Bakerville Tearooms
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Fine china, polished silverware and crystal tableware greet guests seeking refreshments at the Village's Bakerville Tearooms. The grand dame of Tableland buildings, The Bakerville Hotel c. 1890, has been lovingly restored and reinvented as the tearooms offering lunch, morning and afternoon tea. The venue is available for private function hire for groups who wish to celebrate life's events in the cheerful and historic surroundings of the previous hotel. The restoration process has resulted in a delightful venue. There's the wide verandahs overlooking the Village grounds on one side and the Wild River on the other. Inside, the rooms have been invitingly decorated. Antique children's prams and bicycles wheel through the ceilings above, while the bars are decorated with all manner of antique collectables including a bottle opener collection cleverly strung across a door way. A glowing wall of polished silverware makes an eye-catching statement, while off to one side a room is dedicated to the painted tin advertisements of yesteryear - see how many you recognise! Pride of place goes to a walnut encased Polyphon - the original music box - which can still put out a fancy tune today. Just ask for a penny to insert into it when you place your order. Open daily from 10.00am to 3.00pm, the Bakerville Tearooms serve freshly made sandwiches, biscuits and cakes. A private home at Bakerville during the late 1800s, this building was converted into a hotel at the turn of the twentieth century with Danish born Albertina Allen and her husband John as the first licensees. During those early years, the name "Federal Hotel" was painted in large letters across the distinctively shaped roof. But during living memory the building has been known locally as the "Bakerville Pub". The final licensee, Mrs Pedersen maintained the premises as a private residence, even after she closed the 'pub' in 1960. During her fifty years of involvement with the hotel, Stella Pedersen ran the pub almost single-handed , making her own bread, curing meat, and washing for guests who occupied the six rooms. Despite her heavy work load, Stella was still able to care for her eight children. Mrs Pedersen did not vacate the premises until 1978. The building was moved during 1990, in three sections, over 18kms from Bakerville to the Herberton Historic Village where it has been carefully renovated to provide quality tea rooms whilst retaining the original features and timbers, with the roof having been treated with rust converter to present itself as it was a century ago. The wide timber verandah formed the entrance to a polished dressed high level bar , over which Mrs. Pedersen - barely tall enough to be seen - reigned supreme. The original bar counter, built of kauri pine and red cedar, was recently donated to the Herberton Historic Village by Mr.Gavin Pedersen. Although the height of the bar has been lowered, the building still holds memories of the days when miners, their friends and families, took time off from their labours to relax over a glass of 'Bulldog Bottled Beer',' Abbotts Lager', or perhaps a drop or two of 'Three Star Brandy', 'Gordon's Gin' or 'Bundaberg Rum'. Before the days of electricity, music would have been provided by a Pianola overlooked by a portrait of Queen Victoria. The elaborate kerosene lamps spreading their warm light throughout the room.Today at the Tearooms, a walnut-cased Polyphon, made in Leipzig c. 1898 is still able to play a selection of tunes from fifteen-and-a-half inch steel discs. A pre-decimal penny, inserted in the slot, triggers the mechanism to provide exceptionally high quality entertainment. |
 Bakerville Tearooms  Cake and Cuppa  Cupcake Clock  Bakerville Tearooms Polyphon |