I am very pleased this book is now published. As I said at the launch..
...we can be glad that this hotel has survived against the odds to become a heritage gem of Ultimo standing in this great community space here on Quarry Green.
When convict Thomas Leahy built it in 1878, there was a fairground across the road where strong men lifted blocks of sandstone from the nearby quarries and tightrope walkers strutted their stuff. They would have later drunk here and so did whoever was promoting ‘Tommy the Nut youngest clown in the world, aged two.’ There were the drunken cats. The evenings when the ladies parlour was transformed into a safe place for the local gay community to gather, long before anyone used the word gay to describe them. There was Billy Hughes declaiming from the upstairs balcony to the crowd below in Bulwara Road. The husband of one of the licensees who went to the Randwick races and never came home. Old Bridget Tuite who ran the pub the longest and who gave so much information about it because she was always writing complaining letters to Tooths brewery, who owned it. Nobody liked the brewery, but they kept a marvellous archive which gives us a real insight into the brewing and hotel industries.
The book runs to just over 200 pages with around 100 illustrations
If you want to buy a copy it is on sale at The Lord Wolseley Hotel, 265 Bulwara Rd, Ultimo NSW 2007 Phone: 9660 1736
Locals supporting the Quarry St Fair in 1989
A fairground across the road from the pub may well be why the hotel was built. Sydney Morning Herald 1879
POSTSCRIPT:
I was honoured and thrilled that The Lord Wolseley Hotel A Social History of a Very Small Pub was shortlisted the NSW Community and Regional History category of the NSW Premier’s History Awards 2016.