find me friday #5

Posted On 7 February 2014

Welcome to Find Me Friday, the series where I post a picture of part of a building and you have to find it.

This week I have some updates and corrections to some earlier posts, now that I have more information.

My source is the book “Here’s Cheers: A Pictorial History of Hotels, Inns and Taverns in Hobart”, by C. J. Dennison.

Mr Dennison is also the author of “Yesterday’s Hobart Today”, which was published last year by the Hobart City Council. “Here’s Cheers” is written in a similar style and provides a fascinating insight into many of Hobart’s forgotten pubs, as well as those that have survived the wrecking ball.

So before I reveal where last week’s photo was from, I have some updates on a couple of previous posts.

Hobart Animal Hospital (Find Me Friday #4) – 198 Murray Street

The site of the Hobart Animal Hospital on the corner of Murray and Brisbane Streets was the site of the Sir John Franklin Hotel, which, according to Mr Dennison, was first listed in 1847.

He says that the hotel was “part of a nest of brothels that had sprung up in that area of Hobart, in a precinct centring on hotels around the Lamb Inn, which was a little further down Brisbane Street”.

The site of the Lamb Inn is now occupied by Freedom Furniture.

“Union Building” (Find Me Friday #3) – 67 Murray Street

This one confused me, because I thought that this was the site of the Plough and Harrow Hotel circa 1867, but other references to the Plough and Harrow suggested that it was actually closer to Bathurst Street.

A picture of the Plough and Harrow exists on the State Library website (link here) and it really doesn’t look like it’s at the location of the current “Union Building”.

Some light was shed on this when I found out that street numbers in Hobart changed in about 1907-08, so what is now 67 Murray Street probably wasn’t in 1867.

Mr Dennison to the rescue again.

He says that the Plough and Harrow opened in 1842 and it was just up from the north-eastern corner of Bathurst and Murray Streets – pretty much a block up from where I thought it was. According to Mr Dennison, this area at the time was “down-at-heel” and the hotel didn’t have a particularly good reputation. It closed in the 1880s and all of the buildings on the lot were demolished.

The building that replaced them is still there today, and if I’d been more organised I would have taken a photo of it, so you’ll have to trust me on that one. It was originally the YWCA Building and is now called John Opie House, home to the Fight Cancer Foundation.

So – what was on the corner of Murray and Liverpool Streets?

Was it a pub?

Of course it was.

It was first opened in 1825 as the King George, and renamed the Duke of Clarence Inn in 1844. Mr Dennison says that the pub was used as a polling booth on election days.

Now there’s an idea. Voting at the pub. Can we make this a thing?

In 1846, the publican was Ann M’Andrew, and this is what it looked like (link here).

(By the way, there are a lot of sketches on the Library’s website of former Hobart pubs, which were drawn by Andrew Fleury, an Irish immigrant who arrived in Hobart as a child in the late 1860s. His drawings are the only known pictures of some of the pubs, and they feature prominently in Mr Dennison’s book.)

Find Me Friday #5

And now, to last week’s puzzle.

It is, as the sign suggests, a barber shop.

But where?

I do like to keep people guessing, and I know one person has been trying hard to find it with no success.

It’s a bit out of my normal walking zone, but I was in Hampden Road last week and this building caught my eye. Actually, I think it was the sign rather than the building.

It’s the Three Thirds Barbers Lounge, at 76 Hampden Road.