Histories of Green Square - City of Sydney

Chapter 10 – Pubs Around Green Square
Chapter 10 A History of
the Pubs around
Green Square
Fig. 10.1 Helen Gauchat, ‘Barmaid and Patron’. Pubs were not
just places where men drank, but where they gathered. 1
10.1 Introduction
Some friends of mine have been living in one of the new
apartment blocks around Green Square for the last six months.
They find it a convenient place to live, as it is close to transport,
the university and the city. I often ask them what they know
about the area’s past. They respond with blank faces, shrugging
their shoulders. ‘What history?’ they say ‘There is no history
around there’. As a student studying history, and a resident
of Sydney for the last twelve years, I find this saddening. It
seems that Green Square is perhaps one of the least historically
documented areas in Sydney, so it is not surprising that
the thousands of new residents have no idea of what and who
was here before, or how the place developed.
© Anna Gauchat
Anna Gauchat
Writing about pubs in the area is one important way of
exploring this urban past. We can also examine the wider roles
pubs played making Australian society, popular culture and
identity, and how these changed over time. Public drinking
places are distinctive according the culture and society in
which they emerge, and they provide an environment where
‘social interaction and social bonding’ can occur. 2 Australian
pubs are supposed to be egalitarian places, where drinkers
can meet, drink and talk regardless of class, race and age. The
numerous bars, beer gardens, lounges and gaming areas in
Australian pubs have evolved to cater for the various kinds of
socialising that happens in them.
We can also examine the culture of drinking itself, the effects
that alcohol has on individuals and groups and the role it
plays in social interaction. For centuries, humans have used
alcohol in symbolic and ritual ways to celebrate, to break out
of the normal or everyday routines, to congratulate, or ‘share
in brotherhood’. 3 Alcohol is an intoxicating substance—the
action of ethanol on the body causes ‘altered states of consciousness’
and tends to dissolve inhibitions, allowing people
to ‘relax’. 4 Hence, pubs can be places where people feel freer
from the usual social norms—for example, conversing with a
total stranger does not seem unusual. Pubs can have a feeling
of commonality. Traditional Australian drinking rituals and
habits include ‘shouting’ rounds of drinks for others and
toasting; alcohol is a major part of almost any celebration,
relaxation and leisure activities, especially where people come
together.
10.2 Early colonial hotels
The early Australian pubs were a fusion of the English style
taverns, alehouses and inns that accommodated both locals
and travellers. 5 By the 1830s, the production of beer, wine and
spirits became an important element of the colonial economy
and after the 1850s there were at least a dozen separate
breweries in Sydney, one of which, the Tooths’ Brewery,
operated in Alexandria. 6 Hotels were commonly located in the
centre of populated areas, often on the corner of each street.
The vast number of hotels which appeared between the 1850s
and 1900s is indicative both of the demand for public houses
in residential and industrial areas and of the profits to be
made in the hotel trade (see also Chapter 8). The pubs were
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