In November 2006 Barbara and I visited Melbourne and we stayed at the Rendezvous Hotel in Flinders Street. Last week I spent two days and two nights at the Rendezvous and had time to wander around, admire the architecture and wonder about its history. I found some interesting details in the Victorian Heritage Database and the Walking Melbourne website.

The second source ends: “The building ceased functioning as the Commercial Travellers Association club in 1976 and fell into disrepair before being restored as a hotel in the late 1990s.”

“Disrepair” is an understatement. The National Library of Australia’s ‘Picture Australia’ database links to some amazing pictures of this hotel. Some photographs were taken by RMIT students in 1992 and show it to be completely derelict.

The new owners have done an amazing job to return large parts of it to something like original condition.