History of the building
The sandstone building that houses Maldini Italian Café Restaurant was built with convict labour in the 1830s. It was one of a row of warehouses on Salamanca Place that occupied a levelled quarry area.
From 1859 the building was owned by the Derwent Ironworks and Engineering Company. In 1883 Kennedy & Sons purchased the operation. They advertised themselves as “shipbuilders, engineers, boilermakers, blacksmiths and iron and brass founders.”
The site occupied today by Maldini’s Restaurant was known then as Number 62, the Kennedy Building. A notice in the sandstone can still be seen on the right of the doorway as you enter the restaurant.
Sitting beneath the umbrellas at Maldini’s you have the unmistakable feel of Mediterranean al fresco dining and European café life. The climate is similar to that of southern Europe. The settled history of this part of Hobart is not as ancient as that of Europe but, for modern Tasmania, this is as historic as it gets.
For more information on the history of Salamanca and the Kennedy building, do get a copy of the book “ A Quarry Speaks”, by Anthony R Hope.
The featured black and white photographs of the exterior and interior of the convict-built stone warehouse that now houses Maldini Italian Café Restaurant are:
