Port Adelaide Public Houses

PORT ADELAIDE PUBLIC HOUSES.

A DIP INTO HISTORY. 

[By A. T. Saunders.] 

16 January 1917

I call them "public houses" because they were general publicans' licences and beer licences in the early days after the first licensed victuallers' law was made in 1838 for Port Adelaide. 

The first licences issued in 1839 were to W. S. Simons's Ship Inn Port (the old Port); John McBeth, the Caledonian; and W. Anthony, Port Hotel. There was also a beer licence to Robert Hayman, the Shipwright's Arms, and this seems to have been in Albert Town. There were about 66 licences issued in 1839 for the province. 

In 1840 at least 114 licences and probably a few more than 114, owing, to the Gawler boom, were granted for the province of which eight were for Port Adelaide and the vicinity, including the new and old Ports. There were the Caledonian and Ship Inn at the old Port, the Rose and Crown on the road to the Port, and Shipwright's Arms at Albert Town. In Port Adelaide proper, the new Port, were the Ship Inn, the Red Cross Knights, the Help Me Through the World, the Prince Albert, and the Commercial. The only one I can identify is the Commercial, at the comer of Divett street and Commercial road, on which the hotel now stands. The first Commercial Hotel was burned in a big fire in March, 1857 and for some years the site was not built on. Then Mr. R. H. Allen built a butcher's shop on the site in the middle sixties, which shop was turned into a new Commercial Hotel. 

—Eleven in the District.— 

In 1841 about 114 licences were issued for the whole province, of which eight were in Port Adelaide proper, two in Alberton, and one near the old Port. All the old Port public houses were closed. In the Port were the Prince Albert, Caledonian, Ship, Commercial, Hen and Chickens, Jolly Tar (formerly the Steam boat), and the Port Tavern. I can identify the Commercial, corner of Divett street and Commercial road, and the Port Tavern, now the British Hotel, corner of North parade and Nelson street. It is likely that the Ship was on the North parade, and was famous for some 20 years —sixties to eighties— as John Smith's; but it is now closed. 

The Alberton hotels were the Shipwright's Arms, still existing (not on the original site), and the Ship Inn, which I cannot identify; and there was the Wheatsheaf on section 424, known after as the White House, at the junction of the Port and Old Port roads, but it was not long a licensed house. 

The Gawler blight in 1842 reduced the number of licences for the province to 88, and shut up most of the Port licences. The total for 1843 fell to 70 for the whole province, and only the Port Tavern and the Commercial were open at the Port, but the two houses of Alberton, the Ship Inn and the Ship-wright's Arms, were also open. In this year the name of J. Wakeling appears as licencee of the Port Tavern. This was Capt. John Wakeling, formerly master of one of the pioneer ships of the South Australian Company, the Sarah and Elizabeth. He died on May 24, 1853, at his residence, Rundle street, Adelaide, having given up the Port Tavern to Mr. Mart, in 1850. Old hands have told me how strict Capt. Wakeling was in the conduct of his tavern, and how he insisted on closing at 10 punctually, and how on one occasion a big Irish shipmaster put the clock hands back an hour, unknown to the captain, and thus kept the house open till 11 p.m. 

In 1844 there wore 73 licences issued for the province, of which one, the Shipwright's Arms, was in Alberton; and two, the Port Tavern and the Commercial, in Port Adelaide. 

—Slight Changes.— 

There seems to have been no change till 1846, when the Hen and Chickens again appears; but I cannot trace its position. There were 101 licences issued this year. In 1847 the Ship Inn again appears and the Port Tavern, which had been burnt in 1846, was rebuilt as the British. There were 122 licences this year, of which three were in Port Adelaide and one at Alberton. 

In 1848 the Kapunda and Burra mines had wakened things up, and a small boom was beginning. Messrs. Parsons and Buck each tried for a new licence at Alberton, and Parsons won, opening the Coromandel there, in King street. The Port Hotel, corner of the North parade and Mildred street, was also opened this year by Mr. Barnett. There were 150 licences issued, of which four were in the Port and two in Alberton. 

Smelting works were being erected at Yatala, south-east of the present Alberton Railway Station, and a licence was granted for the Golden Phoenix Hotel. This is now Yatala House, and was owned by Capt. Hansford Ward. I first remember Yatala House when Capt. H. D. Dale occupied it as a dwelling. The smelting did not last long, and the Golden Phoenix died with the smelting works. 

The boom continued in 1849, and the Railway Hotel, 'a very superior house,' at the corner of Lipson and St. Vincent streets, was built, and still stands. There was a total of 164 licences this year. 

The year 1850 saw several new public houses open in Port Adelaide, in addition to the Port Hotel, Ship Inn, and British, North parade, the Commercial, Commercial road, the Coromandel, and Ship wright's Arms, Alberton, and the Golden Phoenix, Yatala. The Pier, Milunga, opposite the North Arm, on Lefevre's Peninsula was opened with a great jollification on Good Friday, 1850. The account of its opening says— 'The hotel will at once be a great convenience to those who ply the oar in the harbour, and to the passengers who want refreshment, but most of all the benefit will be felt by those who will soon begin to occupy the North Arm township.' It was a two-story wooden building, and soon closed, as the North Arm township did not eventuate. It had fishponds for keeping fish alive, for sale, and for the hotel's use. 

The two-story Albert Hotel, Alberton, near Wellington street, was opened with a grand ball. This building is now pulled down, and was not licensed after the sixties. It was bought by Capt. Henry Simpson, and was occupied bv Mr. John Neill for many years as a dwelling. 

In 1850 the Britannia, corner of McLaren road and Lipson street, was also opened with a ball, and the Carpenter 's Arms, Saint Vincent street, was also opened virtually on the site of the Globe Hotel. On August 14, 1863, the Carpenter's Arms was burnt down. 

In 1850 184 licences were issued, and the number gradually rose till local option reduced them, more than 50 years afterwards. 

— Coromandel and Others. — 

In 1851 John Parsons was allowed to remove the Coromandel from King street, Alberton, to Commercial road, or Port road, Alberton. This house did not exist in 1865 as a public house, and is now pulled down. Affixed to the front was a model of the ship Coromandel, which in 1866 was moved to, and fastened on the Australians' Pride, Port Adelaide, opened by Mr. Parsons. Early in 1851 the White Horse Cellars, at the corner of Saint Vincent street and Commercial road, Port Adelaide, was opened by George Coppin, who began the half-chain encroachment on the south ride of Saint Vincent street, with the White Horse Cellars. There was a theatre in connection with the building, which was used as such for more than 10 years. As a speculation the building was a failure, and Mr. Coppin be came insolvent. 

In the sixties Mr. Knapman bought the White Horse cellar, and started a brewery there, using the theatre for the brewery. Mr. Mart, formerly landlord of the British Hotel, became then clerk to Mr. Knapman. R. Snowden applied for a licence for the Waterman's Arms, on section 916, but was refused at first, so the White Horse Cellar was the only new licence in the Port for March, 1851; but in this year the Semaphore Hotel was built by Mr. Coppin. This was a large, modern two-storey house on the site now occupied by its successor a similar building in the Signal Station Reserve. The original was burnt on November 25, 1859. I saw it burn. 

The township was called Scarborough, and Francis Burroughs' was the first licensee. Flax. Snowden's Waterman's Arms was licensed at the next Licensing Court, and Snowden had the ill fortune to cut his finger with a piece of glass, and after three months' suffering his arm was amputated. His Waterman's Arms soon closed. Snowden was an old identity, and Snowden's Beach was named after him. This is now obliterated by the sand which the south west wind blew into the river after Mr. Mullet was allowed to cut down the flags of flax, like New Zealand flax, which then covered the peninsula. Mullet's fibre was made from the flax near where the school, late Millard's, is, and in the building in which Davies's waterworks were. 

In 1852 the Princess Hotel, corner of Mundy street and the North parade, appears for the first time; and the Port Admiral, which still stands, at the corner of St. Vincent and Commercial road. 

In 1853 the name of the Pier Hotel, North Arm, was changed to the Verge Inn, by Robert Cock; but there were no new licences. In 1854 Louis Wilson was given a licence for the Shipwrights' Arms, Lefevre's Peninsula, but it no longer exists, and I cannot identify its position. There was then no bridge from Port Adelaide to the peninsula. John Griffiths was also given a licence for the Lefevre's Hotel Lefevre Peninsula. This, I think, is the house of brick east of the present Exeter Hotel, which had the licence until it was moved to the Exeter. The Wharf Hotel, corner of Todd street and McLaren Wharf, first appears in 1854. It was opened by Robert Burfield, a veteran Portonian hotel keeper, shipowner, and speculator. 

In 1855 the only new name is the North Arm Hotel, section 2013, Lefevre's Peninsula, by Charles White, apparently the Pier and Verge, under a third name. 

— New Licences. — 

The year 1856 was prolific in new licences. The White Swan, Queenstown, by James Quin, first appears. Unless this is what was the Prince of Wales, I can not identify it, but anyway it was the first licence in Queenstown, although Alberton, on the other side of the Port -road, had had two or more licences from 1839. The Portland Hotel, the first hotel, in the Port land Estate, also appears, and it was the cradle of the largest fortune made by any Port Adelaide man. 

The Dock Hotel, in Todd street, also appears, also the Lass o' Gowrie, St. Vincent street, opposite the Presbyterian Church, and the White Hart, Nile street. As Nile street did not then run through to Commercial road, as it does now, the White Hart was isolated, but there was a direct right-of-way to North parade from it. The White Hart had the reputation of being a rough, sailors' house, and was pulled down, rebuilt, and called the Livingstone Arms. 

In 1857 the only change was that the Prince of Wales appears in Queenstown, and the White Swan dropped out. In 1858 the Exchange, Commercial road, appears, Joe Coleman being the original landlord. The building still stands, and is converted into shops, while the licence has been removed a few yards north facing the harbour. In 1859 the Duke of Wellington, St. Vincent street appears; it was west of Mr. Fletcher's engineering shop, and the building still stands. 

On the Lefevre's Peninsula the Old Fairlop Oak was licensed, but did not exist for long. The Fairlop Oak was in the Forest of Hainault, England. A sketch of it is in The Illustrated London News, November 22, 1851, page 617. 

—Other Alterations.—

 In 1860 the British Standard, Alberton, was opened by Ben Mockridge, one of the makers of Port Adelaide, who built or rebuilt most of the South Australian Company's wharfs. The licence of the Duke of Wellington was refused in 1860, and that of the Semaphore not granted, because the hotel had been burnt. In 1861 the Duke of Wellington was licensed again, and Mr. Magnus Manson was granted a licence for the new wooden Semaphore Hotel, an unfortunate house. It was burnt. Mr. Manson was drowned on July 31, 1863, and Mr. Peter Smith, who succeeded Mr. Manson, and was one of the heroes of the steamer Admella wreck, was drowned May 12, 1865; then the hotel was closed. 

There was a slump in Port Adelaide public houses until 1866. In 1865 there were only 20 public houses in what is now the City of Port Adelaide. Those that were open were the Port, Dock, Wharf, White Hart, Lass o' Gowrie, White Horse Cellars, Railway, Exchange, Port Admiral, Britannia, British, Ship, Duke of Wellington, Globe, and Princes in Port Adelaide, the Semaphore and Lefevre's Peninsula on Lefevre's Peninsula, the Portland in the Portland Estate, and the British Standard and Shipwrights' Arms in Alberton. All the others were closed. 

In 1866 the Glanville Hotel at Glanville, and the Australia's Pride in Port Adelaide, also the Jetty at the Semaphore, were licensed. The Jetty Hotel was originally on the top of a large sand-hill north of the first cutting. There were two ranges of sandhills at the Semaphore and a cutting had to be made through each to run the road to the jetty. This involved strong stone walls on each side of the cuttings, and one wall on the south side of the second cutting is still to be seen. On the top of the hill was a house with two bow windows, occupied and owned I think, by a man named Carroll, who kept a little shop there, and whose wife had lost a forearm. This place was the nucleus of the Jetty Hotel. A few years ago it was found that the business of the house would be increased if the bar was on the level of the foot path, and it was resolved to remove the sandhill which supported the hotel and build a lower story underneath the upper story and this was done by the late Mr. R. W. O. Kestel. It was a fine piece of workmanship, and involved digging shafts down to the foundation level, underpinning the existing house, and then building the walls, and it was done without injury to the then listing building. 

In 1867 the Prince of Wales, Queenstown, was finally licensed, and has been open ever since. I am pleased to say it is the only public house in Queenstown, my birthplace, and there never has been more than one at the same time in Queenstown for the past 80 years. In 1867 three new licences were granted— the Lord Exmouth, Lefevre's Peninsula, the Scotch Thistle, Portland Estate, and the Sussex, Commercial road, Port Adelaide, on the site of T L Coombe's Devon flourmills, which were burned on August 23, 1865. 

In 1868 Mrs. Manson, widow of the drowned landlord of the old Semaphore Hotel, was granted licence for the new Semaphore Hotel, on the site now occupied by it. The Duke of Edinburgh, Yatala, was also licensed in 1868. 

—A Boating Establishment.— 

On the south side of St. Vincent, near the bridge to the Semaphore, there was a wet dock in what was known as the Minories. I do not know who began it, but there it was partly excavated and with a row of main piles round it. There was a shallow entrance from the river to the dock south of the bridge, so the dock made a good harbour for skiffs and shallow boats, Mr. Frederick Estcourt Bucknell, afterwards an M.P. and the husband of Mrs. Haussen, widow of Mr. Haussen the brewer, started a boating establishment here, and had sail and pulling boats for hire. He had built a galvanized iron house and sheds, and in 1869 he induced the authorities to grant him a licence for his premises, which he called the Australian Clubhouse. For several years he ran this hotel, the police opposing the renewal of his licence because the house was built of galvanized iron. Ultimately he left the house, and the present stone building was built. 

In 1869 also the Commercial, corner of Divett street and Commercial road, which was burned down in 1857, was again licensed as the Commercial. The year 1870 was a boom year for public houses; 31 new licences were granted, and 17 were refused, with permission to again apply, but there was not one new licence for Port Adelaide or the vicinity. 

In 1871 John Gowling had a licence for the Cumberland, opposite the Glanville Railway Station; the remains can be seen alongside the new building. Mr. Gowling was a stonemason, and was the first emigration lecturer sent to England by South Australia, about the year 1873. 

There were no new houses in the Port or its vicinity in 1872, 1873, 1874, or 1875. In 1876 is the first mention of the Kent, Port Adelaide, the Birkenhead, Birkenhead, and the Thornton, Hart street, Glanville. 

One of the early landlords of the Thornton was Mr. Ghrimes [Grimes?], who was steward of the Yatala or Hesperus, and had been lamed by a gun accident at a picnic. Mr. Ghrimes's son, a boy, left to go to Sunday school, and was never again seen. Rewards were offered, his photograph circulated, but nothing was heard of him, and he was forgotten by the general public when his body was found standing up in a sanddrift at the Semaphore. He must have jumped from the top of a sandhill, his feet stuck in the sand, and he was overwhelmed, smothered, and buried by the sand falling on top of him, and only a couple of hundred yards from his parents' house. 

— Twelve Licences in Forty Years. — 

For the 40 years since 1876 only 12 new licences have been issued for what is now The City of Port Adelaide. The Largs, Kew Hotel, the Ethelton, all three at Lefevre's Peninsula, and the Paris, Portland Estate; the Royal Oak, Rosewater; the Jervois, and the Prince Albert, Lipson street. Two rival brewers built these opposite to each other, and the Bench gave both their licences, and they were both failures.

Then there were Lord's Royal, in St. Vincent street; also the Brunswick Pier, opposite the Globe, formerly the Carpenters' Arms; the Colac, at the new dock; the Criterion, on the north side of the company's basin; and the Newmarket. The Bench was adamant in its refusal of licences to three buildings which were erected for public houses. The Beltana, North parade; a building in New Queenstown, and a two-story building in Queenstown South. An ex-landlord also applied several times for a licence for premises near Peter head, and a licence was wanted for New Liverpool, but the Bench said no. 

On the whole Port Adelaide has not been shamed by her public houses. I can only remember one that had a bad name; and very seldom was there a complaint made to the Bench of the misconduct of the houses or their licencees. The landlords were usually for some years in the houses, except for when some old shellback thought he would make a good publican and tried and failed. John Smith, of the Ship Inn, closed his house all Sunday when it was optional to do so. Alexander Russell, H. C. Lord, and William Blackler of the older generation, and Tom Heming, Tom Hixon, and A. H. Rose of the later generation, kept good houses. Joe Hains's Dock Hotel was unique. Joe was the friend and adviser of the worker, and for years ran his hotel most creditably. 

Not long ago I saw in The Register a police report that one Port publican, the licencee of the Exchange Hotel, was a model landlord. As I write I am reminded of many good men and women I have known in the public houses of Port Adelaide, and, though I am an abstainer, I knew many Port public houses fairly intimately. It is perhaps invidious to name some good Port publicans and not others, but the list would be too long if I did so. 

Ned Othen, of the Kew Hotel, known as 'swinging Johnny'— why I do not know — was a character. A marine diver, he was engaged to go to Port Darwin to find a box of gold dropped overboard from the Root, Hog, or Die. He told me he was to get a good bonus if he found the box, and he worked hard, but could not discover it. The day before he had to leave he went down for a last try, and found the box. He said he sat down on it and nearly fainted. He was a clean, natty man, and had the Kew Hotel very nicely painted and decorated, but it was a failure, it was in the wrong place, and soon closed. 

The following houses have been closed:— Thornton and Kew, Lefevre's Peninsula, Paris and Scotch Thistle, Portland Estate; British Standard, Alberton; Royal Oak, Rosewater; Princes and Ship, North parade; Lass o' Gowrie, Duke of Wellington, and Brunswick Pier, St. Vincent street; Sussex, Commercial road; Jervois and Prince Alfred, Lipson street; also the Australia's Pride and the Kent Dock, Todd street; and the Livingstone Arms. 

The 29 existing hotels in the City of Port Adelaide are:— Largs, Federal, Semaphore, Exeter, Lord Exmouth, Cumberland, Glanville, Ethelton, and Birkenhead, on Lefevre's Peninsula; Portland, Portland Estate; Prince of Wales, Queenstown; Alberton, Alberton; Rosewater, Rosewater; British, Britannia, Criterion, Colac, Central, Commercial, Clubhouse, Exchange, Globe, Kent, Newmarket, Port, Port Adelaide, Railway, Royal, and Wharf, in Port Adelaide proper. 

About 1877 the Port Adelaide Club for business men was started in the institute building, and was duly licensed. For a time it flourished, and moved into its own building, Todd street, but the telephone to Adelaide killed it, and the building was sold to the Commercial Bank of South Australia. The club of the Yacht Squadron is the only licensed club I know of in Port Adelaide.