The Crown Inn

Today, Bell Street in Ipswich doesn’t have a pub. The Caledonian Hotel building is still there but sits closed, perhaps waiting for a new life when the time is right. It operated as a pub from 1867 to 2017, and its history is well documented. But there was another pub in Bell Street, located on what is now the corner of Bell Street and Union Place, which began life as the Crown Inn in 1850. For the next 40 years the fortunes of the public house and those who ran it fluctuated wildly and often rapidly – encompassing death, suicide, insolvency, closure, reopening and more. There were also numerous changes of name (Table 1). 

The first misfortune in the rocky existence of the Crown Inn was the death of its owner Michael Burns. Construction of the building was completed shortly before Burns’ death in October 1850 following “a lingering illness of two months of fever”. Burns, a member of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, was well-regarded locally, with his funeral described as “the largest and most respectable yet seen in Ipswich”. The Crown Inn was described in 1850 as “one of the most extensive and commodious Hostelries in the district “. At the time of its construction there was one other pub in Bell Street, the Red Cow, later to become the Caledonian Hotel. 

Burns’ widow Bridget was granted the license for the Crown Inn in April of 1851. The 1850 report of Michael’s death and funeral exhorts the public to support Bridget’s business: “it is sincerely to be hoped that a spirit of philanthropy will induce the public, when Mrs. Burns commences business, to aid the widow in carrying out her laudable exertions for supporting and educating her fatherless children” (there were five children). Bridget’s sister Jane was married to George Thorn, the “Father of Ipswich”. Michael and Bridget came to Ipswich about 1842 to run the Prince of Wales Hotel for Thorn. Bridget married publican Jacob James in 1851, and he became licensee of the Crown Inn in 1853. Bridget maintained ownership of the building until 1875. 

JP Nahar became licensee of the Crown Inn in 1855 and “effected considerable improvements and increased to a great extent the accommodation”. Nahar had changed the name of the pub to the Crown Hotel by January of 1856, and he was granted the publican’s license under that name in April 1856. However, by May 1856 Nahar was advertising his business at the Crown Hotel for sale as a “good and steady business to be disposed of…as a consequence of ill health”. It would be almost a year before another licensee took over the hotel from Nahar. During that time, a groom called Thomas Heath (a “native of China”) employed at the hotel committed suicide by opium poisoning due to the disappointment of being rejected by a (“white”) woman who he wanted to marry. In March 1857 Nahar advertised that he was about to travel to Sydney for health reasons and that accounts he owed should be sent “forthwith”, while debtors should pay their accounts “at their earliest convenience”.  

In April 1857, Charles Jones was granted the license at the Crown Hotel and by July of that year was advertising that he had taken over management of the hotel from JP Nahar (with Nahar advertising that his debtors should pay their accounts to Jones). Jones was again granted the publican’s license for the Crown Hotel in 1858. This was a short-lived arrangement, as Jones became insolvent and put the contents of the hotel up for sale in September and had abandoned its occupation by October 1858. Despite Jones’ misfortunes, 1858 was a busy year for the Crown Hotel with various public meetings held there, and a performance by the Australian Circus at the rear of the hotel. A dinner for Benjamin Cribb, MP, (tickets 25 shillings) was described as a “complete triumph – dinner of fair quality, wines of good quality, and company of first-rate quality”. Renowned violinist Miska Hauser gave a performance in the “Long Room, adjoining the Crown Hotel”. Staff wanted included a cook, a housemaid and a laundress. 

On 14 October 1858, “permission was granted to Mrs. Ellen Binstead to carry on the business of the licensed house known as the Crown Inn, as the agent of the trustees of the insolvent estate of Charles Jones until the next licensing meeting. The license of Ellen Binstead for the house known as the Sawyers’ Arms, was cancelled, at her own request.” Binstead remained the licensee until 1860 when her fortunes rapidly changed: her license application was refused on 7 April, then granted on 19 April, but by the first week of May her household goods, personal effects and stock-in-trade at the Crown Inn (her residence at the time) were all up for auction. Also in April 1860, Thomas Forrester was charged with aggravated assault (“a drunken affray”) on Mrs Binstead. He was found guilty and ordered to pay court costs but the complainant was admonished by the Bench about the way she gave her evidence. 

By September of 1860, Michael Connor, previously licensee at the Sportsman’s Arms in Little Ipswich (West Ipswich), was advertising that he had become the licensee and re-named the Crown Inn as the Commercial Hotel. His advertisements boasted “considerable alterations and improvements” at “considerable expense”, and that “a good table will always be kept”, with “excellent stabling, the best of oaten hay, a secure paddock, and an attentive groom”. The Commercial Hotel seemed to be doing well in 1861, with advertisements placed for “a smart cook”, a “first class waiter” (“no drunkard need apply”) and a “smart active lad” for the billiards room. 

Michael Connor died in October 1861, and his wife Mary Connor became licensee of the Commercial Hotel in 1862. Her notice of intent to reapply for the license in 1864 described her as a “widow with five children”. The “house” had 3 sitting rooms and 10 bedrooms “exclusive of those required for the family”. Mary was renting the premises from “Mrs James of Ipswich”, indicating that Bridget James had maintained ownership of the building constructed by her first husband. Mary refitted the “well-known billiard room” in 1862 and 1865, and in 1864 made available the private residence adjoining the Commercial Hotel “offering gentlemen and families private apartments either in or apart from the hotel. Good stabling, excellent paddock”. Mary was last granted the license for the hotel in July 1865. 

The Panorama of Ipswich from Limestone Hill, taken in 1865 by early Ipswich photographer Biggingee Sorabjee Poochee, almost certainly shows the roofline of the Commercial Hotel, although it is difficult to establish which roofline it is. Detail from this remarkable panorama[10] clearly shows the Cribb and Foote department store at the top (Brisbane Street) end of Bell Street - the Commercial Hotel roof would have been towards the bottom (Bremer Street) end of Bell Street. 

William Trotter next took over the license for the Commercial Hotel, notifying his intent to renew his license in March of 1866. In June of 1866 he placed an advertisement for the hotel extolling its virtues for the upcoming horse races (“Visitors will do well to give the old Hotel a call”) but less than three weeks later was advertising the hotel for lease. On 10 July 1866, Trotter’s license for the Commercial Hotel was transferred to his new premises in Ellenborough Street, while George Irwin’s license for the Prince of Wales Hotel in East Street was transferred to the Prince of Wales Hotel (formerly trading as the Commonwealth Hotel) in Bell Street. 

Within three months Irwin notified his intention to transfer his license to William Standerwick King, from the Prince of Wales Hotel in Bell Street to the Post Office Hotel in Brisbane Street. However, in March of 1867 WS King applied for renewal of his license at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Bell Street, so it seems that the license transfer to the Post Office Hotel did not proceed. Then on 10 October 1867, King’s sister Sophia issued a public notice accusing her brother of owing her money and cautioning people from purchasing any furniture at or belonging to the Prince of Wales Hotel as this had been purchased with money left to her by her mother and that “a portion of the property is solely mine”. According to Sophia, her brother “induced” her to leave England and then subjected her to “constant cruelty and unkind treatment” and “has had the use of my money” and is “unworthy of belief”. By 7 November 1867 the Prince of Wales Hotel was advertised to Let “with immediate possession and license”. WS King was adjudged a “new insolvent” and described as a “miner” in July of 1868. 

On 25 January 1868 Charles Devine issued a Notice of Intent to apply for a transfer of license from the Glen Cottage Hotel “to the premises recently occupied by Mr. W. S. King, situated in Bell-street, Ipswich, and kept by him under the sign of the Prince of Wales Hotel, and which I intend to keep under this same sign“. While the license was transferred in February 1868, it appears that Charles quickly transferred it to William Devine, who was then granted a license transfer from the Prince of Wales Hotel to the Criterion Hotel in East Street in April 1868. This would not be the last time that Charles transferred a publican’s license to William, with Charles advertising his intent to transfer his license for the Melbourne Hotel on the corner of Brisbane and Nicholas Streets to William in December 1869. 

It appears that The Prince of Wales Hotel ceased trading from April 1868, when the license was transferred to the Criterion Hotel, until June 1870, when the license was granted to James Stanley. In his notices of intent to apply for a license, Stanley noted that “I rent the house of Mrs. Jacob James. The house is not licenced. I intend to keep the house as an Inn or Public-house, under the sign of the Prince of Wales Hotel.” The house at that time had four sitting rooms and eight bedrooms excluding those required for family use. Stanley was again granted the publican’s license in 1871. 

Charles Brecht became the licensee of the Prince of Wales Hotel in 1872 with the transfer of his license from the Union Hotel in Brisbane Street. He was granted the publican’s license in 1873 under the name of the Union Hotel. However, by February of 1874 the “goodwill, stock and furniture of the Union Hotel, Bell-street” was advertised for sale due to the proprietor leaving the district. If Brecht did leave it wasn’t for long, as in June 1874 he was again granted the license for the Union Hotel.  

In March 1875 Donald McNeil issued a notice of intent to apply for a publican’s license for the Union Hotel in Bell Street, to be kept under the sign of the Argyle Hotel. In November 1875 he placed an advertisement referring to the Argyle Hotel as “my hotel”, which he likely purchased from Bridget James. McNeil was again granted the license for the hotel in 1876 and 1877. 

The Argyle Hotel was advertised for sale by auction, on behalf of Donald McNeil, on 28 June 1877. It was described as a “capital property”, with “seventeen rooms, detached kitchen and servants’ rooms, six-stalled stables, hay loft, harness room, six-stalled open shed, other outbuildings, etc”. It was sold to George Thain for £880, “nearly double the amount paid for it two years ago”, which was seen as an indicator of the rapid increase in property values in Ipswich at the time. In November 1877 McNeil was described as “late of the Argyle Hotel” and had opened a general store in North Ipswich. 

Thain renovated the premises and was granted the license under the name of the London Tavern in 1878. George Thain died in April 187913, and the license was granted to Eliza Thain, George’s wife, in April of 1880. A year later Eliza transferred her license to Peter Brown but by March of 1882 both notified their intent to reverse this arrangement. Eliza’s notice describes herself as “a widow with two children”. 

Eliza Thain died soon after and in August of 1883 the London Tavern was advertised by the trustees of her estate as available to rent for a term of two or three years. A few days later Charlotte Eliza Thain, Eliza’s daughter, issued a notice of intent to apply for a transfer of the publican’s license for the London Tavern “situated in Bell-street and lately held by my deceased mother, Eliza Thain”. Charlotte appears to have been unsuccessful as the license was transferred from the estate to Duncan McIntyre in October 1883. McIntyre was again granted the publican’s license for the London Tavern in 1884, and that year wrote a letter to the municipal council complaining about the state of the footpath outside the hotel. 

In 1885 McIntyre transferred his license to George Shaw who at the same licensing meeting was granted the license under the name of the Cosmopolitan Hotel. The hotel had “Four sitting-rooms and seven bed-rooms.”  

1886 saw big changes for the Ipswich CBD, with a new railway station (opened in 1887) to be constructed that would require a new street connecting Bell and Nicholas Streets (Union Street, now Union Place). An article titled “Contemplated Improvements in Ipswich” from January 1886 describes the resumptions that would be needed as “run…to a spot between the bar and parlour of Shaw’s Cosmopolitan Hotel” and that “25ft. of the frontage from the hotel property in Bell-street are required for railway purposes”. In February 1886 part of the building “known as the London Tavern situated in Bell-street” was advertised for sale from the estate of Eliza Thain. 

George Shaw’s application in April 1886 for renewal of the publican’s license for the Cosmopolitan Hotel was adjourned “as the house had just been removed and was only being fixed up.” Shaw was granted the license a month later. His license was renewed in 1887 and 1888, when the hotel was described as “at the corner of Union and Bell Streets”. 

Shaw had some run-ins with the law and was fined £1 for contravening the Licensing Act by opening the Cosmopolitan Hotel out of hours in 1887 and was fined again in 1888 for allowing gambling (cards) at the Cosmopolitan Hotel and for using bad language. In August 1888 an advertisement was placed for the sale of the license, good-will and furniture of Shaw’s Cosmopolitan Hotel, “opposite the new railway station” with applicants directed to the Ipswich Brewery. Despite this, Shaw was again granted the license for the Cosmopolitan Hotel in April 1889. 

On 3 July 1889, an application was made for a club license “for the premises lately occupied by George Shaw as the Cosmopolitan Hotel at the corner of Bell and Union Streets” to be registered as the Cosmopolitan Club. Shaw was to be the manager or steward, there would be club rules for members, and the club’s purpose was “to provide accommodation, meat, drink and amusements for members”. The building was “made of wood and iron and contained sixteen or seventeen rooms” including a dining room and a large room with a piano. Its hotel license had expired. The application was adjourned that day pending evidence from some club members. The hearing was resumed on 5 July, but the Bench refused the application on the grounds that it failed to comply with the Liquor Act.  

On 9 July 1889, William Thain advertised that “those commodious premises formerly known as the Cosmopolitan Hotel” were available to Let by tender and that it was “well-suited for a boarding house”. This appears to mark the end of the Crown Inn (and its subsequent iterations) as a hotel. The 1918 Block Map of Ipswich shows the site occupied by a two-story building operating as a boarding house called “Clifton House”, with the top floor of the adjoining building also a boarding house. These were brick buildings, so the old wood and iron hotel building had been replaced or reconstructed by this time. 

Today, the site of the Crown Inn is occupied by the T. J. Ryan House building constructed in 1987.