City of Port Phillip invited Context to provide a cultural heritage assessment of the London Hotel, Port Melbourne, which was under threat of demolition. A previous preliminary heritage assessment suggested that the hotel did not meet the local threshold on the basis of its architectural merit. The development application for the hotel attracted a large number of objections, many of which commented on ‘intangible’ heritage connections between the place and the local community and on its historical importance to Port Melbourne.
Context’s focus was on the values of the Hotel including and outside of its built form. Community engagement explored the hotel’s social values through an online survey, round table sessions with key stakeholders and social media research, each method designed to understand community connections. This research established that there is long-standing and enduring attachment to the Hotel for the local community, which gives rise to social significance at a local level. Context recommended the London Hotel for Heritage Overlay and gave specific conservation guidelines to protect its social significance into the future. Based on our findings, the City of Port Phillip requested interim heritage controls for the property, and then sought a Heritage Overlay. [Context Pty Ltd]
London Hotel was demolished in 2017 and has been replaced by an apartment building.