The Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda occupies a rare niche in the Melbourne music scene. Ever since its construction in 1878, the Espy has played host to regular live music performances. It developed a reputation for nurturing and supporting independent Australian musicians in the 1920s, and has moved through jazz, swing, rock ’n roll, R ’n B, punk rock, new wave, country, rockabilly, grunge, ska and funk.
In the last few decades the Espy has become a cultural icon of constantly evolving alternative music, art and comedy. The hotel has presented live music seven nights a week, provided regular comedy gigs and art exhibitions and operated an excellent kitchen with good quality, low-cost meals. There is no door charge and no dress policy, local beer is served on tap and an egalitarian, non-discriminatory feel is maintained throughout. The diversity in class background, age and subcultures of its patrons has become a legend in itself.
The number of musicians the hotel employs each week ranges from 150 to 175. On a big day, up to 30 bands might play across four stages. As one of the best-paying venues in Melbourne the Espy contributes at least $15,000 per week to the local music industry. The resultant quality of entertainment has a direct relationship to the cash flow generated from the patrons. This averages between $100,000 - 120,000 per week (equating to $5-6 million per year). These figures add much-needed support to the Australian live music scene.
Today, the Espy’s fame and defiant uniqueness give it an economic as well as cultural logic. As a venue, it is valuable not only to the music industry and to Melbourne’s blossoming comedy scene, but to the growing number of punters who seek an alternative experience to Melbourne’s increasingly mainstream pub culture. It is a must-have on every young Australian non-mainstream musician’s CV, and a must-see for any backpacker carrying the Lonely Planet Guide to Australia.
The three storey pub faces out west over Port Phillip Bay, with one of the best views of the sea at sunset in Melbourne. The Espy occupies approximately one-third of an island site bounded by The Esplanade, Pollington and Victoria Streets. The remainder is less used although certainly not empty: a 1920s Spanish Mission block of flats on the Victoria Street frontage currently used as artist’s studios, former stables now used as garage space, a beer garden and bottle shop. Due to increasing pressures on inner-city real estate, the entire site has for the past 17 years been the focus for potential development. The site has been sold and sold on as a package as developers have tried and failed with redevelopment bids. In 1986 a company called Evindon proposed an 18-storey international hotel, later the lease was nearly sold to operators who wanted to convert the Espy to a bistro/beer barn.
Carlton and United Breweries bought the site in 1995 with ideas of turning the pub into a pokie venue, until Becton Corporation bought it in 1997 with plans for a 38-storey residential apartment block and adjoining retail and cafe complex. All the plans failed because of community opposition to their insensitivity to the hotel. This does not mean that any redevelopment would fail: the communities that care simply await a sensible and sensitive proposal.
The campaigns to protect the Espy from these redevelopments have kept its non-mainstream
pub culture alive and have reinforced the Espy’s symbolism of resistance
to cultural homogenisation. At the same time, the focus of its owners on the
development potential of the lesser-used parts of the site has resulted in the
building and its operations being sorely neglected. The Espy’s profits
have been siphoned off to pay the interest on the inflated purchase prices and
the hotel has been steadily run down. Its upper floors were closed ten years
ago, its chairs are held together with gaffer tape, and its successful music
and comedy mix has been in danger of becoming compromised through neglect.
The Esplanade Alliance long argued that the hotel’s best hope was its separation from the remainder of the site. In the right hands, with its substantial revenue going back into maintenance, the Espy could continue for many more decades to be one of the most successful, and profitable, pubs in Melbourne.
In 2001 the Esplanade Alliance began to explore strategies for separating the hotel from the rest of the site, so that it was no longer beholden to development proposals and so that its profits could be directed back into maintenance and operations. At the time it appeared that the only way of achieving separation was a community buy-out and so the Esplanade Alliance began working on a trust model to pave the way for a community purchase of the hotel.
In May 2001 Becton announced the sale of the hotel on a 200-year leasehold, effectively delivering a separation very similar to that which the Esplanade Alliance advocated. Becton's intention was to retain and develop the rest of the site. The Esplanade Alliance fully supported this process. It meant that the Espy could be run as an unencumbered commercial venture and that development proposals for the rest of the site would be assessed on their planning and design merits. When the call for tenders went out to the market, the Alliance established the Esplanade Hotel Foundation.
The Esplanade Hotel Foundation is based on the ethos that the Espy can successfully continue in its cultural role as:
The EHF positioned itself to build capacity across the arts sector for innovation, creativity and new experiments within the challenges of the commercial market place. If successful in winning the tender, the intent of the Foundation was to ensure the conditions for the on-going survival of the hotel for as long as it had an audience, a market and was a viable commercial entity. This meant looking after not only the ground floor pub, with its Front bar, Gershwin Room, kitchen area and basement public bar, but also the unused two upper levels, which can and should be reopened to the public (for more detail see Lessons from the Espy, 2001).
The tender was awarded in August 2001 to Vince Sofo and Paul Adamo, former operators of the Chevron in St Kilda Road. They took control of the Espy in October that year. After an initial period of uncertainty, the pub appears to have regained its feet and continues to operate as a vibrant music venue and is still one of the most successful pubs in Melbourne.
Its on-going survival depends on:
The Esplanade Hotel Foundation is currently working collaboratively with Vince and Paul on ideas and proposals for re-use of the upper floors.
The Alliance has also been working with the City of Port Phillip on amendments to the planning scheme that maintain the conditions needed by the hotel to continue to operate. After an extensive consultation and panel process, the following clauses were inserted into the Port Phillip Planning Scheme via Amendment C25, stating:
and supporting:
A specific design objective for any new development specified that:
These were five clauses amongst a comprehensive set of objectives for the design of any new development on the rest of the site, including impact on streetscape, overshadowing etc.. They represent some of the most progressive and far-sighted planning objectives in the Victorian planning system, taking a holistic rather than narrow land-use approach to planning, and acknowledging that the maintenance of social and cultural diversity requires more than the occasional festival.
The planning scheme amendment was exhibited for several months early in 2002. It received much public comment and went to a State government-appointed panel for consideration in May. The panel reported back to Port Phillip Council, the Council prepared the final amendment (including the objectives above) and it was adopted by the Council in August. The amendment was approved by the Minister for Planning and became part of the Port Phillip Planning Scheme on 1 November 2002.
Becton released a proposal for development on the rest of the site almost immediately - a quick response to the substantially revised planning scheme. An application for a planning permit was lodged with the Council in December 2002. Examination of the proposal showed inadequate response to the design objectives and complete disregard for the objectives relating to the on-going survival of the hotel (for more detail, see the Alliance’s objection, December 2002).
The Esplanade Hotel operators had a management plan prepared in accordance with the planning scheme requirement. It was written by Hansen Partnership, well-known Melbourne planning consultants, and details all the elements necessary to the hotel’s continuing operation. An assessment of the Becton proposal against the management plan shows the proposal to be in clear breach of the planning scheme.
The strength of the planning controls have undergone their first, successful test with Council’s refusal of the application on 10 February 2003. The next test will be at the probable, forthcoming appeal to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
We will keep you posted.
This webpage is maintained by Cyndy Vogelsang on behalf of the Esplanade Alliance