The Rocks, Sydney, Australia

March 6, 2016

We left Patrick and Vivian's home and took the highway into Sydney over the Harbor Bridge.  It is a quite impressive bridge with many lanes of car, truck, train and pedestrian traffic.  It was built at a time when steel girders were used heavily and is massive.

Harbor Bridge

 

Harbor Bridge

We were heading for a section of Sydney called "The Rocks".  The Rocks is one of Sydney’s most historic areas, a favorite of tourists and locals alike. As the oldest area of Sydney, The Rocks features a wonderful mix of past and present. The Russell was one of the first hotels in the rocks and maintains an emphasis on old world charm and personable service to this day.

The Rocks was the first European settlement in Australia, established by Captain Arthur Phillip of England in 1788. Originally settled as a penal colony, convicts were tasked with the job of erecting government buildings and housing for officials. These original buildings were built using hand-made bricks or blocks of local sandstone – hence the name “The Rocks.”

The Russell Hotel

 The Russell Hotel has been restored and is still in use today.  We didn't have time to visit it, but were impressed by how nice it looked.

 We snapped this shot of the Copenhagen building as we drove by.

1841

The Lord is Sydney’s oldest continually licensed hotel still trading within its original fabric.

On 29th June 1831 a man named Richard Phillips obtained a liquor license for the Shipwright Arms on the north-east corner of Kent and Argyle streets. The next year, because of the support of the seafarers and the workers on Observatory Hill, he changed the name to The Sailor's Return. In 1838 Phillips sold to a plasterer, William Wells, who lived on the opposite corner in a two - story colonial home he built in 1836 using sandstone blocks quarried from the area at the base of Observatory Hill. Wells continued to operate the pub opposite his home firstly as the Sailors Return, and in 1840 as the Quarryman's Arms.

In 1841 he sold The Quarrymans Arms and on 1st May 1841 he obtained a liquor licence for his home, which he had been slowly converting to a Hotel since March 1840. He called the hotel The Lord Nelson. The Wells family operated the pub for the next 30 years and the property stayed in family ownership for a further 18.
A photograph of the hotel taken in 1852, during the tenure of the Wells family, was used to complete a restoration of the building to its former grandeur in 1986. 

The Brewery was then added (including the addition of the word Brewery to the façade) and a significant upgrade to the Accommodation was undertaken in the 1990’s, giving us the pub as it is today.

Old Bottle in the Brewery

 We had a nice farewell dinner at the Kepos Kitchen right across the street from Rachel's apartment. It was the place where we had breakfast the first morning we arrived in Sydney.

Patrick, Vivian, Lara and Rachel joined Gerry and me for the farewell dinner.  It was a beautiful day and we sat out side enjoying the great weather.  It is a BYOB place and we brought two nice wines to enjoy with the meal.

After dinner everyone except Rachel left and we went back to her apartment.  She had a busy day planned for Monday and so did we, so it was an early to bed night.  We were tired from all the traveling and the early night was welcome.

That was our day, how was yours?