Paul Blair wrote: > C & J Greig wrote: >> Paul Blair wrote: >>> A bit OT, but the name would help me find some other things. >>> >>> Melbourne. Spencer St. Corner of Bourke St. Opposite the old Mail >>> Centre. >>> >>> A pub/tevern. Burned down a few years ago. Block still vacant (I think). >>> >>> And the name was? Glenlyons? >>> >>> Paul >> >> The Savoy Tavern. > > That was its later name, I believe, when the Savoy Plaza took it over. > But before that...? > > Paul I found this on a forum at www.walkingmelbourne.com Carlyons Named after a famous hotel family who originated with a retired River Murray paddle steamer captain who opened a riverside tavern. There were Carlyon’s hotels at St Kilda, at Hampton and at Ballarat. The first hotel on the site was The Mechanics’ Hotel in the 1870’s. Incidentally, it was Norman Carlyon who partnered with Fred Matear to build the Hotel Australia in Collins Street. Later bought by Carlton and United, the three story building was deemed unprofitable and demolished in 1971. By 1973 CUB had opened the single-story Savoy Tavern (now there was a drinking hole where the carpets never dried out) on the site to cater to the large numbers of postal and railway shift workers in the area. Soon after, however, they sold it to Federal Pacific Hotels who had bought the neighboring Savoy Plaza hotel (previously the American-style Hotel Alexander designed by Leslie M. Perrot) some twenty years previously but who immediately after purchasing the Tavern sold the hotel to the Victorian Government for use as the Police Academy. It was the sales of the Savoy and their flagship Federal hotels that provided capital for Federal Pacific’s Wrest Point Casino venture. The Tavern closed some years ago, and the corner site has recently been sold for redevelopment. Regards, Jeanine