By MICK ROBERTS © JOHN Ahern was enjoying a few after-work drinks in the upstairs parlour of Surry Hill’s Club Hotel, singing and socialising, before his brutal death in 1893. Barman, Tom Moss, who later became publican, explained at the… Read More ›
THIS interesting old building, at the corner of Stanley Lane and Riley Street in East Sydney, traded as the Harp of Erin Hotel for almost 50 years. The three ‘harps’ on the facade are the give-away that the building, currently… Read More ›
LONG before Kings Cross gained the reputation as Sydney’s number one trouble spot for drunken behaviour, which lead to the controversial lock-out laws, the streets around Wynyard earned a similar status. Police described Wynyard “one of the most undignified public… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © James Alfred Saunders opened the Cosmopolitan Hotel on the corner of Underwood and McGarvie Streets at Paddington in 1881. A magnificent building, it survives today as the E.J. Ward Paddington Community Centre. There are many stories… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © SOME pubs just refuse to die. The Belvedere Hotel at the corner of Kent and Bathurst Street in Sydney’s CBD returned from the dead after closing in the 1970s, and having its license transferred to… Read More ›
Pubs and Public Lose the Money Meant For Buying Beer WHATEVER dreams Mr. Love, Hospitals Commissioner, might have had of exploiting fruit [poker] machines as a money spinner may be very rudely shattered by the decision of several city publicans… Read More ›
By MICK ROBERTS © A FLAMBOYANT opera singer, who gained his stage name from actress Ann Sheridan, was the publican responsible for giving Jamberoo its English Tudor style pub. The larger than life character is said to have renovated… Read More ›
NOW a bustling little café, the Belmore Park Hotel at the corner of Mary and Reservoir Streets, Surry Hills was established in 1870 by 33-year-old Henry Qualmer and his wife Teresa. The Qualmers hosted the pub through the 1870s, later… Read More ›
THE Belmore Hotel began business controversially in 1928. Parramatta publican, Harry Gadd transferred his license of the Gate House Hotel to the corner of Burwood Road and Tobruk Avenue Belmore in Sydney’s inner-west on August 14 1928. The 51-year-old publican… Read More ›
LIKE Melbourne, Sydney too had its gold-rush pubs. The former Bridge Hotel at Forest Lodge, in Sydney’s inner-west, was established in August 1877 by Irishman Tom McInerney. A pioneering member of the Irish National League in Sydney, Tom built an… Read More ›