Goldy’s Tavern Owner Rebecca Feingold Just Bought an Iconic Pub That’s Been Shut for 10 Years

Clifton Hill’s Royal Hotel has stood on the corner of Spensley and Berry streets since 1889. It hasn’t operated as a pub for a decade, functioning only as a bottle shop and weekly distillery bar. On Friday, Goldy’s owner Rebecca Feingold purchased the building at auction – and she plans to revive the space as a classic corner pub.

“When this came on the market, I was over the moon,” she says. “There were some rumblings about the building being developed, which the community pushed back on, so to get a hold of it and be able to turn reactivate it as a pub is exciting.”

The pub hasn’t been on the market for 40 years – it was last purchased by the Gudic family in 1985, from Carlton & United Breweries. Feingold’s plan is to reopen the three-storey space as a classic corner pub in a similar vein to Goldy’s.

“It has some similarities with Goldy’s, being tucked away a little bit, which is something I love about it,” Feingold says. “But they’re two distinct buildings with different histories, so we’ll work with what the pub already has, we want to make it its own unique thing.”

The settlement period is 12 months, but Feingold is hoping to get into the space and get to work sooner.

“We’ll try and get the keys a bit earlier and get to work, we can’t wait to get in there and get to know the community, get to know the space and bring it back to what it was.”

The Royal Hotel will reopen at 41 Spensley St, Clifton Hill in late 2027.