One of my minor regrets is that I have never set foot in a lot of the now long gone pubs which used to occupy the Melbourne CBD and surrounds, particularly those which were still around when I first came of drinking age, or that if I have, it was a singular visit and I have little memory of it.
The Stork Hotel near the Vic Market – never set foot in it at all. That other place on Victoria Street which until recently was a La Porchetta restaurant – only time I went in there was in 1995 when it had already been converted to a pizza joint. Mac’s Hotel on the corner of Spring and Flinders – I think I went in there once, into a side bar with framed photos of Fitzroy Football Club teams from the days of yore. Kilkenny Inn – before it became Goldfinger’s – an evening playing pool and sipping Subzero (a long since extinct and unlamented alcoholic soda which I regretted when the extreme heartburn hit the next morning). The Phoenix on Flinders Street – one office Christmas party circa 2007, not long before it got demolished and replaced by a very skinny apartment tower. The Lord Cecil on Queen and Lonsdale – that disappeared in late 1988 and I had never been inclined to stop in there for a quiet ale before that occurred.
The Royal Mail in Spencer Street – currently closed and apparently has structural issues.
Well… you get the picture.
King Street alone has several former pubs – the Kilkenny is a shell following a fire, and the Great Western is a facade with an apartment tower rising behind it (and I was fond of the Great Western with all its authentic bogan charm).
Which brings me to the Waterside.
Between 1991 and 1996 I worked in an office building in King Street, a short walk up from the Waterside. Originally myself and the other younger staff did not go there, as we preferred the Grainstore, a tavern which had been converted from an old Gold Rush era warehouse with a blue stone facade. That changed when the ownership of the Grainstore turned over and the new owners ran the place into the ground.
Back then, the Waterside was very much the same as it had been since the 1930s – tiles up to shoulder height inside and out, so as to easily hose off the vomit from when the regulars left after the six o’clock swill. There was a small bistro to one side which had leadlight on the doors and which served $2 steak sandwiches. The place had a lot of other vintage fittings.
That changed in the late 1990s when it got renovated and opened up, losing all its vintage fittings and becoming a much higher capacity venue.
It closed again in 2019, for renovations. As it transpired, structural issues arising from it being built mere metres from the Yarra (it was not called the Waterside without good reason) meant it needed more than a refresh. It needed to be knocked down entirely and rebuilt, with only the facade of the old building remaining.
I do not know how much this would have cost, but I assume it would have been tens of millions.
Now, last month, it finally reopened, so, in memory of the old days, I went there with a friend for lunch and to sip a few ales.
What exists now is very different. It has been opened up on the inside, with the main bar area overlooked by areas on several upper levels, the entire building now being seven stories tall.
We speculated as to where, in this post Covid work from home era, the clientele would come from to fill this pub and to pay off the bankers. After all, this might be the commercial office end of town, but the suits don’t drink like they used to in public, and most people try to stay at home most of the time. Nor are any wharfies employed near this location anymore. My observation is that it is the closest pub to Crown Casino (there used to be one adjacent to it, but that has been redeveloped long since), and that Crown did not like it when off duty staff stuck around to drink in the various bars of the Casino.
Waterside is not the only pub to recently reopen after a redevelopment or major renovation. I spent Cup Day inside Hickens Hotel on Russell Street with some friends. Hickens is the newly restored historical name for a pub which, in the course of my adult life, has been known as Santa Fe (pub before becoming a table dancing venue in the 1990s), Portland Hotel, and James Squire Brewhouse.
The amount of room for customers in the latter two manifestations was limited. The renovation includes opening up extra bar capacity on the ground floor, a giant sports bar area on the first floor, and a rooftop bar.
Similarly, just prior to the Covid, the Imperial on the corner of Bourke and Spring (a pub I long considered my regular due to proximity to my office), converted its function area upstairs into additional bar space, discovered an outdoor courtyard on the first floor as a smoking area, and installed a rooftop bar.
When the Duke of Wellington was renovated a decade or so ago, in order to free up room for an apartment tower, additional space was freed up for bar patrons in the form of a bistro and an upstairs bar area.
And then we get to Young and Jacksons, Melbourne’s most iconic pub. It opened a rooftop bar a decade ago, to supplement all the existing capacity.
The moral of the story seems to be that whilst we have lost a lot of pubs from the centre of our city, those that remain appear to be making the use of their existing footprint to become bigger venues – hopefully also better venues.
Mind you – I hope that the Exford remains as it is, and that no one thinks of doing anything different to the Mitre Tavern.
Lost For Words! 