_{By MICK ROBERTS ©}

Ever wondered why there’s a pub Armidale, a city located in the New England region of northern NSW, named the St Kilda Hotel?

We did, so we did a little research.

The St Kilda Hotel was opened for business by 51-year-old James Tysoe in mid 1862 as the Freemasons Hotel.

A devout Freemason, 31-year-old Tysoe, his 31-year-old wife, Lucy, and three children Joel, 5, Elizabeth, 11, Sarah, 9, and Mary Ann, 3, arrived in Sydney from their birthplace England in 1845. 

By the early 1850s, Tysoe was timber cutting in the New England region of NSW before establishing the long-running newspaper the Armidale Express in 1856, and taking the license of the Crown Inn at Armidale in 1858.

The Crown inn was first licensed in 1854 and was located in Dumaresq Street. It became the Club Hotel in 1888, which continues to trade today in an updated building opposite the Armidale Bowling Club. 

Tysoe had plans to establish one of Armidale’s grandest hotels and began building a two-storey brick public house at the corner of Rusden and Marsh streets in 1861. The Maitland Mercury reported on 22 October 1861:

New Hotel at Armidale – On Monday the foundation stone of a spacious hotel, to be built at the corner of Rusden and Marsh streets by Mr. James Tysoe, was laid by Brothers R. Taylor, J. Moore, and J. Scholes, of the Armidale Lodge of Freemasons. A number of other masons, with a considerable portion of the public, were also present. Under the stone, which is a block of New England granite, was laid a bottle, containing several current coins, a copy of the Express, and documents relative to the event. The youngest daughter of Mr. Tysoe christened the intended structure the Freemasons’ Hotel, by breaking a bottle of port on the stone. Three hearty cheers followed. The masons and other gentlemen invited then adjourned to the Crown Inn, where they partook of an excellent luncheon, provided by Mrs. Tysoe. A number of loyal and popular toasts were given, and everything passed off in capital style.

The hotel’s opening date is a bit of a mystery. I’ve been unable to find the licensing date or any references to when the Freemason’s was completed or opened for business. However, by newspaper reports we can see that Tysoe was still hosting the Crown Inn at Armidale in February 1862. His new Freemasons Hotel seems to have opened in time for St John’s Day on June 24 1862. The Feast of John the Baptist is an important date for Freemasons with many lodges holding special meetings, installation ceremonies, and festive meals to celebrate. The Maitland Mercury reported on July 3 1862:

St. JOHN’S DAY – On Tuesday last the brethren of the Masonic Lodge at Armidale walked in procession, in their insignia, and accompanied by the usual emblems, and after a visit to Brother Scholes’s, New England Hotel, and to the lodge, and the fulfilment of all customary observances to commemorate St. John’s Day, they attended the Masonic ball in the evening, in Brother Tysoe’s new and spacious hotel. The large ball room was crowded, and when Mr. George Cooper, master of ceremonies, invited all to take partners, and the dancing began, the scene was magnificent, eclipsing any ball that had yet occurred in Armidale. There were also numerous spectators in the balcony.

Tysoe became an important and influential townsman, and was elected to the Armidale Council where he served as an alderman for over 20 years. When first elected in 1864 his speech was reported in the Armidale Express on 13 February 1864:

Alderman Tysoe returned his most sincere thanks. He said that if be bad not been 22 years here he had been 17, and had made improvements in the town to the best of his ability. He was in Armidale when there had only been a few bark huts upon it, and he hoped that if he lived 17 years more he would see Armidale 17 times better than it was now (hear, hear). He would do the utmost he could in the Council, but be would take the opportunity of saying that the inhabitants must also watch the Council to see if the members did their duty. If they did not consider themselves properly represented, or that any members were not doing their duty, they should look to it. Some persons were in favour of their end of the town being looked after first, and others of theirs, but he should like to look after both ends of the town (hear, hear). He believed that the men in the Council would look after both ends, and do their duty by the electors.

Tysoe remained as host of the Freemasons Hotel until July 1868 when the license was transferred to Lewis Benjamin. Tysoe never resumed his role as publican, instead managing his many property interests and continuing his role as an alderman on the Armidale Borough Council. His wife Lucy died on June 12 1883 at Armidale aged 69, just four months after the 72-year-old pioneer was elected for the last time as an alderman to Armidale Council.

Tysoe outlived most of his eight children and died at Armidale at the age of 99 in 1910. Until within the last few months before his death, he was reportedly vigorous, mentally and physically. His quickness of perception and retentive memory, furnished with an abundance of interesting incidents compressed within such a long and active life, made him an entertaining raconteur when he regaled his circle of friends with the interesting pioneering stories drawn from the past. His funeral was largely attended at the Armidale Church of England Cathedral. He was buried in the Armidale cemetery.

Meanwhile the Freemasons Hotel became the St Kilda Hotel when 54-year-old Mary Ann Brady took over the license on July 2 1870.

Mary Brady had been born in Bombay, India in 1817 before arriving in Sydney with her parents as a teenager in 1826.

A widow, Mary Ann Brady and her adult son Charles Thomas Brady took over the operation of the St Kilda Hotel after running a number of boarding houses in inner-Sydney suburbs of Woolloomooloo and Darlinghurst.

Prior to relocating to Armidale, Mary Ann Brady had managed St Kilda House, a boarding house near the corner of corner of Cathedral and Palmer Streets, Woolloomooloo.

The property had been built in 1844 by Charles Scott on part of a grant made to John Palmer, purser on the First Fleet ship HMS Sirius, it was a Georgian style mansion with 15 rooms. The building became a Catholic college in 1878 and has been long demolished.

Brady had hosted a number of boarding houses in Sydney’s inner-suburbs from the 1850s through to the 1860s. She managed the St Kilda Boarding House from 1862 to 1870.

Brady’s husband, William was a grain-merchant and owned the Metropolitan and Criterion hotels in Sydney. A colonist, who arrived in Sydney in the 1830s, William Brady married Mary Ann Curran in 1841. They seem to have lived separately, with William’s home at Belle Vue House in Surry Hills and Mary’s at her boarding houses, including St Kilda at Woolloomooloo.

After his death at the age of 62 in 1870, Mary Ann Brady relocated from St Kilda House at Woolloomooloo to Armidale with her 22-year-old son, Charles, to take the lease of Tysoe’s Freemasons Hotel. In turn, Brady brought the name ‘St Kilda’ with her to the new Armidale hotel venture.

A serious accident occurred while Brady was moving her household goods from Woolloomooloo to Armidale.  The Maitland Mercury reported on 9 August 1870:

We have to notice that a most serious accident occurred to one of Mr. John Ferry’s horse teams near Jesse’s station, nine miles south of Goonoo Goonoo. Ferry had two teams with loading for Mrs. Brady, of the St. Kilda Hotel here, consisting of merchandise. One of these was carrying furniture, mirrors, and articles which Mrs. Brady prized as heirlooms. This dray unfortunately tumbled over a precipitous bank of a creek some twelve feet high, smashing everything and killing two of the horses. There was a rumour that Ferry was managing the two teams himself, and that the accident occurred in consequence of the want of a driver. This was not the case; there was a man to each team, and Ferry is said to be the steadiest man on the road. It is a sad accident both for Mrs. Brady and the teamster.

After arriving in Armidale, Charles Brady was appointed manager of the St Kilda Hotel. He landed in trouble with the law in 1872 when he was fined for punching a constable in the face in 1871. The policeman had noticed the St Kilda Hotel trading after hours and approached the pub. A confrontation erupted between Charles Brady and the constable with the officer fronting court with a black-eye and the young publican forced to pay a £5 fine.  

The Bradys remained as hosts until 1881 when they sold the goodwill and lease of the St Kilda Hotel to James Ewan. Mary Ann Brady died aged 67 in Balmain Sydney on May 6 1883. Her son, William, who managed the St Kilda Hotel died in Paddington, Sydney, at the age of 72 in 1921.

After the Brady’s departure from Armidale, the railway arrived in 1883 and the St Kilda Hotel was visited by dignitaries, including state ministers and the mayor, for refreshments before attending a grand banquet at the newly completed town hall.

The following year, a man named Arthur Huet, a Maitland dentist, committed suicide in a room he was staying at the St Kilda Hotel. He reportedly obtained from a chemist a quantity of drugs drinking the contents of the bottles, and was dead in a few minutes, before medical aid arrived. Newspapers in September 1884 reported he was “in pecuniary difficulties, and that an action of some sort was about to be taken against him”.

The St Kilda Hotel closed in 1902 and operated as a boarding house for just over a decade before Matilda Murray and her daughter Bertha re-opened the pub in 1913.

Mrs Murray, who had kept the Commercial Hotel at Uralla for many years, had the St Kilda practically demolished and rebuilt.

Born in Armidale, Matilda Crapp married Irishman, William Murray in Rocky River near Uralla in 1872 before the couple went on to host the Commercial Hotel at Uralla for over 20 years.

After the death of her husband, Matilda Murray with her daughter Bertha took-over Uralla’s Great Northern Hotel, by this time had had a name change to the Commercial Hotel.

Tom Murray was born in Armagh, North of Ireland, on the May 14 1848. He landed in Sydney with his parents when only two years of age. His parents resided in Sydney for a short time. His early boyhood days, however, was spent on the Rocky River goldfields near Uralla. It was here that he received his education.

As soon as he reached a suitable age his parents bound him as an apprentice carpenter and joiner. After serving his apprenticeship he worked as a journey man for a short time, but eventually built up a lucrative business, which he continued in for a number of years, acquiring a considerable amount of property in Uralla.

In 1872, on March 20, he married Matilda Crapp and they would go on to have 14 children together. They became host of the Great Northern Hotel at Uralla in 1884.

Tom Murray died of pneumonia while at the reins of the Uralla pub in 1904. He was in the process of enlarging the hotel and had changed its name from the Great Northern to the Commercial. His widow, Matilda carried on as host at the new Commercial Hotel at Uralla with the assistance of her adult daughter, Bertha Murray.

Matilda Murray sold the freehold of the Commercial Hotel at Uralla to the licensee Joe Bragg in 1913, and began her project of restoring and reopening the former St Kilda Hotel at Armidale. The Armidale Chronicle reported on October 4 1913:

The St. Kilda Hotel

REBUILT AND REMODELLED

The practical demolition of the old St. Kilda -Hotel, at the corner of Marsh and Rusden streets, removes an old landmark from the city. For many years the house was the leading hostelry of Armidale, and sheltered with in its walls all the distinguished visitors who came here. It was eventually delicensed and converted into a boarding-house. Mrs. M. Murray, who kept the Commercial Hotel, Uralla for a number of years, during which time she made a reputation for her house by the up-to-date manner in which it was conducted, having sold out of her business there, conceived a notion for restoring the St. Kilda to its old prestige. When the application came before the Licensing Court, and the plans of the proposed new building were submitted, they were subjected to the closest scrutiny of the Licensing Bench. The application was adjourn-ed from time to time, and every stipulation of the Bench complied with. It will be remembered that the Licensing Magistrate said at the time that the only justification for another hotel in Armidale was for residential purposes, and unless the new place would fill that want, there was not much chance of a license being granted. Originally it was only intended to modify the old building, but to meet the exacting demands of the licensing authorities, the building as it stands to-day does not contain much that would be recognised of the old structure. From an inspection of the premises made by our reporter yesterday, we are quite satisfied that the most exacting will find in the new St. Kilda a home which will be to their liking.

Externally the house has an attractive appearance, the Rusden-street frontage being furnished with a balcony. The main entrance is reached by a flight of steps, leading to double doors, fitted with translucent glass of a unique flannel-flower design. The main stair-case is of cedar, and from the landing above, corridors lead to the bedrooms, dining, smoking, and ladies’ sitting-room. The bedrooms are commodious and well ventilated, as well as tastefully furnished. Gas is furnished to every sleeping apartment, the burners, of the inverted style, being fitted with powerful incandescent burners. An electric push button in each room communicates with the office downstairs. The upper portion of the house is divided into the red-white, and blue wings respectively, in each of which the furnishing scheme has been carried out with a uniformity of color which gives quite a pleas-ing effect. There are three bath-rooms up-stairs, with hot and cold water, so that the occupant of any bedroom finds matutinal tub quite handy. The gasoliers in the corridors, are very pretty, and give ample illumination, without any harsh light. There are three bedrooms, and the la-dies’ sitting-room, which open on in the balcony. All the bedrooms have been so constructed that there is ample air and light, and throughout the whole building the scheme of furnishing has been carried out with excellent taste.

On the ground floor there are bed-rooms just as commodious and airy as those above, a dining-room that is large enough for a ball-room, the kitchen replete with every device of the culinary art, and five parlors. The bar is on the corner of the two streets, and is nicely fitted in cedar, the counter and shelving being on the latest plan. The building is of brick, with plastered walls, the rooms being ceiled with pine and Wunderlich steel. The internal painting and finish is executed in delicate art tints. There is not a harsh note throughout, and the appearance of the house is that of scrupulous cleanliness and luxurious comfort. There are 36 bedrooms in all and Mrs. Murray has expended nearly £3000.

In the yard there is a motor garage, with accommodation for five cars, and stables and buggy sheds, as well as all the out-offices necessary for an up to-date hotel, whilst the maids ore furnished with their own apartments in a cottage adjoining.

Mr. Hugh J. Scott was the architect ; Mr. M. Hern, clerk of works; and Mr. G. F. Nott, the contractor; and their joint labors have resulted in a job which is a fine advertisement. The furnishing has been carried out by Messrs. J. Richardson & Co.

Mrs. Murray expects to open the premises on Saturday 11th inst. and we have no doubt, with her reputation and the way in which she has studied her guests comfort, her enterprise will be richly rewarded.

Matilda Murray continued as host through the war years, leasing it for a short period in 1917 to Charles Johnson, before taking the license again in 1918. She retired to Waverley in Sydney where she died of heart failure in 1925 at the age of 73. Her daughter, Bertha remained owner of the St Kilda Hotel until her death in Croydon, Sydney, in May 1945 at the age of 71.

The hotel was sold by the Murray Estate to Moree grazier, G. F. Moses under the company name of Armidale Investiments Pty Ltd in November 1949 for £16,000.

The pub became a Tooheys tied house in 1961 and the freehold was sold again in 1972 to Gladesville Constructions Pty Ltd.

The freehold of the St Kilda Hotel was bought in 2024 by Harley and Tom Payne, who are local hoteliers and also own other Armidale pubs like the Grand Hotel and the Royal Hotel.

Today the pub stands as one of Armidale’s most historic and iconic buildings.

With over 160 years of history, the hotel has long been a central gathering place for locals and visitors alike, maintaining its heritage charm while evolving to meet modern tastes. Its rich past is reflected in the building’s character, offering a glimpse into Armidale’s early days while continuing to serve as a hub of social and cultural activity.

The licensee today is David Barraclough (Barra – who’s been there 30 years or so), and Craig Pevitt runs the night crew, “a team of wild women that keep the place pumping!”

Craig tells us that the pub is deeply rooted in the local community.

“The St Kilda Hotel proudly sponsors several local sports teams and regularly supports a range of community initiatives,” he said.

“Known for its warm, family-friendly atmosphere, the pub welcomes patrons of all ages and backgrounds. It’s an unpretentious spot where good food and great company are always on the menu, offering hearty meals at prices that make it a favourite among locals.”

When it comes to hospitality, it seems not much has changed since James Tysoe opened the pub’s doors to the public in 1862. He’d be impressed, I’m sure.

_{© Copyright 2025 Mick Roberts}

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Categories: Australian Hotels, NSW hotels

Tags: Freemasons Hotel Armidale, St Kilda Hotel Armidale