Last drinks in Surry Hills: the Licences Reduction Board, 1920-23 John W. Ross Cover photograph: Clockwise from top left: Former Rosebery Arms Hotel Former Farnham Arms Hotel (Google maps) Former Princess of Wales Hotel (Google maps) Former Mount View Hotel (realestate.com website) Four of the closed hotels as the Licences Reduction Board members would have seen them during their inspections in 1920-1922. Clockwise from top left: Queen’s Arms Hotel Golden Lion Hotel Rifleman’s Arms Hotel McNamara’s Family Hotel (Source: Licences Reduction Board files, State Records of NSW) Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 12 May 1920. Contents Foreword ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Alcohol and temperance to the 1830s .................................................................................................... 3 The magnificent thirst ......................................................................................................................... 3 The rise and decline of the early temperance movement.................................................................. 3 The resurgence of temperance in the 1850s .......................................................................................... 5 A change of direction .......................................................................................................................... 5 Temperance movements go international ......................................................................................... 6 Alcohol regulation from the 1870s ......................................................................................................... 9 The first Local Option – inefficient and expensive .............................................................................. 9 Stricter Local Option in New South Wales .......................................................................................... 9 Local Option and the Victorian Licences Reduction Board ............................................................... 11 Early closing in 1916.......................................................................................................................... 12 The American experience ................................................................................................................. 13 The quest for prohibition here .......................................................................................................... 14 The New South Wales Licences Reduction Board................................................................................. 15 Setting up the Licences Reduction Board ......................................................................................... 15 The Board gets to work ..................................................................................................................... 16 Temperance campaigns after the Licences Reduction Board ........................................................... 17 The hotel closures in Surry Hills ............................................................................................................ 19 Athletic Club Hotel ............................................................................................................................ 22 Austral Hotel ..................................................................................................................................... 24 Club Hotel ......................................................................................................................................... 26 Farnham Arms Hotel ......................................................................................................................... 28 Federal Hotel ..................................................................................................................................... 30 Golden Fleece Hotel .......................................................................................................................... 32 Golden Lion Hotel ............................................................................................................................. 35 Gulgong Hotel ................................................................................................................................... 37 Lloyd’s Hotel ...................................................................................................................................... 39 Madeira Inn. ...................................................................................................................................... 41 McNamara’s Family Hotel ................................................................................................................. 43 Mount View Hotel ............................................................................................................................. 45 Princess of Wales Hotel .................................................................................................................... 47 Queen’s Arms Hotel .......................................................................................................................... 49 Reservoir Hotel ................................................................................................................................. 51 Rifleman’s Arms Hotel ...................................................................................................................... 53 Rosebery Arms Hotel ........................................................................................................................ 56 Royal George Hotel ........................................................................................................................... 58 Senatorial Hotel ................................................................................................................................ 60 Standard Hotel .................................................................................................................................. 62 Surry Hills Hotel................................................................................................................................. 64 Te Aro Hotel ...................................................................................................................................... 66 Thames Hotel .................................................................................................................................... 68 True Briton Hotel .............................................................................................................................. 70 White Lion Hotel ............................................................................................................................... 72 The post-World War II era .................................................................................................................... 75 Wartime restrictions ......................................................................................................................... 75 Local Option is finally repealed ......................................................................................................... 75 Ten o’clock closing ends the swill ..................................................................................................... 75 Women’s access to bars ................................................................................................................... 77 Raising the bar – women assert their rights ..................................................................................... 78 The temperance movement marches on.......................................................................................... 79 Notes ..................................................................................................................................................... 81 Table of Figures ..................................................................................................................................... 89 References ............................................................................................................................................ 91 Index...................................................................................................................................................... 93 Foreword The Australian colonies were modelled to a large extent on British society, in which alcohol consumption was universal and the pub played a central role in everyday life. Rum was smuggled in or distilled locally, and was used as a currency for some time. Early Governors tried but failed to stem the trade in illegal spirits. The 1830s was the time of peak alcohol, when Australian colonists were consuming four times as much spirits as the British. Early temperance groups formed to grapple with widespread public drunkenness, initially using persuasion and example to guide individuals towards sobriety. But the movement declined when drinking decreased in the economic depression of the 1840s. The temperance movement revived in the 1850s, after gold discoveries led to increased prosperity and a resurgence of alcohol consumption. Temperance societies became stronger by forming alliances, women gradually took leading roles, and the focus changed from promoting voluntary abstinence to lobbying governments for better regulation of access