Standard Hotel owner and licensee Bruce Richards confirmed Saturday night was the hotel’s last, marking the end of a long and occasionally troubled era for the Anson Street venue. Mr Richards said he hoped to sell the site as just a building, without the liquor and gaming licences attached.

“The licence these days isn’t worth a great deal. It’s worth more as a development site than it is as a hotel,” he said.

More than $1 million dollars was spent on renovating the hotel four years ago to include an upstairs bar, a new verandah and covered smoking areas.

The decision to close has sparked an outpouring of sadness on social networking site Facebook among patrons who described the hotel as “an Orange icon”.

Mr Richards said he was “sick of the bad publicity” generated about the hotel ever since it was named in the top 10 list of the State’s most violent pubs in 2007 and subjected to a range of tough new conditions.

The hotel was also the subject of a police investigation after the death of a patron following an altercation with a security guard, who was recently acquitted of a manslaughter charge.

Despite the pub’s assault rating significantly improving last year and a normal financial turnover in recent months, Mr Richards said it was time to go.

“I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while and it’s one of those things where I want to get out. There’ll be a few genuine patrons who are disappointed and I feel sorry for the staff and the general public who like the place,” he said.

The Central Western Daily understands staff have been laid off and the hotel’s poker machines sold. The building has not yet been listed for sale.

ellen.jones@ruralpress.co m