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Terminus: The Pub That Sydney Forgot
For over thirty years the Terminus Hotel had stood dilapidated and abandoned on the corner of Harris and John Streets in Pyrmont – shrouded in mystery and a heavy coat of ivy, and the memories of its publicans and customers long faded.
Told with fascinating insight and rich detail, historian and author Shirley Fitzgerald uncovers for the first time the stories, secrets and long-forgotten characters from what was once regarded as the toughest pub in Sydney – and today has been brought back to life and reopened as a heritage gastropub for locals and visitors alike.
First built in 1863, the Terminus evolved from local meeting place to workers pub, through very different liquor laws that allowed children to be served, and finally to its last trading years in the 1970s and 80s, where the clientele comprised of hardened merchant seamen and wharfies, biker gangs and curious punters who were served by topless, tattooed barmaids and entertained by rock bands.
Revealing its changing personality through photographs and interviews, The Pub that Sydney Forgot offers a beautiful and captivating social history of Pyrmont through the lens of one pub, now open for the enjoyment of a new generation of patrons to make their own history.
Told with fascinating insight and rich detail, historian and author Shirley Fitzgerald uncovers for the first time the stories, secrets and long-forgotten characters from what was once regarded as the toughest pub in Sydney – and today has been brought back to life and reopened as a heritage gastropub for locals and visitors alike.
First built in 1863, the Terminus evolved from local meeting place to workers pub, through very different liquor laws that allowed children to be served, and finally to its last trading years in the 1970s and 80s, where the clientele comprised of hardened merchant seamen and wharfies, biker gangs and curious punters who were served by topless, tattooed barmaids and entertained by rock bands.
Revealing its changing personality through photographs and interviews, The Pub that Sydney Forgot offers a beautiful and captivating social history of Pyrmont through the lens of one pub, now open for the enjoyment of a new generation of patrons to make their own history.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 22, 2018
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 8, 2018
I read this as a paperback and not the Kindle edition as flagged here.
I worked for some years in the early 1970s in the Waterside Cold Stores in Point St, Pyrmont and lunch time was a quick walk up the road for a pie, a beer and game of darts, not at the Terminus, but the Royal Pacific across the road from it. (Then back to work to drive the forklift - it was a different time ...)
I DID frequent the Terminus on occasion as they had a pool table in the lounge. But it was the clientele of both pubs that I remember - so many characters whose names I never knew (though I remember barmaid Betty behind the bar at the Royal Pacific). I was mostly raised in Balmain and Paddington in Sydney in the 60s and I saw many parallels between the populations of those three suburbs.
So given this personal history I enjoyed this book and hence my rating. I'm not sure that anyone who did not have some connection to the area pre-gentrification would have got as much out of it as I did.
Even for me there was perhaps a little too much detail about small changes to the layout of the pub and its bar and the invoicing from the brewery (though I didn't find myself skipping these sections). As so often the case, it was the stories about the people that I was drawn to.
I found myself wondering if this book grew out of an academic thesis, given the level of research the author has clearly undertaken.
The Terminus and the Royal Pacific in Pyrmont ... two Sydney pubs (and a workplace and workmates) this bloke hasn't forgotten.
I worked for some years in the early 1970s in the Waterside Cold Stores in Point St, Pyrmont and lunch time was a quick walk up the road for a pie, a beer and game of darts, not at the Terminus, but the Royal Pacific across the road from it. (Then back to work to drive the forklift - it was a different time ...)
I DID frequent the Terminus on occasion as they had a pool table in the lounge. But it was the clientele of both pubs that I remember - so many characters whose names I never knew (though I remember barmaid Betty behind the bar at the Royal Pacific). I was mostly raised in Balmain and Paddington in Sydney in the 60s and I saw many parallels between the populations of those three suburbs.
So given this personal history I enjoyed this book and hence my rating. I'm not sure that anyone who did not have some connection to the area pre-gentrification would have got as much out of it as I did.
Even for me there was perhaps a little too much detail about small changes to the layout of the pub and its bar and the invoicing from the brewery (though I didn't find myself skipping these sections). As so often the case, it was the stories about the people that I was drawn to.
I found myself wondering if this book grew out of an academic thesis, given the level of research the author has clearly undertaken.
The Terminus and the Royal Pacific in Pyrmont ... two Sydney pubs (and a workplace and workmates) this bloke hasn't forgotten.
Displaying 1 of 1 review