Bulldozers Used In Demolition Of Hotel

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28699, 24 September 1958, Page 14

Bulldozers Used In Demolition Of Hotel

Workmen smothered In dust clambered over rubble in Gloucester street, a few doors from Colombo street, yesterday afternoon. The rubble was the remnants of the Hotel Gloucester, a twostoreyed brick building which was built about 60 years ago. For the last two days workmen have been pulling the hotel down to make way for extensions planned by a city store which owns the property. On Monday workmen began the job of wrecking by knocking away the brick walls with heavy hammers. Yesterday two large bulldozers ploughed their way into the diningroom, lounge, kitchen, and tore the place apart. On the opposite side of the road the footpath was lined with spectators, some of whom were there for long periods. Even when it was raining they sheltered in nearby doorways or stood in the open with umbrellas.

Traffic officers were kept alert as the attention of passing motorists was distracted by the noise of the bulldozers, and more than once a motorist had to be cautioned. Before the rain came, late in the afternoon, grit, dirt and dust

were flying. It was not possible to walk on the footpath without getting dirty and dusty. When it rained, the dust settled quickly. The spectators were impressed by the skilled handling of the heavy bulldozers on the small site. There was a line of trucks waiting ready to take away the debris. Steel girders, half a ton of brick or concrete; it made no difference, for everything that was once the hotel gave away to the might of the bulldozers, and was loaded on th® deck of one of the trucks and carried away down Gloucester street.

The site is expected to be cleared by the end of the week, and. it is possible that it might be used for parking until the firm which owns the site is ready to extend its buddings.

Before the hotel was built there was a two-storeyed house on the site, built well back from the road.

The first proprietors of the hotel were Mr and Mrs Richard Hall, and for most of its life the building was known as “Hall’s Belvue House.” This name was until yesterday on the front of the building on the second storey. In its early days, many of the 25 to 30 permanent guests were newspapermen.