A substantial landmark and architecturally stunning building, it
was designed by highly regarded architects Nathanial Billing &
Son in July 1888, in the Victorian Second Empire Style. It was
a rendered brick building with imposing mansard towers and
extensive cast iron balconies on the north, south and west sides,
with unobstructed views to the Bay.

During WW1, returned soldiers who were ill or recovering from
wounds, stayed at Sandringham House. It was requisitioned by
the Army in mid-1915 as a convalescent hospital and closed to
patients in November 1916.

Initially built as an alcohol free ‘Coff ee Palace’, it became a hotel
in 1933. It then suff ered the fate of many architecturally beautiful
buildings, in a futile attempt to ‘modernise‘ it, by removing the
mansard towers and most of the cast iron.

The building was demolished in 1967 and the Commodore Hotel
built on the site in 1968. The current hotel was later to be called
the Sandringham Hotel and it is also known as The Sandy.