The beloved but long-closed Royal Hotel Clifton Hill has been acquired by local publican Rebecca Feingold, with plans to return it to its rightful place in the hearts of Melbourne’s inner north.
Built 1889, the Royal of Clifton Hill is one of just a few surviving three-storey pubs in the city, occupying a prominent 736sqm corner site, around four kilometres from the CBD and close to Clifton Hill Railway Station.
It consists of a ground-floor hospitality venue with multiple trading areas, a commercial kitchen and dedicated dining spaces, undercover outdoor areas and an established bottleshop. There are also 29 accommodation rooms, across two levels.
The Clifton Hill pub enjoys a broad residential catchment that also takes in the surrounding ‘burbs of Fitzroy North, Collingwood, Abbotsford and Kew, and it holds a general liquor licence allowing trade up to 1am.
The Gudic family bought the Royal in 1985 from Carlton & United Breweries (CUB).
After trading for more than two decades they closed the bar in 2017 and submitted plans for a five-storey apartment complex on the site. The application garnered around 270 objections from outraged locals, and in 2023 VCAT ruled against it proceeding.
For the past three years the former watering hole has languished. The ground floor is occupied by a gin distillery, which also tends the bottleshop. The upstairs rooms are still regularly occupied.
Last month the family sent the property to market in a campaign through Colliers’ Ben Baines and Lucas Soccio, destined for an auction on 10 September and with hopes of a sale price of $5-6 million.
Over 200 people attended the competitive auction, generating nine bids from three separate hospitality operators – including a syndicate of local residents, who had banded together in an attempt to acquire the historic hotel and highlighted its longstanding connection with the Clifton Hill community.
Feingold won the battle with a bid of $5.51 million.
She is already proprietor of Goldie’s Tavern in Collingwood and is planning to revive the long-quiet venue and reopen it late 2027.
“The $5.51 million result reflects the quality of the Royal Hotel and the appeal of securing a prominent freehold hotel in Melbourne’s inner north,” offered Baines.
