Roy's Hotel

Roy's Hotel

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History
Town	Ballarat
Street	Crr. Main Road and Humffray Street
Closed	1862
Known dates	1860-1862
Demolished	Burnt down 1862

Roy's Hotel was a hotel in Ballarat, Victoria, <1860-1862>.

Site

The hotel was on the corner of Main Road and Humffray Street.

History

The hotel was burnt down in the Main Road Fire, April 1862:

GREAT FIRE AT BALLARAT. Another conflagration has happened at Ballarat. It occurred on Sunday morning, about half-past 2, and commenced at Roy's Hotel, a small one-storied wooden building, at the intersection of Humffray-street with the Main-road. Thence it spread through several adjacent buildings, and its progress was only stopped by the dismantling of some houses and shops, a work which was performed by the brigades with great celerity. From the time the alarm was given (says the reporter of the Argus) till the flames were stayed not twenty-live minutes elapsed. In that time five tolerably large houses were burnt, and four more pulled down by main force. It would be well if the story stopped here, and more had not to be told. The Main-road escaped, but a life has been lost. In the empty space, where so shortly before houses had been, but where then only tall chimneys and burning ends of uprights appeared above the charred and smoking fragments, some person noticed remains resembling those of a man. The suspicion formed was but too true. A Mr Eastwood, a young man who had only left England to join his brother and friends on Ballarat, had gone to bed on Saturday night, at the Scandinavian Hotel, and not being awoke by the alarm of fire, was burnt in his bed. So quick had been the fire, that it destroyed little more than the skin and outer covering of flesh. All the muscles were laid as bare as they are seen in an anatomical model, only blackened with fire, and the head was a mere skull. The poor fellow must apparently have died in great agony, judging from the disposition of the limbs. Strange to say, his watch, which remained on his person, though scorched, had not stopped. Mr Eastwood was quite a young man, and possessed a reversionary interest to considerable property in the mother country. Of the origin of the fire little is known, though much is said. 'The most probable story is the one most frequently told— viz., that Mrs Stewart, who was sitting up for her husband, accidentally set fire to some curtains in her room, and that the light wooden building caught fire before anything could be done.

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The People

• In May 1860 the license was granted to James Stewart.