W. G. Johnston, to be named Victoria Hotel. As was usual in those days, the hotel was the publican's home as well as a guest house and pub. Kennedy held the license for 8 years until the Licensing Authority at their annual meeting in April 1891 decided to close the Victoria Hotel along with the Imperial and Criterion Hotels. The closure was due to local sentiment and a desire to limit the number of hotels in Ipswich. Within a short amount of time another auction was held to dispose of the Victoria's bar fittings, mirrors, furniture and the like.