If you’ve ever enjoyed a pre-football beverage at The Richmond Club Hotel – on any of its three levels including at the top floor courtyard bar overlooking the trains taking fans to Richmond Station – you’ll know the vibrant atmosphere at this hotel in winter.
And in the three other seasons the Richmond Club Hotel has, since 1859, been the place to meet for Richmond locals and others enjoying the buzz of Swan Street.
The hotel has been playing this role for 165 years, since Mr Edward Opie became its first licensee in 1859 under the hotel’s original name The Duke of Richmond.
The hotel kept that name until it was listed in the Sands & McDougall directory (an early precursor to the White Pages) in 1879 as The Richmond Club Hotel. It is possible the hotel was for a time known by both names.
We have historic photos of the original Richmond Club Hotel in the mid-late 1800s. A 2017 Heritage Study by the City of Yarra carried a photo of The Duke of Richmond Hotel at 100 Swan Street before the construction of the Richmond Club Hotel. It’s a remarkable image, showing not only life on Swan Street before the bridge was built, but it gives a sense of how imposing the hotel was at this time.
But what do we know about the people who ran it and what went on inside?
Through early newspaper reports we can picture the hotel in its earliest years as a central meeting spot catering to the rapidly growing township of Richmond.
As a township on the edge of the city, Richmond grew rapidly, and Swan Street – along with Bridge Road and Church Street – were at its heart. These three were the first roads laid out. Swan Street was designated a road in 1837.
The Richmond Club Hotel was well-placed as the township rapidly grew around it. In the mid-1800s Richmond was booming. Its population swelled from 4,029 in 1846 to 37,000 in 1861 as people returned from the goldfields, built houses (there were 2,700 permanent houses in Richmond in 1861), and many opened businesses on Swan Street. In the mid-1800s the street was a mix of butchers, drapers, fruiterers, tailors, shoemakers and hoteliers.
By 1862 Richmond had 36 pubs. “Most of them had been set up to cater for the diggers who flooded back to the city as the more easily won gold ran out,” noted 1988’s ‘Copping It Sweet’ by City of Richmond and Carringbush Regional Library. “Successful diggers often started a new hotel.”
The book notes that “publicans were men and women of standing in the community, despite their frequent appearances before the courts to answer various charges associated with the drinking laws, most commonly selling liquor after hours or on Sundays.”
The Richmond Club Hotel wasn’t immune from this. On 20 December 1880 the Richmond Australian reported that the “lessee of the Richmond Club Hotel was prosecuted for an offence against the Licensing Act.”
It involved members of a local cricket club overstaying one evening. The police officer told the court “he saw the defendant on Saturday morning December 6 about 12.30am let five men out of his house [the hotel]… It had been shown that the bar door was open and there was no defence to that.”
We do not know the licensee’s fate but he was spoken of as “an excellent character”.
Locals also sometimes brushed up against the law at the pub. The Leader newspaper on 21 March 1868 reported that: “A respectable-looking man named William Moore was charged with passing a valueless cheque for five pounds upon Mr Grief of the Duke of Richmond Hotel, Richmond. He pleaded unconsciousness from intoxication as an excuse, but the jury would not allow it, and found him guilty. The sentence he received was four months hard labour in gaol.”
Swan Street’s long history as a commercial centre meant it also played a central role in the social life of Richmond. This can be seen in reports of activities of all types at The Richmond Club Hotel, and its licensees were keen to let people know they were welcome.
In the Richmond Australian on 31 March 1877, an advertisement was placed by “G.H. Jamieson (late of Jamieson’s Café, Bourke Street), Proprietor.” It said: “G.H. J. has renovated the house throughout and with civility, attention and supplying a first-rate article, [and] hopes to share the patronage of the Richmond public.”
Locals responded. And, in an echo of conversations still being had today, the Richmond Guardian on 26 July 1879 reported on talk about sport at the hotel. “Football and cricket clubs will continue to meet under [our verandah’s] shadow… especially if it is Saturday night, one may hear football talked, talked without let or stint, and ‘Almas’, ‘Elmgroves’ and ‘Stanleys’ [possibly well-known players] are quoted with as much authority as shares and stocks under the verandah elsewhere.”
Over many years the hotel was a favourite for local sports clubs to meet. The Mascotte cricket club met there in November 1913 and, as noted in The Richmond Guardian, had an enjoyable evening. “It was mostly the old songs at the reunion of the Mascottes Club in the Richmond Club Hotel last Saturday night,” it reported. “And it being a gathering of old friends, who in some instances had held onto those friendships for over a quarter of a century, the songs were appropriate…. After a high tea an enjoyable convert was held and in between whiles there were several toasts.”
The Mascottes had a close connection with the pub. The hotel’s licensee Joseph Webster was the club’s vice-president. In 1896 the Richmond Guardian reported on an “enjoyable smoke night at Webster’s Richmond Club Hotel”. “A lengthy programme, consisting of songs, recitations & etc was rendered by members of the company in a highly satisfactory manner… Mr Webster generously provided a first-class table” with “ample refreshments”.
Three years later, in 1899, Joseph Webster died. The Age ran a notice that friends were invited to his funeral which would “move from his late residence, the Richmond Club Hotel” to his “place of internment” in Kew.
But it wasn’t just football and cricket teams who gathered there – all sports were welcome. On 28 March The Australasian reported that a quoits competition was to be held “on Good Friday at the Duke of Richmond.”
Pubs in Richmond in that era were a direct reflection of the times, whether they were filled in the 1850s and 1860s with boisterous miners returning from the goldfields, or hosting meetings for the Richmond Football Club (which formed in 1885) or being robbed when times and people got desperate during the depression of the early 1890s.
On 3 September 1894 The Herald reported that a burglary had taken place at the Richmond Club Hotel, Swan-street during the night of the 28th, “of which place Mrs Chown is the licensee.” “Entrance was gained by climbing the back gate and opening the storeroom with skeleton keys. The property stolen was a cask of French brandy… and a dozen bottles of claret.”
Another report, this one in The Age on 30 August 1894 and naming the pub as “Chown’s Club Hotel”, noted that “the thieves drove into the yard of the hotel” before the robbery. “About 8.30 yesterday morning the horse and vehicle were found by the police standing in a street at Fitzroy, but no trace of the thieves has been discovered.”
Swan Street was always at the heart of Richmond’s economic and social life. Its location meant the hotel oversaw huge change, from the years soon after the gold rush of the 1850s through the boom of the 1880s (when goldrush-rich “Marvellous Melbourne” was world-renowned) and through the stagnation and decline triggered by the depressions of the 1890s and 1930s.
The Richmond Club Hotel was there through all these eras, and served its customers experiencing these fluctuations in fortune. It was always there as a solid and crucial part of its community.
As well as its function as a place to meet up with friends, The Richmond Club Hotel was also the venue for official meetings. The Weekly Times of 27 August 1884 reported: “A meeting of butchers of Richmond, Prahran, South Yarra, Windsor, Hawthorn, Kew and Brighton was held at the Richmond Club Hotel on Monday with the object of forming a company… to establish a dry-air meat and cooling suite in Richmond and South Yarra, as being a centre of the districts. There were about 15 members of the trade present.”
The hotel – as with others of the era – also held a more official function as a venue for inquests, effectively acting as a courthouse. On 20 September 1899 an inquest was held into a fire at a local drapery. The day before The Herald reported on another inquest into another fire, with “a jury of seven”. The headline was: “Shop Caught Fire. How did it happen? An Inquest Today. Interesting evidence.”
The hotel was the venue for many meetings and celebrations over the years. One brought world events home to Richmond when a soldier from Melbourne having returned from active service in the Boer War (1899-1902) in South Africa shared stories about life at the front.
“A very enjoyable night was spent at the Richmond Club Hotel on Friday evening being a presentation to Mr [Albert] Hayes for his services rendered as musicians in charitable causes in and around Richmond,” reported the Richmond Guardian on 14 September 1901.
There was “a hearty welcome to his brother Mr Mat Hayes who has been on active service in South Africa and returned with the last contingents. The toast of Mr M. Hayes… was enthusiastically received, and that gentleman in responding expressed his pleasure at meeting all his old Richmond friends once more, and then gave his experiences of battle life.”
In 1907 proprietor George Telford placed an ad that his pub (whose telephone number was 3234) was “the best house in Richmond for wines, ales and spirits”.
“Patrons can depend upon being served well and treated with civility”. An added attraction was that “race telegrams [will be] posted after each race for all registered and suburban meetings”.
For the hotel an era was soon to end. In 1928 the original hotel was demolished and rebuilt into a grander structure. An article in The Herald on 10 August 1927 noted: “Another feature of the ever-changing street architecture of Greater Melbourne will be the Richmond Club Hotel, to be erected in Swan Street, Richmond, on the site of the old hotel building now being demolished.”
The article gives us an insight into the new hotel, describing much of the façade which remains today. “The new building is to be an attractive modern hotel, designed in accordance with the latest ideas in hotel development. It will have a dignified classic ‘front in store’ finish, with tile base. A spacious balcony is included in the first floor, with classic columns and ornamental wrought iron balustrading.”
It continued: “The accommodation and general arrangement will embody the latest in hotel design and equipment, and provides for a large dining room, lounges and parlours in the ground floor, with 12 bedrooms and staff rooms additional on the first floor.
“A large sitting room is also included with access to the balcony by means of full-length glass doors. The finish and fittings will be of a high standard.”
The new hotel opened the following year, and it was well-received. An article in the Richmond Guardian on 18 August 1928 reported: “The old-established Richmond Club Hotel in Swan Street, facing Lennox Street, has always enjoyed a large measure of popularity, but of late years the building has been inadequate for the business, and it has now been entirely rebuilt…. Mr Hughie Mulcahy is the new licensee.”
The article went on to describe the new building. “From an architectural point of view it is a handsome addition to Swan Street with a touch of the classic in its façade, the pillars of the roomy balconette being of the Ionic style.”
The article noted its “commodious and well-lit” bedrooms, “lofty” rooms and “woodwork of polished blackwood”. “The bar is exceptionally roomy and the handsome fittings effective, the windows being of the lead-light class, giving a nice effect to the atmosphere of the place.”
It noted the licensee’s ambitions for the new hotel. “Mr Hughie Mulcahy has entered upon the possession of the Richmond Club Hotel with the intention of making it a successful business enterprise. He has experience and capital. He is well known to all sporting people…”
The newspaper gave some detail on what was on offer in the restaurant. “The tariff at the hotel will be on a moderate scale, the meals in the dining room being served from 12 to 2 o’clock at one shilling and sixpence.
“In the bar light luncheon in the form of saveloys, hot pies and frankfurts will be served at the nominal charge of one penny, and wines and spirits will be retailed at city prices.”
In 1929, nearly 100 years since Hugh Mulcahy opened the doors of his new establishment, he ran an advertisement: “Now that the football season is commencing, before going to the match, pay a visit to Hughie Mulcahy’s.”
A century later it’s clear some things don’t change.