Big plans for Brunwick’s Railway Hotel
Plans are afoot to transform a rundown Brunswick hotel into the Melbourne suburb’s biggest pub.
The heritage-listed Railway Hotel closed two years ago after a massive drug bust in 2016 which resulted in two managers charged with a string of drug offences.
New owners Riverland Group have already begun transforming the pub into 965-person venue with a focus on community and sustainability.
The ground floor of the pub has been gutted and an adjoining house demolished to make way for the new venue which will feature two outdoor courtyards, two indoor bars and a separate indoor dining room, with a licence to serve alcohol until 3am every night.
“We’re going to turn it back into what it probably once was, a really important part of Brunswick,” Leaseholder Richard Ludbrook told the Herald Sun.
“At a time and place where so many things get knocked down and turned into other things we’re really keen to bring it back. There’ll be so many things staying the same in the old pub and we’re trying to keep all those.”
Future plans for the upper two storeys, which were most recently backpackers’ accommodation, include turning them into function rooms, start-up offices, art studios and accessible community spaces.
Ludbrook also said they were “putting a lot of effort into sustainability”.
“It’s going to be solar powered, we’ll run a waste composter to provide free community compost, we’ll use e-water to minimise chemicals and we’re going to try to minimise packaging,” he said.
Sheridan Randall, 3rd October 2019
