The Hotel Allen holds a proud place in the history of Townsville.
As we celebrate our recent restoration, explore the history of the Hotel Allen and the stories that continue to shape who we are today.
Written by Peter Wilmoth.
Originally built in 1876 and known by several names, the Hotel Allen has been an icon of the city in the 148 years since. In 2026 it will celebrate an extraordinary 150 years since it was opened by Prudence Houle, a remarkable Queensland hotelier and licensee of the time.
The hotel has been known as the Belle View, the Bellevue, the Derwent Hotel, the Queen’s Park Hotel and, since 1959, the Hotel Allen.
Newspaper reports and rate notices confirm The Queens Park Hotel which occupied the same site was damaged by Cyclone Agnes in 1956.
The damaged hotel was demolished in 1957 – the front page of The Townsville Daily Bulletin ran a report and a photo of the demolished building.
It was replaced by a modern building with the new name Hotel Allen, opening in September 1959.
Some of the earliest businesses established in the Townsville in its settlement years were pubs and hotels and Hotel Allen soon became one of the city’s vital community hubs.
The hotel started its life in 1876 serving the crucial role of all pubs and hotels in the era of settlements across Australia: as a place to eat and drink, to stay in the upstairs rooms, to gather with others in the community and to hear about employment opportunities.
And, in its earliest years, Prudence Houle was at its centre.
In the Townsville of the 1880s settlement was contained to the section along the Strand at the foot of Melton Hill. This is where the first Roman Catholic Church and Convent, the Orphanage and the first State School were established.
In their 1988 book ‘A Pattern of Pubs, Hotels of Townsville 1864-1014’, published by the History Department at James Cook University, Dorothy Gibson-Wilde and Bruce Gibson-Wilde tell us about the Townsville of that era.
“Several houses and dairies were scattered through the remaining area. In 1870 Townsville’s first cricket ground was cleared on what is now the Central State School grounds,” they write.
“The opening of the Belle View Hotel followed the Government’s decision to build the first major gaol in north Queensland on the site of the cricket ground in North Ward.”
They note that in 1876 Miss Prudence Houle, the first licensee, advertised her hotel as “opposite the new gaol”, although work on the gaol did not begin until May 1877.
By 1878, they note, with the name of the hotel now spelled Bellevue, it had acquired a bad reputation, though the reason for this has not been discovered. The residents of the suburb petitioned the Licensing Court to refuse renewal of the licence.
“Despite the pleading of three would-be licensees (Prudence Houle, Charles Foster and James Hargraves) the licence was refused.”
So, as we approach the hotel’s 150th year, what do we know about its first licensee Prudence Houle?
Records at the West End Cemetery in Townsville where Prudence is buried show that she was born in England and her father was John White Houle and her mother Prudence Simmons.
The Cemetery confirms that there is no headstone or specific location in the cemetery but it’s confirmed she rests there.
Prudence was an active hotelier. She was licensee for two hotels in Brisbane – The Globe and The Albion – before moving north to Townsville to open The Belle View.
It’s clear Prudence Houle was an energetic, enterprising businesswoman, and did well at a time when managing licensed pubs must have been extremely demanding.
A veteran publican, naturally Prudence Houle endured peaks and troughs in her time running hotels.
Like most hotel licensees at the time she occasionally fell foul of the law for very minor breaches which reached the newspapers. On 4 May 1867 a newspaper noted that Prudence was fined 20 shillings “for keeping certain swine in a building adjoining the Albion Hotel in Edward Street”.
A report in The Brisbane Courier on 6 October 1866 noted “Prudence Houle, landlady of the Albion Hotel, Edward Street, was fined 10 shillings (and costs) for allowing offensive and unwholesome matter to flow from her premises.”
There was a tragic end to the Bellevue era under her stewardship. Mr John Mathew, a former Town Planner with the Townsville City Council and local historian, compiled mostly hand written notes relating to the town from 1864 – 2004.
In his notes he mentions
“1878 Charles Howard Foster charged with abandoning his house ‘The Bellevue Hotel’. Prudence Houle had transfered the license to him. Foster had bolted away with another woman…”
“30.01.1878 Mrs Houle unlawfully selling grog”
“6.2.1878 Fosters license cancelled, Mrs Houle application refused”.
In 1878 Prudence and two of her staff died during a fever epidemic. The building was put up for sale in September 1878, and by January 1879 it had closed following protests from local residents against the renewal of its license.
If only we knew more about Prudence. Her life would have made an extraordinary book.
In 1884, on the same site, the hotel re-opened, this time called The Derwent Hotel, under the management of Henry Elliott.
Dorothy and Bruce Gibson-Wilde tell us that the licence changed ownership several times during the succeeding years, only Malcolm Meikle (formerly the engineer for the Townsville waterworks) remaining there for more than a year until his death in 1890.
They note that in October 1891 Stephen Smith took over the hotel, changing the name to Queen’s Park because of its proximity to the park which had become a popular sporting venue.
By this time Townsville was growing significantly. Notes the Gibson-Wildes: “The Botanical Gardens (now Queen’s Gardens) were well established and a favoured spot for picnics and moonlight concerts; and Queen’s Park had become a popular sporting venue with tennis courts and cricket fields in regular use by several clubs.
“It was also the venue of exercises of the Volunteer
Defence Force. The hotel, therefore, was very well situated to attract custom from the sportsmen or troops at the park. It was most appropriate that the name should have been changed to identify the hotel with Queen’s Park.”
Photographs of the hotel at the time show it as a two-storeyed timber building with verandahs shading the facades to both Eyre Street and Gregory Street.
Horses were central to life in settlement towns at the time, as were refreshment for their owners. In 1903 George Edwards advertised that The Queen’s Park provided “good loose boxes and the best of liquors”.
The Gibson-Wildes write: “The Queen’s Park was a comfortable hotel, convenient for country visitors participating in local sporting events or visiting the Townsville Hospital. Though severely damaged in 1903 during cyclone Leonta, after which it was immediately rebuilt.”
On 6 March 1956 Cyclone Agnes, the first Australian tropical cyclone tracked on radar, tore through the area, passing over Townsville, Ingham, Cairns, McKay and then moving into the interior.
The event caused damaged roofs on multiple properties; approximately 20 houses were rendered uninhabitable. Subsequent inland flooding caused four deaths.
The Queen’s Park Hotel was severely damaged but soon rebuilt and re-opened in 1959 with a new name: the Hotel Allen.
As the hotel moves towards its 150th anniversary, when you’re next there listen carefully – you might hear the echo of Prudence Houle calling out to her staff, or receiving supplies or welcoming yet another weary traveller inside for a drink, a meal or a comfortable room to spend the night.
To discover more about Townsville history and heritage we highly recommend checking out Townsville Museum
A special thank you to the Townsville Museum & Historical Society Inc. and the team at Historic Prints for their generous support in sourcing and compiling the images that bring Peter’s words to life.
Image credits:
1. Hotel Allen, corner of Eyre and Gregory Streets, North Ward, Townsville, 1985 (1985) Townsville City Council
2. North Ward from Melton Hill. Orphanage, Oxley Street, Townsville National School (named Central School 26/6/1936), Leichhardt Street. On the left: General Hospital, Gaol, Derwent Hotel in Gregory Street (c:1884) Townsville Museum & Heritage Society
3.
4.
5.
6. John Mathew Index. Townsville City Libraries, Local History Collection.
7. Queen’s Park Hotel, corner of Eyre and Gregory Street, North Ward. (no date) Townsville City Council
8. The Queens Park Hotel, corner of Eyre and Gregory Streets, North Ward, showing damage caused by Cyclone Leonta (1903) Townsville City Council
9. Looking from the hospital reserve across the intersection of Gregory, Eyre and Warburton Streets after Cyclone Leonta, North Ward, Townsville, 1903 (1903) Townsville City Council
10. Hotel Allen, built by Samuel Allen and Co to replace the Queens Park Hotel on this site, on the corner of Gregory and Eyre Streets (1962) Queensland Places
