The Metropolitan Hotel Coolgardie:
The Metropolitan Hotel, Coolgardie
When Pat Kennedy and his wife vacated the site on the north-eastern corner of Bayley and Fords streets in 1894, Fred Brewer erected a hotel two years later which was called The Metropolitan.
The hotel had two frontages – one on Bayley Street and the other in Ford Street, with he main entrance to the two ground floor bars being in the corner.
The saloon Bar, reached by a passageway from both streets, boasted an alcove with hand painted scenes of the sea and the coast. In addition to a large dining room, there was a Commercial Room, two parlours, billiard room, office and three bathrooms. At the read were twelve bedrooms and tanks which held 14,000 gallons of water.
On the first floor were twelve double bedrooms and ten single rooms. Each room was fitted with French casements opening on to a long balcony used for banqueting and the convenience of guests during the summer months.
In 1898, the lessee took all the furniture and fittings, leaving only a shell, which was leased by one of the local breweries at a weekly rent of £15. In 1905, the hotel was secured by a brewery for £5 per week.
The Metropolitan finally closed during the first world war when the building was dismantled and carted away. On the demolition of the Metropolitan, all four corners of Bayley and Ford Streets were now vacant.
Coolgardie Pioneer 11 December 1897 : A FINE HOTEL.
Mrs Brewer
This hotel is the largest building of its kind in Coolgardie, and is a valuable quota to the city’s ornamental architecture. Situated on the corner of Bayley and Ford streets, in the very heart of the town, it compels the attention of all who visit this centre. The interior, to the new corner with all his preconceived notions of Coolgardie civilisation, is a revelation, it, indeed, being appointed in a style that would reflect creditably upon the best of the Perth hostelries. Four large and handsome saloons are within its walls, a splendid billiard room, a large dining hall capable of seating 200 persons, private sitting rooms, bath rooms, and excellent bedrooms also. The hotel is connected with the telephone exchange, and is lit up with electric light throughout, and for it may be claimed, that it is without doubt the best ventilated hotel in the city. Mr Brewer, the proprietor, was born in London, and arrived in Sydney in 1880. He was well-known on the concert platforms of the East for his very fine vocal abilities. In November, 1892, he came to Coolgardie and started in the building and contracting line, at which he was eminently successful. Foreseeing the permanence of the place, he set to work and built the hotel pictured 
above, and has, we are sure, been amply rewarded for his enterprise. Mrs Brewer, whose portrait we also present, herewith, is a lady whose personal charm has gained her many friends since her arrival here in 1895.
The Metropolitan as a family hotel, is unsurpassed in Coolgardie, as a glance over the premises is enough to demonstrate. A feature of the place is its magnificent balcony running the complete length of two sides of the building and scattered over with deck chairs, lounges, etc, which gives it an air of the very essence of temptation for an after-dinner smoke or quiet chat. The electric light being installed throughout the building, besides every precaution being exercised, reduces the risk of fire to a minimum – a consideration which has great weight with visitors to the goldfields, as we have in the past earned a rather unenviable reputation on account of the frequency of disastrous conflagrations, chiefly affecting hotels.
The Metropolitan Hotel – Coolgardie 1897
Moya Sharp
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