Hadley's Orient Hotel, Hobart

Hadley's Orient Hotel

34 Murray Street, Hobart, Tasmania

Grade C · TraditionTrading · checked Sept 2026

Hadley's Orient Hotel claims 1862. No earlier record has been found.

Claimed

1862

First record

none found

Building

no single date

The building. Nineteenth century — the Tasmanian Heritage Register describes a four-storey hotel with oriel windows, iron balconies, quoins and a balustraded parapet, significant as a rare surviving large-scale nineteenth-century accommodation house and as a multi-storey Victorian commercial building.

Rooms

Art

Cocktails

Live music

The claim

A four-storey hotel in the middle of Hobart, with oriel windows and iron balconies and a bar hung with contemporary Tasmanian art. The house dates itself to 1862 and Webb's Family Hotel; the Hadleys bought it in 1890 and left their name on it. Roald Amundsen stayed in 1912 after the South Pole. The Art Bar opens at four, whether or not you have a room.

What the records show

The date the hotel gives for itself and the date the travel trade gives for it are twenty-eight years apart. Hadley's own history page says the house was founded and run as Webb's Family Hotel in 1862, that the Hadley family bought it in 1890 and gave it their name, and that a consortium took it over in 1935 and kept the name; its timeline of guests starts with the comedian Sir William Don in 1862. The widely repeated line that it was built in 1834 by convict labour comes from the state tourism service and the booking sites, and the Tasmanian Heritage Register does not support it: the datasheet for place 2534, permanently registered, calls the building a rare surviving large-scale nineteenth-century accommodation house and a multi-storey Victorian commercial building, which puts the fabric after 1837, and records no founding date at all. No licence, directory or newspaper has been traced for either year from here. What is not in doubt is the drinking: the hotel's Art Bar opens daily from four, pours cocktails, beer and wine and puts a pianist in on Saturday evenings, so a visitor who is not staying can be served. Roald Amundsen stayed here in 1912 after reaching the South Pole and telegraphed the news from Hobart.

What to look for inside

Roald Amundsen stayed here in 1912 after reaching the South Pole
Runs the Hadley's Art Prize and hangs contemporary Tasmanian work through the hotel
Tasmania's first roller skating rink is said to have opened in the building in 1867

Visiting

Hadley's Orient Hotel is in Hobart, Australia, at 34 Murray Street, Hobart, Tasmania. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

hadleyshotel.com.au Directions in your maps app

Sources

Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026

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