Federal Coffee Palace

The Federal Coffee Palace was a grand temperance hotel in Melbourne, Australia, built between 1886 and 1888 in the French Second Empire style. With 560 rooms and a height of 165 ft, it was one of the largest hotels in the world at the time and a prominent symbol of the late 19th-century temperance movement. Designed by Ellerker & Kilburn, it featured opulent dining and entertainment spaces, and was a key site during Melbourne's Centennial Exhibition. Despite its initial success, the hotel struggled financially after the economic crash of the 1890s and underwent several modernizations before its eventual demolition in the early 1970s. Today, it is remembered as one of the city's most regretted losses.