Terminus Hotel

Clifton Hill

The first mention we have of the Scotch Thistle Hotel and John McLean, is on the 22nd March 1854 when it was reported that McLean had failed to appear at the hearing for his liquor license. McLean owned a number of blocks of land on the west side of Plenty Road (now Queens Parade) and it was on the block closest to the creek that he had built a bluestone hotel, the Scotch Thistle. Constructed of bluestone, the hotel had 18 rooms and a large stables and yard which McLean rented out.   

What the reason for McLean’s no show at the March hearing, he was clearly the licensee by May 1854. There was already one hotel close by, the Northcote Arms Hotel, opened in 1852 but the increasing traffic along Plenty Road was deemed justification for a second hotel. McLean’s license was renewed without fuss in successive years, an indication he ran a good hotel. He did have the misfortune to be robbed in Napier Street Collingwood in October 1857. He had been returning to the Scotch Thistle from the city when he was overtaken and tripped by two men. When he got to his feet, he realised they had lifted his watch.   

In 1860 McLean opened tea gardens adjacent to the hotels, to operate during the summer months. The following year the hotel was the site of a meeting protesting of the Denominational School, which had been held in the Church of England. A deputation was raised to approach the government to solicit the establishment of a school in Northcote. This ultimately led to the establishment of the Northcote Primary School in Helen Street in May 1874. 

In February 1862 McLean was advertising for a gardener, however it was clear that the license subsequently lapsed as in June 1863 McLean made a citizen’s arrest of Robert B. Kyme, said to be squatting in a vacant house owned by McLean. The property was described a “licensed house.” The Sands and McDougall directories of 1863 and 1864 described the Scotch Thistle as vacant. 

Around 1864 Denis Bowes took over the license for the Scotch Thistle, renaming it the Roscrea Hotel. This was of course confusing, as he had already built a hotel across the creek called the Rosecrea, now run by his wife. This was a long-standing habit of Bowes as every hotel he ran he named the Rosecrea Hotel. 

On 24 April 1864 Bowes transferred the license to James Hennessy. In August 1872 James Hennessy died, his funeral cortege leaving from the Rosecrea and heading up Northcote Road (High Street). By this stage the Northcote Roscrea Hotel had been renamed the Bridge Hotel, removing some of the confusion about which hotel was which.   

In 1880 the hotel was listed for sale. It was described as  

Rosecrea Hotel, large stone building of two stories, containing, beside bar, 

large dining room, two sitting rooms, 10  bedrooms, billiardroom, and 

two kitchens. Stone wall round yard. Stabling and other out offices. 

Land 8ft, 8 inches frontage to the Plenty-road by a depth of 

13 ft along Brenaman-parade. Crown Allotment 8, 

Section 15, new to omnibus stables and opposite Merri Creek Bridge. 
Lease expires 16? December next. 

 

One of the interesting features was that the hotel was now referred to as being in Fitzroy, not Northcote. Earlier than that Northcote’s southern boundary was regarded as ending at the junction of Queen’s Parade and Heidelberg Road. In fact, as late as the 1930’s the Northcote Mayor would walk the length of Northcote as part of their first duties as newly appointed Mayor and would start from this spot, no doubt to the irritation of the Fitzroy Mayors.   

As Mrs McLean was still listed as the owner in 1884 (as indicated by the incident below) clearly the hotel did not sell. 

In January 1884, the Coroner Mr. Chandler led an inquiry a fire which occurred at the Rosecrea Hotel on 23rd December 1883. The inquiry established that the property was the owned by Mrs Elizabeth M’Lean and was insured by Mrs M’Cabe, who had been a tenant there for many months. Constable Moylan and a man named only as Bates noticed the fire and alerted Mrs M’Cabe, her two daughters and son. The fire was in the kitchen. Shortly afterwards a second fire started in the billiards room.  This was also put out without much difficulty. The inquiry also noted a fire had occurred on the premise a fortnight previously. A verdict of wilful damage by person or persons unknown was reached. 

In 1885 Robert Rea complained to the Fitzroy Council about the poor state of the footpaths near his hotel, the Terminus Hotel. Clearly somewhere between January 1885 and April 1885 the hotel had changed its name, for the third and final time. Later that year John Jones was arrested at the hotel for creating a disturbance. His mother-in-law claimed he was constantly disturbing her family and he was “not fit to be at large.” Jones counter argued that his relatives were robbing him as he possessed £7,000 per annum, a considerable sum in those days. Jones was remanded for medical advice.

On the 1stOctober 1886 Mrs Rea gave birth to a son at the hotel. Tragically Robert had passed away the previous May. 

A quirky incident happened on Sunday March 18, 1888, when a young man, Phillip Fox accidentally fired a revolver in the hotel. The bullet hit him in the nose, forcing him to go to the Melbourne Hospital “in a bad way.”  A later newspaper reported he was expected to make a full recovery. 

In 1890, the then publican of the hotel, Margaret Rose (Rice?) lost her son Robert Connal, who passed away aged 4 years and 4 months. Margaret had already lost her husband. In 1897 the publican John Heagney passed away, the funeral cortege leaving the hotel at 4pm on Friday 5th March.   Margaret Rice became the new publican. 

The hotel went through a bewildering amount of publicans during the 1890s with at least five between 1898 and 1900 alone.   

There was a disturbance at the hotel on the 5th April 1902.   Florence Daley refused to leave the hotel when asked to vacant by the publican resulting in Constable Power being called.  As Florence stubbornly refused to leave, and her husband John cheering her on, things escalated.   Florence smashed a curtain from the police cab and hit the Constable on the head, crushing his helmet. Presumably with the curtain rod rather than the curtain itself. 

The Collingwood Court took a dim view of Florence and John’s behaviour.  She was fined 20s for insulting behaviour, 10s for property damage, 4s for damage to the curtains and 3s for the damage to the police helmet. John copped a £2 fine for inciting his wife to fight the constable. 

The next time the Terminus Hotel appears in the news is in February 1904 when the licensee of the hotel, Susan Barton pleaded guilty to having her hotel door open during prohibited hours. She was fined £5. The following year, a 14-year-old, boy, Leslie Brook, was struck and killed by a train outside the hotel (at that time there was not a rail bridge over the road. His body was removed to the hotel prior to transfer to the morgue.    

The same year Barton again found herself in court, this time as a victim.   George Munyard was accused of stealing a cheque from her cheque book and using it to withdraw £2 from her accounts. At trial Munyard said he noticed the signed but blank cheque in Mrs Barton’s book and did not appreciate that taking it and using it was a crime.   Not surprisingly he was found guilty. 

Thomas Salmon took over the license in 1908. Under Salmon he developed links with the Victorian Motor Cycling Club and over several years the Terminus Hotel was the starting and finishing point for their motorcycle reliability races. The race was over 63 miles and was from the Terminus Hotel to Marysville and back.    

In 1921 James Carrick became the new publican at the hotel, ending Salmon’s thirteen year run at the hotel. It was the longest single run for a publican up until that time. 

The following year William Henry Smith, a busker was playing his portable organ outside the hotel. After playing several songs he was invited into the hotel by a spectator for a drink. Leonard Sanderson, a coach painter, then stole the organ which had been left outside the hotel. Plain Clothes Constable G. Davern and Senior Constable Frawley visited the accused at his home and arrested him for the theft.   

In June 1923 James Carrick suffered head injuries after an accident when the car he was driving suffered a brake failure and overturned at the railway crossing at Yan Yean. One passenger, John Sennitt was killed and two other passengers suffered minor injuries. Carrick recovered well enough to be back at the hotel in April 1924 when he was charged with having whisky and schnapps for sale with false labels. It was not an uncommon trick for publicans to swap good quality liquor for lesser brands but charge for the better known brands.  He was fined £5 for each offense. 

In March 1928 Herbert Wymond, the then owner of the Terminus Hotel sought approval to make £4,400 worth of improvements to the hotel. The changes were significant and included a complete reconstruction of the hotel’s interior and the addition of two additional bedrooms.  With support from Superintendent McKenzie, approval was granted. In 1930 Wymond took over the licence from Thomas Dean who had been the publican there since 1926. 

Wymond passed away on 5th July 1931, the hotel, valued at £8,151, was bequeathed to his wife, son and daughter.     

The hotel was sold in rapid succession. In August 1934 the then owner, W. D. Sampson sold the hotel to Mrs Drever for cash, £21,000. Just over a year late in October 1935 Mrs Drever sold the hotel to the Richmond N.S. Brewing Company for £22,000. A far cry from the mere £8,151 it had been valued at four years before. Mrs Drever took court action against her husband claiming he had defrauded of her of considerable amount of money from their business transactions. 

In 1935 Elizabeth Leonard took over the licence.  Sadly, she passed away at the hotel in 1940, aged only 42. 

On 16 November 1952 there were dramatic scenes outside the hotel when police arrived after two men were discovered ransacking rooms at the hotel. As the police tried to question suspects an angry crowd formed and soon police found themselves besieged by up to 300 men. Six men assisted the police and managed to hold the crowd at bay until police reinforcements arrived. A taxi driver was deemed responsible for agitating the crowd but fled before police could arrest him. 

By 2000 the Terminus Hotel was one of the few old-style pubs still operating, with long term residents living in the rooms upstairs and a declining trade.   

Known Publicans 

Scotch Thistle 

1854 John McLean 

Rosecrea 

1864 Denis Bowes 

1864 James Hennessy 

1868 Thomas Mulcany 

1869 Mary Delahunty 

1870 James Hennessy 

1872 John Delahunty 

1875 Mrs Hennessy 

1885 Mrs F. Cameron 

1885 Robert Rea 

1894 Rose Bannon 

1894 Michael Hannan  

1897 John Heagney 

1898 Margaret Rice 

1898 J. T. Naumann 

1898 Samuel Ashworth 

1899 Margaret Rice 

1900 Mary Elizabeth Hannan 

1904 Susan Barton 

1906 Mrs M. Rice 

1907 Susan Barton 

1908 Thomas H. Salmon 

1921 James Carrick 

1926 Thomas Dean 

1930 H. Wymond 

1933 Sarah Wymond 

1934 Mary Drever 

1934 William Treleaven 

1935 Elizabeth Mary Leonard 

1945 Joseph Gleeson 

1950 Cornelius? Hall 

1955 L. A. O’Bryan 

1965 L.G. Dowie 

1970 G. Fitzgerald 

1974 A. Webster 

2008 Russell Griggs 

2020 Craig Shearer 

 

craftypint.com/bar/342/terminus-hotel 

Edge, Gary (2004). Surviving the six o’clock swill: a history of Darebin’s hotels. Melbourne. Darebin Libraries. 

Various articles 1852-1956 The Argus (Melbourne, Vic : 1848-1956)