The demise of Hotel Beaconsfield

Opposite Melbourne's St Kilda beach, in a lane corner, with a departmental store on one side and a compact residence at the other is a prosaic two-storied building that is shut from all sides. Its grey tinge gives it a nondescript feel. It's a sort of building that might never meet your eye.

On the night of January 18, 2004, it was this building, formerly the Beaconsfield Hotel, that was the site of a tragic incident. David Hookes, the popular former Australia batsman, was celebrating Victoria's win over South Australia in a one-day game. There was little to celebrate after midnight: Hookes got into an altercation with a bouncer, fell to the ground, hit his head in the process, and went into cardiac arrest. He never recovered and was proclaimed dead the following day.

The incident was followed up extensively but story of the hotel is an interesting one. Once a hub for backpackers, Beaconsfield, built as early at 1880, was under siege in the months that followed. The next 12 months saw business drop away, staff spat upon and hotel windows riddled with bullets by Hookes' fans. It closed down on Christmas Eve of that year, leaving a whole bunch of regulars with nowhere to go.

"I used to stay a few blocks from the hotel," says Tas James, a local who stops to chat as he passes it by. "This was my watering hole. I used to come here every second day. But now you can see the bullet marks on the doors and walls. They just used to come outside and fire. I've heard they're going to convert this into an apartment soon."

The Greek lady in the adjacent departmental store isn't too keen to open up. Neither is the man who owns the house at the other end. But most in the neighbourhood seem to identify with the hotel, and regret its closure. I'm glad we came now. A few months on and the last remnants of the Hookes incident would have been erased for ever. At least we got to see the bullet marks.