Almanac (Pub) History: Some central Geelong Pubs and their changes
Things Have Changed: Brief Notes on Some Central Geelong Pubs, Either Gone, Repurposed and/or Renamed in the Last Few Decades
Golden Age Hotel, 2-4 Gheringhap Street, Geelong. 1941 print by C. Fox, almost certainly of a negative dating from the 19th century. (Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria, H19458)
(For the purposes of the following piece, my definition of ‘Central Geelong’ is the CBD and within roughly a kilometre of it. Almost all the places listed below were/are on a corner – the official address is in brackets.)
The Argyle Hotel (30 Aberdeen Street), where Geelong Football Club was established in 1859, fairly recently became Irish Murphy’s, then Gin & Co. Supper Club, then its current incarnation, a pub called Murphy’s. I played at the Argyle in 1980, in a band called Murmurs, when it was a well-known music venue, as I mentioned in a previous Almanac piece. Geelong Football Club’s original home venue, the Argyle Ground, was in close proximity to this pub, as I also indicated in this earlier piece.
The Bay View Hotel (2-4 Mercer Street), many years previously known as the Western Hotel, has become apartments. It’s a stylish, well-preserved, three-storey gold rush era building. And yes, one would get a fine view of Corio Bay from its top storey.
The Britannia Hotel (51 Yarra Street), in my memory, a substantial building with an art deco exterior, was demolished to make way for part of a major shopping complex near the waterfront. I remember having the occasional drink and meal there back in the day. It closed around 2006.
The Caledonian Hotel (28 Little Ryrie Street) has become a ‘Men’s Entertainment’ venue with a different name. Interestingly, in this context, it was known as The Good Woman Hotel in the distant past. My memory of it, decades ago, is as a neat little backstreet hotel very rare in Geelong in recent times. Having just said this, another example of a Geelong backstreet pub springs to mind, the Black Hatt Hotel (54 Little Myers Street), formerly known as the De La Ville Hotel, where I played music quite regularly with friends on Open Mic nights in the 1990s. This pub is near the St John of God Hospital.
The Carlton Hotel (13-19 Malop Street) was a wonderful art deco building, three storeys high, a Geelong icon, with a location close to the railway station. In the last few years, most of it has been demolished and the site is being redeveloped, with only the original facade remaining.
The Carrington Hotel (131 Yarra Street) has become a pub restaurant called Centra. I remember it as a traditional neighbourhood hotel diagonally opposite St Mary’s Basilica, where I went to Sunday mass up until the age of twelve or so.
The Corio Hotel (69 Yarra Street) has undergone numerous name changes and repackaging in the past few decades, including an incarnation as the Bended Elbow. It is a large, imposing building, about half way up the Corio Bay side of the Yarra Street hill. I particularly remember having a family gathering there in the early eighties, and its roomy high-ceilinged ground floor. Now it’s called the Geelong Hotel.
The Criterion Hotel (211 Ryrie Street) has become a restaurant, bar and pokies venue called Jokers on Ryrie. A few decades ago, it served as a home away from home for a great-aunt of mine who played the pokies there.
The Eureka Hotel (96 Little Malop Street), a former high-profile Geelong pub and live music venue, has undergone its latest refurbishment in the last few years to become a restaurant bar called Westend. I remember playing at the Eureka in 1980, in the Murmurs, supporting Men at Work. Now, this place looks very swish; in the old days, it was quite a rough, seedy pub, with low ceilings and plenty of atmosphere.
The old Geelong Hotel (214 Moorabool Street) was demolished and the area occupied by it is now part of the St John of God Hospital. For decades this pub stood out because of a large, illuminated Johnny Walker sign on a corner of its roof. It had various nightclub “lives” and was once very popular as a Geelong nightspot.
The Golden Age Hotel (2-4 Gheringhap Street), an impressive three-storey building constructed in 1854, is now a pub called The Deck. This building, close to the waterfront, is one of my favourite examples of Geelong hotel architecture.
The Lord Nelson Hotel (Bellarine Street and Malop Street) has returned after a hiatus. Established in 1849, it has claims to being one of Geelong’s oldest surviving pubs. It is now the closest hotel to Geelong’s beautiful Eastern Gardens – and in the old days was the second closest pub to the old Geelong Football Club home ground, Corio Oval. The Botanical Gardens Hotel (210 Malop Street), which hasn’t operated as a hotel in my memory, was closest. (This building is still there, though, as far as I know; in fact, I was inside it about a decade ago, in a small section of it that was a milk bar/take away food outlet.)
The Preston Hotel (175-177 Ryrie Street) has undergone major internal structural changes and become The Sporting Globe Bar & Grill. It was an unpretentious traditional Geelong pub for most of its life. While at uni decades ago, I worked opposite it in as an usher in the Village Twin Cinemas, which is now a complex with many more cinema screens.
The Queen’s Head Hotel (99 Ryrie Street), is now an Indian restaurant after going through many changes, as I’ve indicated in a previous Almanac piece.
The Queen of the West Hotel (126 Pakington Street), has become The Barking Dog. In my youth, it was known as a bikies’ hotel, but is now a gentrified pub and restaurant venue. I remember having a celebratory lunch at the Barking Dog about two decades ago when my playwrighting partner and I obtained a small Arts grant. Within the past couple of years, I read at a poetry reading in its function room.
The Railway Hotel (188 La Trobe Terrace) was virtually opposite the main carpark of the Geelong Railway station. My mother and step-father used to live in nearby Weller Street. I recall often encountering Mark Yeates working in the bottle shop there, during the period in which he played for Geelong. At one point, this pub was known for its Chinese food. It was demolished to make way for a furniture warehouse.
The Terminus Hotel (96 Mercer Street) has become an antique dealer’s establishment, and apartments. I recall blundering into a topless barmaids’ hour late in the hotel’s life, around 1990. All I wanted was a couple of takeaway longnecks and was very surprised by what I saw when I entered the bar.
Main Sources
www.intown.com.au/locals/geelong/historical/geelong-nightclub-history.htm
seegeelong.com.au/geelong-pubs/
zades.com.au/gandd/index.php/geelong/research/gdhotels1
More Almanac (Pub) History HERE
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His sixth book-length poetry collection, Isle Full of Noises, was published in early 2026 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Thanks for this, Kevin.
I think the loss of pubs is a cultural tragedy for both suburban and country communities. Pubs are not just for getting pissed in, they are a meeting place, a place to get together and celebrate, commiserate, and be human. For country towns, they are a community hub.
In our teens, my mates and I would travel to Anglesea to surf and have a good time. One of our rituals was stopping in at the Terminus for a beer whilst awaiting the train/bus connection.
You have inspired me to talk about what we have lost here in Williamstown in my time.
Many thanks for your comments, Smokie. I agree totally with what you’ve just said about the important social and cultural roles hotels play.
I look forward to what you have to say about the Williamstown pubs that have gone in your time.
In addition, Smokie, just noting that I have fond memories of the great value smorgasbords offered by the Yacht Club Hotel, Williamstown, in the early/middle 1980s. I remember it as a wonderfully atmospheric old pub, too, and used to go there with friends who lived reasonably close by.
Excellent summation on some of the Geelong pubs!
Jremember the White Hart ? Fire destroyed it
back in 1980s!?
The National opposite White Hart
Queens Head – rings a bell – somewhere
Lord Nelson
Barwon Club
The Belmont
Elephant and Castle (East Geelong)
Just a few others I remember from the 1970s
Keep up the good history research !
Cheers
Brian Benson ( long gone from Geelong in 1988, went to St Marys Tech early 1960s)
Thanks, Brian, for your comments. I know all the pubs you mentioned, of course, including The Queen’s Head, which I wrote about in detail in another Footy Almanac article. (Just search ‘Queen’s Head’ on the home page of this website.)
Some of the front of the White Hart is still there in Moorabool Street – I don’t how much of the interior is intact, though I do know the upstairs part has been used for accommodation in fairly recent times.
The Brittania Hotel was a very solid and large Art Deco Hotel at 19 Yarra Street with glass doors featuring sailing ships among other Art Deco features and a much older accommodation wing which went to the lane behind. I live there with my parents throughout the 70’s who owned it.
Thanks for your response, Tracey.
I like hearing the stories of those, like you, with a strong personal connection to what I’ve written about.
From memory, the late Bob Davis owned the Britannia Hotel at one point in its history, too.
Hi Kev, just read about all the pubs in geelong, what about the sundowner hotel in corio. I,ve been trying to find out for years what date and year it opened, was told it used to be called the courage hotel ?????. Can you help me out. Cheers Pop?
Hi Pop. Good question re the Sundowner Hotel. A quick internet search of my usual Geelong hotel resources hasn’t turned up anything much, except that the pub is now called the Gateway Hotel, but my instincts and knowledge of local history tell me that the place is one of the newer Geelong pubs, relatively speaking, and quite possibly came into existence around the immediate post-WW2 era, when the area was growing rapidly in accordance with manufacturing industries established in that part of the city.
If I turn up more information, which I expect to, I’ll make sure that I post it here. If I need to correct my hypothesis about the pub’s origins, I certainly will.
Hi Kev, think that was a bit early, me and my mates that still drink there reckon about 1971- 1972, I,ve done a heap of searching and all I have come up with is that sherbet played there on 13 June 1973 and Mississippi played there 20 June 1973 who later became the little river band. After the sundowner they called it the bay international hotel, there was a plaque on the outside of the sundowner when it was established but went missing after they renovated it into the bay international. There is a web site called geelong band museum which I found out that the satires might have played there on the opening night ??? But no dates. I actually built a scale model of the place I loved it so much. Cheers pop.?
Thinking about the matter further, Pop, I believe you may well be correct about when the Sundowner was established. Architecturally, what you wrote fits, too, as does your info about bands who played there way back when. I did think there may have been an earlier pub building on the hotel site, but now I think not – I grew up in Geelong (sixties onwards) and have memories of travelling to and from Melbourne by car and can’t recall seeing anything of that nature on the site before the nineteen seventies.
I had my first drink at the Sundowner around 1978, watching Owen Yateman and his band, from memory, and it still felt like a reasonably new place then.
If I hear anything more, I’ll let you know.
A good read Kevin thanks . A similar piece on Bendigo ,Ballarat ,Melbourne CBD ,Williamstown and Port Melbourne would be interesting .
I started work in 1972 cnr of Bourke and Elizabeth Sts . Pubs I recall within 2 blocks which are now gone include the Cecil ,Post Office ,Grosvenor , Royal Arcade , Duke of Kent and the London .
Thanks for your response, Hayden – glad you liked the piece.
I agree that similar pieces connected to other Victorian centres of population would be of considerable interest. I may even have a crack at a couple of them myself; for example, I worked for a considerable time in Ballarat and know the pubs and general area pretty well.
Unfortunately, much of what is written about Australian pubs these days is more about what we’ve lost over the years, rather than what we’ve gained – so many hotels have gone or been repurposed. I suppose being repurposed is at least better than being on the receiving end of a wrecker’s ball.
Couldn’t agree more KD.
“Table 47 your meals are now ready.”
RDL
Kevin
Good if you could do Ballarat
it bemuses me the way a supposed clever marketer changes the name of a traditional pub eg the Corio to the Bended Elbow and now the very plain Geelong Hotel when in reality for the average punter the name is irrelevant its the homeliness and quality of food and beverage or entertainment inside that really matters .
I also wonder about short sighted loss of opportunity on closed pubs particularly in re invented suburbs . Case in point when I was playing footy and cricket at West Footscray our watering hole was the Albert in Essex Street .
It was a simple little pub full of conviviality and good beverages supported by hearty food . Charlie Sutton was the Licensee and subsequent to Charlie Keith Ellis who was the trainer of his world champion boxer brother Lester took over .
Pub closed knocked down for apartments with the facade retained . West Footscray is now a suburb for young professional families on good incomes . Oh dear how they would love a pub like the Albert within walking distance and how well would the pub be doing .
Cheers, RDL.
Oh for the days of the old Queen’s Head Hotel in Ryrie Street, Geelong!
Thank you for your further input, Hayden.
I will try to do a piece on Ballarat pubs soon.
Your points about pub name changes, neighbourhood pubs and facade architecture are well made.
Occasionally, though, fortunately, particular neighbourhood pubs do remain and flourish in places such as gentrified inner city areas – one that immediately springs to mind is Hardiman’s Hotel in Kensington, Melbourne. I know the area well, and have witnessed this hotel change from being on its last legs decades ago to an attractive local focal point these days.
Kevin
Last comment . Agree re Hardimans it was a blood house frequented mostly by customers who were well known to the law and is now a very welcoming local pub in an area with a rapidly changing demographic .
Hayden, you’ve reminded me what a fertile ground for interesting pubs (or former pubs) the Kensington/North Melbourne/Flemington area is – the Doutta Galla Hotel in Racecourse Road is another old favourite of mine – what an impressive piece of pub architecture that one is! Decades ago, I had an celebration there after a Melbourne Uni graduation ceremony, as well as quite a few other fine times.
Your comment also made me recall that the earliest times I entered Hardiman’s Hotel, more than three decades ago – before the gentrification/improvements – you felt you had to have eyes in the back of your head – just to be wary of who was lurking in the er, shadowy, ‘difficult’ environment.
Hi Pop. I have some more information about when the Sundowner Hotel was established. It was 1971. There were 10 Year anniversary celebrations advertised in the local media in 1981 – at the time of writing this, an ad for the celebration is posted near the top on the Geelong Band Museum Facebook site.
Thanks Kevin, great work, now I just need the exact date. CHEERS????
The exact date could most likely be obtained from going into the Geelong Historical Records Centre in the Geelong Library ‘dome’ building (third floor, from memory – I haven’t been in there since the Covid era). The Geelong Advertisers from 1971 will be stored there in some format, I believe – maybe microfiche, which you can look at on a computer-size screen. Or else, the hard copies of the actual papers could be in large folders – depends on the era. Pretty sure the year 1971 for the Addy hasn’t been digitized yet, so it won’t be searchable online. Anyway, just ask the experts in the records centre. There might be a few hours of work ahead of you, but it’s info you really want.
If I get in there again soon (possible), I’ll have a look for you.
PUB,CLUB OR BAR ACROSS THE ROAD FROM THE CARLTON HOTEL,WAS IT CALLED THE GRAND CENTRAL. VERY NARROW AS I RECALL.
Yes, the Grand Central Hotel was as you describe it, and in that Malop Street location. It hasn’t been around for decades, but I my mother, now in her eighties, still remembers it and talks about it occasionally, as it was near where she worked in Mercer Street.
I should add that this discussion thread is a fitting forum for comments/enquiries about Geelong pub history. I’ll help with answers whenever I can