Norman Hotel

The Norman Hotel was built in 1889 for Robert Heaslop to a design from the office of John Beauchamp Nicholson. It is a brick hotel prominently sited at the corner of Qualtrough Street on the busy Ipswich Road. In 2009 a fire broke out, closing the hotel for a month for restoration. == Description ==

The Norman Hotel is a two-storey brick hotel prominently located on the corner of Ipswich Road and Qualtrough Street, Woolloongabba. The hotel addresses both street frontages and has a main entrance on the Ipswich Road and a corner entrance to the public bar. It is confident and flamboyant in style with an ornate parapet concealing a hipped roof, which is clad in corrugated iron and pierced by tall brick chimneys. The ground floor awning and the verandah to the upper floor feature curved corrugated iron roofs supported on slender cast iron columns. Each is truncated at the corner following the line of the building and each is decorated with lacy cast iron valances. The upper level also has cast iron balustrading. The wing to the rear of the main section along Qualtrough Street is much simpler in form and has sash windows with moulded decoration. The upper level of the hotel has French windows opening onto the verandah. The ground floor has narrow casement windows and a recessed entrance to Ipswich Road approached through a twin arches with a central pillar and matching pilasters to each side. Inside, the hotel retains a brick cellar space with a ceiling supported by low brick arches and a concrete floor. This is still in use for beer storage. The Ipswich Road entrance and hall remain, with the public bar on one side of the hall and the gaming area opening off from the other. Upstairs there are conference rooms, toilets and small service rooms. Doors and joinery details generally remain intact. The kitchen, beer garden and open air eating area to the rear of the site are modern, as is a brick liquor barn, but these are not within the listing boundary. == Heritage listing ==

Norman Hotel was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 12 July 2005 having satisfied the following criteria. '''The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.''' The Norman Hotel is important in providing evidence of the development of Queensland in the 1880s, a boom period when many fine commercial buildings were constructed, particularly in Brisbane. It is also important is demonstrating the development of the Woolloongabba and East Brisbane area in response to the growth of the tramway system. It demonstrates the importance of the Ipswich-Brisbane Road as a major transport route in the 19th century. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. The Norman Hotel is important as a good example of a quality hotel of its era and demonstrates the principal characteristics of such a building, being prominently placed on a landmark corner site and designed both to attract attention and suggest the quality of service and accommodation on offer. It remains substantially intact and has well-preserved exterior detail. It has had continuity of usage as a hotel for well over a hundred years The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. The Norman Hotel is a local landmark, being prominently sited on a major road linking Brisbane and Ipswich. It is a well-composed building of architectural merit and makes an important contribution to the character of the area by employing strong architectural features, including an elaborate parapet and well-detailed verandahs. == References ==