The Golden Gate
Hotel was built in 1853, although on 19 December 1854, a license was refused.It was eventually granted to William Ashling on 24 April 1855.Ashling was a member of Emerald Hill’s Local Council.
The Golden Gate replaced the Myrtle Hotel as the most
popular meeting spot for local societies and clubs.Catherine Ellis, a licensed brick maker and
alleged heavy drinker, lived in a two-roomed timber house and kiln behind the
hotel in 1856.
In 1864, the
Donaldson brothers tendered for additions to the hotel.On 19 May of that year, the community
celebrations of the marriage of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and Princess
Alexandra of
Denmark, involved the erection of an arch that
spanned the roads between the
Golden Gate and the Royal Hotel.
An
advertisement in the local paper The Record (17 June 1881) announced a billiard tournament where two
silver cups – one for each table – were offered as prizes.
The
entrance to the Golden
Gate was
blockaded on 6 September 1890 after a football match between
South Melbourne and Carlton. Proprietor Henry Skinner’s had been provisioning
of catering to non-unionists at the gas works during the mercantile, seamen and
wharf workers’ strike of that year.The
Golden Gate was both Skinner’s home and the base for
his burgeoning and ultimately wildly successful catering business.Skinner was a well-known name in the
community: he was president of the South Melbourne Football Club (1904-11),
fundraised on a large scale for sports clubs and won the Melbourne South seat
on the Legislative Council in September 1911, only five months before his
death.Skinner was so mourned by the
community of which he had been such a generous sponsor and patron, that a
statue was erected in his memory at the South Melbourne Cricket Ground. The
Golden Gate is still a popular hotel in South Melbourne.
