In late 2006 Newcastle’s most famous building, the Palais Royale, was partially demolished. A year later its street front was sadly and brutally flattened.
Above: Palais Royale December 2004 in Hunter Street, Newcastle, NSW.
Heritage listing, colonial ties, and archaeological significance were perfunctorily dismissed by a modern city’s imperative of one more fried chicken dispensary. 'Progress' had to wait only for a brief heritage controversy and an archaeological dig that uncovered colonial and Aboriginal artefacts.
When 684 Hunter Street’s final chapter wrote fast food outlet, its patrons, like most city folk, cared little. Its heritage value discounted by poor condition, the Palais' merit diminished to a mere emblematic reminder of a social era passing beyond living memory. Nevertheless its veins run deep through our colourful history, born from the needs of a bustling mining town and desires of a growing industrial city.
Palais Royale's rich and diverse affairs intertwined strongly with lives and times of all but earliest generations of Novocastrians. Happenings were talk of the town. Occasions at the Palais marked indelibly our commercial and social history during the city's second hundred years.
With always a common touch and from beneath a stylishly simple façade, the front doors opened directly onto the street welcoming ordinary people to good times. In an unglamorous little coal and manufacturing town, a seaport to the world, the Palais stood proudly, with few peers.
The balanced iconic symmetry of its fascia projected a striking and evocative street presence. Coupled with so charming and glamorous a moniker, the "Palais Royale" became, irresistibly, the city's most famous building and the place to be.
Hunter Street will miss its spacious graceful counterpoise to those West End boxy monoliths. Behind that crude yet allusive exterior, surviving decades of redesign and re-use, delicate frescos adorned stunning coved ceilings astride bold column work, and crowned a great hall of expectant and timeless atmosphere.
The huge paned fanlight befitting a grand foyer, instead framed musicians playing to a mezzanine Loft Nightclub of young sophisticates.
This living heart of civic distraction evolved by demand from skating, to market, dance hall, night club, bandstand, and finally a creative sanctuary for our kids. A venue for all seasons, for all citizens.
Come 2006, dilapidation was not the Palais' fault and sad disuse not its desire.
The Palais Royale was a unique gift to this city. A treasure sharing aura and mystique with luckier - yes, far grander - namesakes around the world, it represented more gracious times, and anchored the past against the styleless modernity of generational change.
Perhaps, as social venues go, Palais Royale was a poor relative from the wrong side of the track masquerading as grand lady - lately in shabby clothes, carrying dark secrets of past indiscretions, yet rich in hidden beauties and fond memories.
Farewell, old girl, from we who relish emblems of our past.
Above: To view as an interactive panorama, click here.
Appendix
• Image kind permission of University of Newcastle, NSW, Au. Ralph Snowball Collection
• A delightful "life story" of the Palais Royale is online at West End Adventures website by Kimberly O'Sullivan telling those hard-to-find details.
• The region's treasure, Coal River Working Party website, describes the final chapter of Palais Royale's story, with an ending that outgrew a "demise" greatly overshadowed by a bigger story – our true heritage.
The applicant (Newcastle Palais Holdings Inc.) asked Council approval to modify the original terms of consent in respect of the redevelopment of the heritage listing Palais Royale building site. The original consent was based on retaining the Hunter Street façade as part of the development of an 8-storey mixed commercial/ residential development. The developer asked for the consent to be modified as investigation has found that the facade is not supported on substantial foundations, and has been adversely affected by the Jun 07 storms. Council approved the modification on the basis of conditions, including strict adherence to drawings by Span Architects and the Statement of Environmental Effects. The developer will be required to display examples of the 1920s ceramic wall tiling into the commercial area café. * www.ncc.nsw.gov.au » in council » Council meetings » Meeting summaries » Development Applications Committee 19 Feb 08 The site is occupied by the derelict and partially demolished 'Palais Royale', a former retail market and Dance Hall that has until recently been utilised as a youth centre. The building is listed in the Newcastle LEP 2003 as a heritage item of local significance and the subject site falls within the Newcastle City Centre Heritage Conservation Area. * Report DA 05/0115
Re CofN link above: like many links to City of Newcastle's website that I've used, it's now broken. The document might no longer be available, or just moved elsewhere. The original is available in full at the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine from 2008.
• NSW Office of Environment and Heritage details both site former structure in a Statement of Significance. This link, according to Internet lore, is now broken. NSW's heritage website returns no search results for 'Palais Royale.' Fortunately the text reproduced below was from a reading at the time.Without doubt the building has historic and social significance and is a place well known to many people in Newcastle. It also has considerable aesthetic significance given its prominence along Hunter Street and its location within the conservation area. Should the structural system and original fabric of the building have been more intact listing as a "State" item may have been warranted based on its history, however the high level of intervention means the building does not warrant a higher ranking.• The Newcastle Herald’s article is now behind their paywall. History: Palais Royale – king of venues includes a 21 image slideshow, one of which is a marvellous vista of the spacious interior at its best.
FOR almost 80 years until 2008, the Palais Royale was a Newcastle cultural landmark. Best remembered now as a big barn of a place with impressive corkscrew-shaped pillars… it became known as the Empire Palais Royale dance hall. Later, it was simply called the Palais Royale. And for years it was famous as a ballroom, a dance hall and by the early 1990s, a nightclub.
Palais Royale’s spacious inside and dance floors ~ Image courtesy The Newcastle Herald
• Toby Duffill's artistic rendition of the Palais, formerly hosted at photo.net. This link is now broken. Toby superbly illustrated the Palais' 'counterpoising' of those neighbouring monoliths. Which brought a pertinent comment by Denver (US) resident: "I didn't think Aussies would stand for the destruction of architectural wonders!"
Below: Fortuitously, I grabbed a screen capture of the orignal post of Toby's.
• Palais Royale May 2007 – Loft night club signage.
• Glory Days - Reliving the Palais (at Trove) is also linked in article above.
• Bachelor of Comms students Lexie Durbridge and Thomas Hancock made a half hour doco after gathering so much material 10 minutes was way too short. Broken link at UoN: UoN link here.
* Pictured: Paterson Real Estate advertisement for 'Palais Royale Newcastle' apartments
• Lost comment on Lemminstone.com ~ "a place where I sometimes played in my
band ... many national as well as international touring bands played here
... I guess you could say it is a huge part of Newcastle and I am not the
only one who is sad watching it fade away."
• 'Eyesore' Palais Demolition ~ ABC News report: "We actually had the whole place nailed up with steel banding and they could still break through that. You are just in despair, you cannot control them"
• Kev - an “occupant” in the empty building preceding demolition - commented on this NewcastleOnHunter article:I was one of the last people to inhabit the grand old dame [The Palais Royale] as some are referring to it. Yes I was one of those infernal squatters that they just could not get rid of! I think that in my mind it was a romantic notion that one of the iconic buildings in Newcastle met its demise at the hands of the demolishers.
Its sad times that modern technology could not save even the slightest bit of the place. Even though we (the squatters) were abhorred by the community we really were a lovely bunch of caring citizens (never judge a book by its cover - that is an old adage that is not used too frequently these days).
I think that most of us there at the time at least had a bit of social integrity and knew what we were living in and what it meant - not just a handful but to generations of Novocastrians. The bureaucracy won yet again. No one came to talk to us, about rehousing or anything like that - we were just moved along. I guess people thought that we were just hooligans which we were not, we lived harmoniously together there, we kept the place clean and we even use to sweep and mop the floor. I now reside in Gosford and the town centre here has the same problems as Newcastle but not to the same extremes unused derelict buildings. What's with local councils and old buildings?• A last word from Brad – from a now-closed page at www2b.abc.net.au/guestbookcentral
I fail to understand what all the fuss about the Palais facade is. At the end of the day it is merely out-dated brickwork that blends perfectly with the rest of Newcastle West (RUBBISH). I worked at the Palais as a drummer back in the 80s & it is just another room. The sooner this town & its council move on the better. Hunter Street is a disgrace & an embarrassment to everyone that lives in the Hunter. Memories are one thing, progress is another. Time to move on Newcastle.
Brad’s opinion is popular and reasonable: that derelict buildings depress the experience of Hunter Street and urban renewal is natural. However, the point of conservation - of buildings, languages, or species - is to preserve ecological diversity. A country (a region, a city) ignorant of its history loses perspective and risks progress at random. Which is fine if random is one’s plan and uniformity pleases the eye.
• Last, but far from least, Greg Ray's PhotoTimeTunnel article on his parents' fateful meeting at the Palais.
Palais Memories Live On
• ABC Newcastle news item on Lynn and Carol Carlyle - a Newcastle couple representing the good times - seems to have vanished from the ABC's website, as far as I can see.
The original is reproduced below, retrieved from The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine,linked here. It's rather sad that a website funded by philanthropists and public donations can maintain this ABC web page from 2008 - along with billions of other pages - while Australia's Australian Broadcasting Corporation, with government funding, cannot. How much of the ABC's vast library of our social and cultural history is being lost in this way?
ABC local stories ~ 13 March, 2008 1:40PM AEDT
Palais memories live on.
By Brooke Bannister
The Palais Royale will be demolished this week but the memories of the dance clubs glory days live on with many Novocastrians.PrintEmailPermalinkShare "Hurry up," Carol Carlyle screeches out the car window. "The silly duffer, he was ready half an hour ago, now look at him."
Carol Carlyle's gravelly voice demands attention and can be startling, even to her husband Lynn.
They mutter abrasively between each other as Lynn gets in the car, but soon they erupt into a contagious cackle about a throwaway comment.
They are on their way to the place they first met and like many Novocastrians of their vintage; it was at the Palais Royale.
Carol recalls the night with a scowl, "He walked up to me and said, "Have you got this dance?" and I said "No", and then he said, "Well I hope you get it," and walked off," she exclaimed, barely believing it five decades later.
Lynn cheekily chuckles in the background similar to the way he did after he walked off. Carol continues, still dumbfounded but smiling, "I wasn't used to be spoken to like that. It really put me on the backfoot." Luckily, Lynn returned soon after, they laughed and then danced all night long.
Forget the splendour and energy of that time, as the car slows in front of the former icon the smell of rubbish and urine is the first thing that hits you. A decrepit shell of its former glory, the Palais Royale resembles more of a war zone and is now a home for squatters. Carol points out someone peering through a window on the second floor.
The curved art deco facade is the only clue that the Palais Royale had better days. The uniqueness of the now faded pascal-coloured masonry structure is what made people lobby to protect it.
Despite attempts, Newcastle City Council voted last week to demolish what is left of the Palais Royale. The iconic facade will be demolished this week after building inspectors reported it was structurally unsound from damage sustained during the June floods last year.
"It's very sad, just very sad," Carol says as she looks up at the Palais for the last time.
A former skating rink, the Palais Royale attracted thousands on opening night, March 27, 1929. But the dance hall really took off in the 1950's, "I was there every Friday and Saturday night, everyone was, it was the place to be," Carol Carlyle exclaims, as if it's still common knowledge. The size was over-whelming and no other venue in Newcastle could match its grandeur.
The atmosphere could be intoxicating, but that was the closest you would get to being drunk. No alcohol was sold or allowed to be brought inside the Palais Royale in those days.
With no alcohol, drugs or any hope of sex, they had nice clean fun by literally dancing the night away, "Waltzes, quick-steps, jazz waltzes, gypsy taps and they had a bull pen down in the bottom corner, and that's where all the jivers used to go," Carol face glazes as she drifts back to that time. "But it was a huge dance floor and absolutely beautiful... those were the days when you had fun and didn't do a lot wrong."
Gallery
13 November 2004
A collection of views from when the venue was deserted and before the rent-a-fence had fully enclosed it.
Above:Hunter Street looking east.
Below: Eastern side of the Palais external wall.
Above: Hunter Street entrance.
Below: Inside the external wall, the building's eastern wall. Looking towards Hunter Street at far left.
Below: Behind the brick wall was an activities yard - that eventually would have imploded under the weight of paint.
Below: The western side of the building also got its share of attention. Hunter Street at far right.
Below: Gallery of random details from above.
26 December 2004
A month later (from above) boarding was over the front entrance that was immediately covered with new pieces. Was in a hurry and not paying attention on the day - some panoramas don't properly stitch.
22 May 2005
Can only wonder how many great works were missed during these years.
Below - A "GraffitiJunction.com" watermark appears on some of these images. It's an old domain name of ours where these ancient images were originally published. Later moved them here at Newcastle on Hunter.
2 October 2006
A drive-by eighteen months later. Throsby naively thought, despite the arse end being torn off, that council yet had great plans for the poor old thing, and that its heritage listing was still in effect.
7 January 2007
You might rightly think I had become rather obsessed with the Palais Royale. With a growing sense of doom regarding the building's fate.
1 April 2007
By this time it was clear there was no hope left for the Palais. Yet still imagined that the facade might survive.
On this early Sunday morning - 7:37 to be precise - I decided to do a deep dive and view the carnage up close, rent-a-fence be damned. The thumbnail gallery that follows the panoramas immediately below are all clickable for full size viewing.
This next batch, it could be said, falls under the category: 'too many pictures is never enough.' No point in letting them die offline in my PC's drive.
That's all, folks.
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