The Crossways Hotel, Enfield, 2016. Picture: Mick Roberts Collection
THE history of the Crossways Hotel at Enfield, in south-west Sydney, can be traced back to the 1840s when it originally traded on the Liverpool Road near the Cooks River crossing as a ramshackled coaching inn, known as ‘The Barks Huts’.
The current hotel, at the busy corner of Liverpool and Homebush Roads, was built by Margaret Nicholls, who purchased two adjoining blocks of vacant land at Enfield in September 1929, and on completion of her new two storey brick watering hole, named it the Crossways Hotel.
The building was completed in 1930, and on June 10 1930 Mrs Nicholson applied to the licensing court for the removal of the liquor license of the Royal Hotel, Enfield, of which she was the owner, to the Crossways Hotel.
The Royal was originally known locally as the ‘Bark Huts’, servicing workers who ran cattle down Josephson’s Road [later Wallis Avenue] to the Homebush Saleyards and Abbatoirs.
The Crossways Hotel, Enfield, August 1930. Picture: Noel Butlin Archives, Australian National University
The Bark Huts Hotel built by William Taverner in the 1840s and was a half-way house and the changing station for the coaches travelling between Sydney and Liverpool on the Liverpool Road near the crossing of the Cooks River.
In about 1860s the Bark Huts was renovated and became known as the Liverpool Road Hotel and then later the Royal Hotel when William and Margaret Nicholls were owners.
The Royal Hotel was demolished in the 1950s and the site is now used by the freight firm TNT.
On April 21, 1935, Mrs Nicholls contracted to sell the Royal Hotel and Crossways Hotel to a Mr Bennett for £39,000. It was agreed that, of the total price, £26,100 represented the sale price of the Crossways Hotel. At the time of the sale Mrs Nicholls was not the licensee of the Crossways Hotel .
The Crossways Hotel is now one of 19 pubs owned by the Laundy group, and in 2016 underwent a $3 million refurbishment.
The Crossways Hotel, Enfield, 1949. Picture: Noel Butlin Archives, Australian National University
Side view of the Crossways Hotel, Enfield. Picture: Mick Roberts Collection
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Categories: NSW hotels, Sydney hotels
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