10 March 2019:

A pub on each corner ? Yes ! The corner of Brunswick Street and Gertrude has two, that competed, or rather didn’t have to since there were enough drinkers first both, from the 1860s to the 1990s, On the nw corner is the Rob Roy, established in 1857. It doesn’t look 1850s me, so possibly rebuilt in 1871 when 5 shops were added on each side, designed by #JamesGall who went on to do lots of mansions. Been the #WorkersClub since the 2000s I think.

The opposite corner is the fabbo ex-Champion Hotel, first established 1861, and rebuilt 1911 in an exuberant #Queenanne / #EdwardianFreestyle, designed by EM Wight, sadly altered a fair bit in the 90s when it became shops and apartments. I remember it from the 1980s, standing at the tram stop one day and through the window I saw a stripper at work ! Fitzroy pubs were famously rough.

11 March 2019:

The Gertrude Hotel, corner #GertrudeStreet and Fitzroy Street Fitzroy hasn’t been a pub since it was closed by the Licensing Reductions Board in 1910, prob because there were more pubs 50m away on either side ! Built 1869, it looks pretty intact. A pub at the other end of Gertrude adopted this one’s name in recent years though to be fair I’m sure nobody remembers this one, just confusing for the historians out there.

Another #GertrudeStreet pub, which appears to have closed for renovations and a name change early 2018, and still closed. Built 1854, but not a pub till 1858, looks pretty unchanged; called the Leviathan, then the Renown by 1900, and became a haunt of underworld figures like #SquizzyTaylor, I remember it was the last really rough bar in Fitzroy in the 80s; more recently re-named again as #TheGertrude (the name of another pub at the other end of Gertrude before 1910).

The #BuildersArms, prob the best known #GertrudeStreet #pub, and the oldest ! Built 1853, with the parapet added probably 1915 as well as internal alterations (thanks Fitzroy Historical Society). Now that I look, I mean google, I see that the somewhat squeezey part inside with its tiled front to the bar is probably original, at least to the edge of the #tiling, indicating I think how small the front bar was originally /in the 30s, it’s got its own door you see – that’s a pretty rare survivor ! I think the wall between it and the corner was later (the 90s?) opened up. Pub interiors changed a lot over the years, modernising for better trade, or creating a larger bar to cater to the #6oclockswill, but some stayed local, with multiple bars for different drinkers – front bar for a quick one/locals to hang, then perhaps two lounges, one for mixed sexes, maybe with bar food, and of course a #ladieslounge, at first not because of licensing laws separating the sexes, but because it was thought the ladies felt more comfortable on their own, away from the hard drinkers. @ Builders Arms Hotel

Not a #GertrudeStreet pub but I like it, with that tiny first floor, must be from 1854 though apparently it was a #slaughterhouse then, looks more like shops. And the second photo is streetview of the opposite corner of Young Street, the United Service Hotel, built 1874 but closed in 1910 by the Licensing Reduction Board, which was set up in order to close places that were unruly, kept selling grog out the back door on Sundays, or where there were just ‘too many pubs’ – and Gertrude Street had 12 operating pubs before the board started closing them ! @ Hand 2 Hand Store Melbourne

Corner Gertrude and George Street. So this too was once a #pub, in the middle of a cluster of 6 pubs within three blocks. Built 1853 as the Royal Exchange, the new Fitzroy Council has their first meeting here, later known as The Royal, do I vaguely remember it being a pub in the 80s ? Or did it close much earlier ? Anyway at some point all the detail scraped off, maybe the 30s, though it doesn’t look streamlined.

10 March 2019

The #CarltonClubHotel is in Fitzroy ! In #GertrudeStreet. I wondered the length of Gertrude a while ago hoping to get all the many ex-pubs, didn’t get them all, but this the first one I did get. First established in 1853, and rebuilt in the 1910s, with a curious oriel corner #baywindow on a tiny lane. Closed in the 90s it’s now #StVincentsHospital dialysis unit.

27 June 2024, photos 2014:

Town Hall Hotel, Johnston Street Fitzroy. Elegant pub from 1925, replacing a Victorian one, designed in a broadly Greek Revival style, with those wide pediments and cross patterns in the windows and balustrades, but with Egyptian papyrus leaf capitals. There’s a few in a similar style around the inner burbs, eg Royal Oak Nicholson Street, presumably by the same the architects, whoever they were. B&W c1970, @library_vic, date from Fitzroy Research blog. Also note, it’s not actually near the Fitzroy Town Hall, six blocks away. And it’s still green.

28 April 2025

The old Punters Club in Brunswick Street in my photo from 2015 when it was Bimbo Deluxe – and I’m rather surprised to learn just now that’s it’s the Punters Club again ! And repainted in the 80s cream and green it was then (pic 3 is 90s, The Herald, 4 is now, The Age). So that’s 90s nostalgia?

The pub itself started out as the Wheatsheaf in 1865, you can see the early Victorian low first floor compared to the later 19thC shop next door, and cute little lady face above the door. It became the Moonee Valley in 1893, and then in about 1923 it was refurbished, with that much taller parapet, and the stair inside also looks like that date (but might not be). It became the Punters Club in 1987, at the beginning of Brunswick Street going all groovy, and was an extremely important band venue. But few things last forever, and it became Bimbo in 2002, a bar pizza place, which was then refurbished as the more upmarket Kewpie in 2021. Then sold and refurbished to be more pubby, reopening on 22 August last year, and now hosts bands upstairs, again ! Interiors from the internet. Research FitzroyResearch blog, such a great resource.

6 May 2025

The bar at the Labor in Vain in Brunswick Street looks like an actual 19th century pub – but dates from 1998 ! First built as a pub in 1853, the name changed to the Chapman in the 20s, and then the license was withdrawn in 1927, since there were ‘too many’ pubs in the area, for instance the Perseverance is right across the street. It was then totally renovated to became shops, with those lovely blue tiles added, and big shop windows, and the exterior rendered. So then 70 years later it became a bar again, taking up the old name, and I presume the great sign was painted then.

In 2022 it was sold, along with the big shop next door on the same title, to a ‘big hospitality operator’, with the current lease running out next year, so I expect to see a large venue emerge here with restaurant etc.

Ps it should be Labour, but apparently both spellings were used, now it’s with the u, unless you talking about the political party ! Photos 2015.

• Uncategorized