HANDS cupped, peering into the tinted windows of the Belfield Hotel, for a while I thought we had lost another of Sydney’s old pubs.

The bar was empty, deserted, with chairs upturned on tables, there was no sign of life.

Disappointed, I turned to search for a nearby pub to quench my thirst on what was a scorching summer’s day in western Sydney, when I noticed a sign with a red arrow – “Bar this way”.

While the original 1932 building was no longer trading, a much-later single storey addition to the rear of the Belfield Hotel – facing Punchbowl Road – has become the “new” pub, with the ubiquitous ‘VIP Lounge’ or a ‘pokie’ room, and ‘sports bar’.

After grabbing the attention of a disinterested barman, who had his head buried in a mobile phone, I was served a cold schooner of Carlton Draught (There’s no Resch’s on tap).

Finding a stool, I glanced around to find three older blokes sitting separately in the bar-room, eyes glued to screens broadcasting horse racing, betting odds, and the cricket. It was a sad room. No merriment, no interaction.

Thankfully, though the beer was cold and tasty. My schooner knocked me back $6.

There was no atmosphere, character or attractiveness at all in this bar-room. Hopefully the front bars of the historic two-storey Belfield are closed in readiness for their renovations and rejuvenation. Hopefully there are no sinister plans to demolish the old lady – a pub that has traded at the corner of Punchbowl and Burwood Roads approaching 90 years, and which was licensed for business on March 14 1932.

I enjoyed my beer, cooled off, returned my empty glass to the bar, left the three men to their cricket, and horse racing screens, and returned to work.

Next time I visit the Belfield, I’m hoping the original corner pub is back in action, and that I don’t discover another ugly high rise residential tower in its place… Please, not again.

_{2021 Update: The original corner pub remains closed.}

MAGICIAN CHANGES BARMAID TO SINGER

A magician turned a Sydney barmaid into a professional singer as easily as he can pull rabbits from a hat.

And he used sound business sense, not magic, to, do it. After hearing Miss Iris Jones sing at the Belfield Hotel, North Belmore, the magician engaged her to sing with his touring company.

The magician, “The Great Levant,” visited the hotel where Miss Jones worked, as she was singing in the dining-room.

GOING ON TOUR

Whenever she sang in the dining-room she attracted an audience of hotel customers. Theatrical agent Ted James said yesterday that Iris Jones would tour with Levant and his company for the rest of the year. He said that Iris, who was born in Sydney, had been trained at a convent and by a private teacher. She had spent two years in the New Hebrides singing in amateur shows for charity.

Mr. James said: “This girl will turn out to be an other Magda Neild”.

Her ultimate aim is to become a musical comedy star.

– Daily Telegraph (Sydney), Sunday 25 February 1951.

Subscribe to the latest Time Gents’ stories

OR DONATE BY CREDIT CARD

Instead, you can make a credit card donation towards the publication of The Time Gents website. If you would like to support my work, you can leave a $2.50 (Australian) donation here, or you can increase the amount after clicking or tapping into the icon below. Your generous patronage of my work and research, however small it appears to you, will greatly help me with my continuing costs and research.

Categories: Barmaids, NSW hotels, review, Reviews, Road Trips, Sydney hotels

Tags: Belfield Hotel, Iris Jones, The Great Levant, Theatrical agent Ted James