Friday, June 28, 2013

World Tour Update #8

In many of my posts I’ve mentioned visiting pubs. Pubs get their name from “public houses,” which, as the name implies, are open to everyone. Most of the pubs here are more family-oriented than bars and taverns back home. Children are allowed in, although there are some restrictions on where in the pub and when they are allowed.

The Aussies love their pubs. Here’s a couple of stories that the locals swear are true. In both cases there a newspaper accounts that support that claim.

Back in the late 1920s when construction began on the Sydney Harbor Bridge a number of existing structures had to be torn down to make way for the bridge footings and abutments. Among the victims were row houses, commercial establishments, warehouses, a church, and a pub. No one minded the loss of the first three very much, but there was a substantial protest against the destruction of the church. The biggest outcry, however, occurred when the destruction of the pub was announced.

Known as the Harbor View Hotel (for some reason, some of the older pubs here have “hotel” in their names – I guess it goes back to that ‘public house’ thing), it was one of the first pubs established in Sydney. The protests spilled over into the streets, and were so prolonged and vociferous that the government set aside a small parcel of land near one of the footings to rebuild the place. It still exists today. The church, however, was lost forever.

Priorities…

Second story – just a few years ago Brisbane suffered a terrible flood. There’s a river that runs through the city, and there was torrential rain upstream. The river overflowed its banks, thousands of homes and other structures were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands were homeless and without power. One of the flooded structures was Brisbane’s oldest pub. It’s a two story building, with a balcony on the second floor overlooking the street. During the flooding the first floor was underwater, but the pub continued to sell beer from the second floor to customers who pulled up in row boats.

You’ve got to admire their dedication to their customers.

4 comments:

Old NFO said...

Re the pub/hotel issue, apparently it had to do when when the pubs had to open and close... If they had 'rooms' apparently the hours could be longer. AND they could charge drunks to sleep it off... I'm outta here today, y'all have fun on the rest of the trip!

CenTexTim said...

Nice work-around. Safe travels....

Toejam said...

Public houses in ye olde Ireland were generally overnight stop-over points on routes that were traversed by horse-drawn carriages. For instance Dublin to Galway, Dublin to Cork, etc.

They not only provided alcohol but rooms for the travelers, food and the occasional free-spirited wench for the lads.

Horses were fed, watered and rested in adjoining barns over night too.

Since a huge part of the make-up of White Australians are descended from Irish criminals sent by the Brits to spend their lives in exile the tradition of the public House carries on very well.

Yes, CTT, America has no "real" version of the Public House. I fear the population is and has been for centuries, far too diverse for the Pub seeds to germinate.

CenTexTim said...

Our loss...