Premium Content Subscriber only WORKS to restore an 111-year-old pub in the Ipswich CBD have been completed but the focus has now turned to what will fill the historic building. An extension to the Commonwealth Hotel could be on the cards to accommodate a hotelier once again with the current footprint deemed too small to make a modern operation viable. The building, also known as Murphy’s Town Pub, was bought by council-controlled entity Ipswich City Properties in 2014 and was identified as unsafe for occupancy in 2015. The Commonwealth Hotel in the Ipswich CBD. Division 3 councillor and Ipswich Central Redevelopment Committee chair Marnie Doyle said so far about $6.2 million had been spent by the council on the restoration.