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 poet and writer-in-general. His work has appeared in print in Australia, the UK and the USA, as well as on many online venues. His fourth book-length poetry collection, Sacredly Profane, has just been published (late 2020) 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, which was published by Currency Press. Recent other writing includes screenplays for films with a tertiary education purpose.
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.