Adelaide Central Market Historic Pub-crawl - DRAFT 8 July 2026 For review only, not for distribution Adelaide's Central City Market was founded in 1870 by the Adelaide Corporation (aka Council), principally as a retail fruit-and-veg and general produce market to service the western side of the city. At first comprising just two open sheds on Gouger Street (see the photographs below), the market was progressively extended to Grote Street in 1889; shops and decorative brick facades were built on Grote Street in 1900 and Gouger Street in 1906, and the original Market Arcade added in 1916. The market was upgraded and its name changed to the "Central Market" in August 1965. In December 2019 the Adelaide City Council announced a major redevelopment of the Market precinct, planned to be completed sometime soon-ish. The market was opened officially on the morning of 22 January 1870. After the ceremony itself, various dignitaries adjourned for breakfast, champagne and celebratory speeches, not to a marquee erected on the market grounds nor to the Town Hall but to the nearby Metropolitan Hotel...perhaps the first Central Market Historic Pub-crawl? [From the Evening Journal, 22 January 1870, p.2; click image above for a complete account of the opening of the Market] • • • For more on the history of the Central Market, see: Peter Bell, "Central Market"", SA History Hub, History Trust of South Australia (2010) [Patricia Sumerling?], "The Central Market, City of Adelaide Heritage Study, Volume 1, October 1990 Catherine Murphy and Rossa Matto, The Market: Stories, History and Recipes from the Adelaide Central Market, Wakefield Press, 2003 The Central Market Historic Pub-crawl is a guide to the (sites of) the eight closest pubs to Adelaide's historic Central Market, three of which are still trading (2025). The complete pub-crawl is a comfortable 2km walk and should take less than an hour plus drinking-time etc. The guide is designed to be printed double-sided on A4 paper and in colour. It is freely downloadable for non-commercial purposes. Click on the image on the left to open the guide (approx. 5MB) in a new window. The Central Market Historic Pub-crawl should also be available at the Metropolitan Hotel...which is a really good place to start and finish an historic pub-crawl around Adelaide's Central Market. The Central Market and nearby pubs: 1865, 1870, 1885, 1900, 1936 An aerial photographic survey Part of Duryea's composite panorama of Adelaide photographed from the GPO tower, 1865 [State Library of South Australia B-5099; click to enlarge] Part of Duryea's panorama of Adelaide, 1870 [State Library of South Australia B-16004-7; click to enlarge] Unattributed panoramic view of south-west Adelaide from the GPO tower, c1885 [State Library of South Australia B-9130] Part of Ernest Gall's panorama of Adelaide, c.1900 [State Library of South Australia PRG 631/2/201; click to enlarge] D Darian Smith's aerial photograph of the Central Market, c.1935 [State Library of South Australia BRG-397-2-199A-9; click to enlarge] The Metropolitan Hotel, 1858-

Detail of an aerial view of Adelaide showing the western side the original Metropolitant Hotel (highlighted) in 1875 [SLSA B 1452; click to enlarge]

The original Metropolitan Hotel and John Penaluna (1822-1882) Founder, landlord of the Metro...and ex-'convict exile' John Penaluna was the founder of the original Metropolitan Hotel, then on the eastern corner of Grote Street with what became Penaluna Place. There are multiple possible "John Penaluna"s; however the following is, I believe, the most likely story of John Penaluna and the founding of the Metropolitan Hotel...but I could easily be wrong. What follows is broadly consistent with David Bailey's Facebook post (24 September 2022) on the Metropolitan Hotel; well researched, recommended. Ben Lawrence has a useful summary of the 'history' of the pub on his Beer Adelaide site. The John Penaluna of the Metro pub was born to Richard and Jane (neé Martine) on 7 July 1822, in Wendron, Cornwall, UK. The 1841 UK census lists Richard Penaluna and two of his sons, John and Henry both "15" [+/- 5 years], as masons or stone-cutters, living in "Menorlue" near Wendron in Cornwall. In/by March 1847 John Penaluna married Ann Dunstan (1822-1913), also from Wendron. Depression in the Cornish tin and copper mining industries during the 1840s resulted in widespread poverty, social unrest and emigration, both voluntary and otherwise, to Australia. On 19 October 1847, the magistrates of the Bodmin Quarter Sessions in Cornwall convicted Penaluna of stealing two pigs valued at £4; because this was his second offence, Penaluna was sentenced to seven years transportation to the Australian penal colonies. Mostly because he had served a substantial part of his sentence in prison by the time he left Britain, probably because of good behavior, possibly because his trade - mason/builder - was in high demand in the colonies but almost certainly because the colonial authorities didn't want the financial burden, Penaluna left England as a "convict exile" with assurance of a "ticket of leave" on or soon after arrival in Australia. The Ticket of Leave was an early form of parole that meant that Penaluna and his co-exiles lived independently, could work for wages or establish businesses and acquire property, technically on condition that they lived within a specified district and reported regularly to a magistrate. John Penaluna and another 296 convict exiles departed Spithead near Portsmouth on 7 January 1850 aboard the Bangalore, arriving at Moreton Bay/Brisbane, then still part of New South Wales, on 30 April 1850. He formally received his Ticket of Leave by 10 September 1850. Coincidentally, all transportation to New South Wales - including of convict exiles - was officially abolished just a few weeks later, on 1 October 1850, which meant that Penaluna was effectively if unofficially free and unlikely to be pursued by the authorities, especially in South Australia which was not a "convict" colony. There is some evidence that Penaluna was granted a full pardon a few years later. It is likely that John's wife Ann, possibly pregnant, accompanied him on the Bangalore.) By the end of 1850 John and Ann Penaluna and daughter had travelled to South Australia probably to join both John's and Ann's parents who emigrated to the Province a few years earlier, possibly attracted by opportunities at the copper mines of Burra or Kapunda. There is some evidence that John Penaluna also spent a short time in 'Burra Burra' in late 1850 but, after that, mostly in or adjoining Grote Street, Adelaide. "Penaluna, J., mason, Grote Street [Adelaide]" is listed in the South Australian Almanack and General Colonial Directories for 1850 and 1851, possibly occupying property on Town Acre 307 rented by his parents. The Metropolitan Hotel of 1858 On 16 September 1851 John Penaluna acquired part of Town Acre 307 from John Crabb Verco for £175 [ Memorial 466/35 State Records SA GRS/12154/1/70], apparently funding the purchase and development of the site by mortgaging the property to Captain Edward Moore of Her Majesty's Eleventh Regiment for £350, on 17 October 1851 and to be repaid within four years [ Memorial 436/36 State Records SA GRS/12154/1/72]; the mortgage was discharged on 13 October 1854 [Memorial 498/75]. Penaluna's property initially comprised four contiguous allotments on Grote Street and along a private road (later Penaluna Place). Just a few months later, on 20 January 1852, the the City of Adelaide assessor listed Penaluna's properties, including a "4 roomed two story brick house and cellar" on Grote Street and a neighbouring "2 room brick house". Detail from the Adelaide City Council Assessment Book, 1850, assessed on 20 January 1852; click to enlarge assess At about the time Penaluna first applied for a publican's license in late 1858, the Assessment Book for 1859 described the two buildings with frontages on Grote Street as "2 houses now [combined] as one [of] 8 rooms". The assessment adopted in late 1859 described this single building simply as an "Inn", in later years named as the "Metropolitan Hotel". The earliest photographs of the back of the Metropolitan Hotel in about 1865 and 1870 (see below) also indicate that the original pub was an amalgamation of the two "houses" on Grote Street, one having a hip roof with galvanised iron, the other a simple gable with slate or shingle roofing. Detail of Duryea's panorama of Adelaide showing the back of the Metropolitant Hotel in 1865 [SLSA B 5099/9; click to enlarge] At about the time he was converting the two houses into one pub, John Penaluna applied for a Publicans' General Licence which, on 13 September 1858 the Bench of Magistrates refused because of "the house not being fitted up with a bar", that is the building was unfinished [South Australian Register, 14 September 1858, p.3]. At its next meeting, on 13 December, after Penaluma submitted a "numerously and respectably signed memorial", the Bench granted the license without opposition [South Australian Register, 14 December 1858, p.3]. The Metropolitan Hotel has remained continuously licensed since. Why Penaluna, without prior experience in the trade, became a publican when many, more experienced licensed victuallers were facing insolvency (in 1856-1857 14 of 68 insolvents were or had previously been publicans, by far the largest group [Register, 4 August 1857, p.3]), is a mystery. Nevertheless he held a license for the Metropolitan Hotel from December 1858 to March 1871. Over this 12-year tenure, as far as I have been able to determine, Petaluna was not prosecuted for even a single minor transgression of the increasingly complex and onerous licensing legislation. Under Penaluna's management the "Old" Metropolitan Hotel seems to have been a quiet, modest and respectable hotel that did not attract 'colourful' characters or the attention of the local constabulary.

Tenders invited for alterations to the Mentropolitan Hotel, January 1871 [Evening Journal, 14 January 1871, p.4; click to enlarge] These undefined modifications to the 'old' Metro coincided with Penaluna's 'retirement'. About this time the architect, Daniel Garlick, had just 'built' the Lion Brewery in North Adelaide.

Advertisement for the Metropolitan Hotel Assembly Room, 1879 [Frearson's Weekly Illustrated [Adelaide], 1 February 1879, p.390; click to enlarge]

Location and plan of the Metropolitan Hotel, 1880 [Adelaide City Archives, Smith's Survey, above: Field Book 8, p.36; below: Smith's Survey, South Adelaide, Sheet 49]

• • •

From John Penaluna's 'retirement' in March 1871 until his death on 14 December 1882 and the subsequent transfer of the property to the executors of his will effectively in January 1883, the original Metropolitan Hotel had 6 licensees (a list of owners and publicans of the Metropolitan Hotel, 1858-c1960, is here). Interestingly, on 24 July 1878 Penaluna leased the hotel to brewers William Beaglehole and James Johnston, the founders of the Lion Brewery, for six years from December 1878, that is until the end of 1882 [Memorial 185/310], coincidentally about the time of Penaluna's death.

An interesting bit of trivia? Mr Peneluna's[sic] invitation to the opening banquet of the Town Hall, Adelaide, 20 June 1866 [SLSA B 5549-1; click to enlarge]

The executors of Penaluna's will - his son, Benjamin John Horatio Penaluna, an accountant and later insurance broker, and William Dunstan Thomas, grocer/baker in Grenfell Street - declined to re-lease the hotel and from the end of 1882 until March 1884 installed a number of what seems to have been short-term "caretaker" licensees, while they purchased vacant land on the adjoining Town Acre 308 and started building a new hotel. In early December 1883 the stock-in-trade and furniture of the Metropolitan Hotel was auctioned, effectively ending it as a functioning hotel and in March 1884 the license for the Metropolitan Hotel was transferred to the new hotel. The "premises at present occupied by the [old] Metropolitan Hotel...suitable as a store or boarding house" were leased, but not sold until May 1906, perhaps not coincidentally just after a local option poll in Adelaide prevented it from re-opening as a pub. In April 1909 the Metropolitan Hotel built and licensed by John Penaluna was demolished. The Metropolitan Hotel of 1883-84 The current Metropolitan hotel was one of the last - arguably the second-to-last - pubs newly built and licensed in Adelaide for the next century and at a time when hotel owners and publicans were experiencing unprecedented financial, political, regulatory and competitive challenges. So - as can be asked also of the owners of the rebuilt Orient, Overway Bridge, Sturt Arcade, and Black Swan pubs and the new Selbourne Hotel - having closed the original pub, why did Penaluna's executors build and license a new hotel? Two factors I believe influenced the building of what is now known as the Metropoloitan Hotel: the management of Penaluna's estate and breweries, specifically the West End Brewery. Firstly, John Penaluna's will directed his executors to sell his real assets in the City of Adelaide - which included the original Metropolitan Hotel - and to reinvest those funds broadly to protect the financial interests of his wife, four daughters and son. For Penaluna's trustees and beneficiaries the acquisition and development of the vacant block on the corner of Grote and Pitt Streets immediately across from the expanding Central Market would have been a sound long-term investment and entirely consistent with Penaluna's will. Hence, on 14 August 1883 Benjamin Penaluna and William Thomas purchased the block for £5500 from builder, merchant, investor and politician Philip Santo [Land Services Group, Certificate of Title 195/189, 3 September 1874; Memorandum of Transfer 165118, 14 August 1883]. An example of a classic mid-Victorian Adelaide hotel: the Langham Hotel (previously the City Market) in Gouger Street, c.1910. At its opening the Chairman of the Licensing Bench described the City Market Hotel as "just the description of hotel that the Licensing Bench desired to see erected in the city." [Private collection] Location of 'Part Town Acre 308' [Land Services Group, Certificate of Title 195/189, 3 September 1874] The Penalunas after 1884 Although Penaluna family and its decendants owned the Meropolitan Hotel from 1883 until 1979, they did not license it or any other hotel in their own right; the Penalunas were not a dynasty of 'publicans'. Ann Penaluna died on 23 June 1913. Benjamin pre-deceased his mother on 20 March 1912. His four sisters had all died by November 1943. Just because the Penalunas owned the original Metropolitan Hotel, the development of the site as a new hotel was by no means inevitable. However, the opening in September 1880 and subsequent success of the City Market Hotel (later Langham) in nearby Gouger Street demonstrated the potential for a comparable, accommodation-focussed replacement for the aging Metropolitan Hotel; the City Hotel also set the standard in accommodation and facilities against which a new Metropolitan would have to conform. There was certainly some interest in building a hotel on the site from early 1883, well before Penaluna's executors purchased the property. On 15 March 1883, presumably with Santo's agreement, Richard George deposited "plans of an hotel proposed to be erected on Part Acre 308 Adelaide, corner of Pitt and Grote streets, to be called George's Family Hotel, and for which I intend in due course to apply for a Publican's [and billiard] Licence"; the proposed hotel was described as "a fairly-sized family hotel to contain about twenty-five rooms and to be erected at a cost of between £5,000 and £6,000" (see below). Deposit of plans for George's Family Hotel, 15 March 1883 [Weekly Chronicle, 24 March 1883, p.1] The Licensing Bench hearing on R George's application, 12 June 1883 [Register, 13 June 1883, p.2] The Adelaide Licensing Bench on 13 June 1883 denied George's application for a publican's license for a 'new house' on the grounds that the Bristol Tavern [Hotel Franklin] was sufficient to supply the wants of the neighbourhood and that the proposed building was too small for a family hotel. Agreeing with the Police Inspector's usual objection that new hotels were "not required for the accommodation of the public" the Bench rejected all seven other applications for new hotels in Adelaide and the metropolitan area at this sitting, including an application for a new hotel on Halifax Street by John Philip Lee who was later the lessee and then licensee of the new Metropolitan Hotel. Robert George did not reapply and in June 1884 was granted a temporary licence for the Aldinga Hotel. Despite the failure of George's application and, by implication, any future proposal for a new pub, in mid-August 1883 the architect Frederick Danker invited tenders for "an [un-named] hotel of twenty-five rooms in Grote Street". According to the Adelaide City Council's Return...of Notices Received for Building Works..., 1885-1895. the successful contractor was Nicholas Wallis Trudgen, well-known builder, politician, Methodist and one of J J Pascoe's "representative men" of Adelaide. By 14 September 1883 the City Surveyor had approved plans to erect the named "Metropolitan Hotel" on the site, valued at £2500. A week later, on 22 September 1883 and therefore well before the hotel was built, the brewer William Knox Simms mortgaged and leased the property from Penaluna's executors; the lease was for 7 years and 11 weeks, from 19 December 1883. On 24 December 1883 Simms sub-leased the property to publican and 'founder' of several suburban pubs, John Philip Lee. Lee effectively became the manager - but not yet licensee - of the new Metropolitan Hotel. Perhaps illustrating the confusion surrounding some of its deliberations, on 11 March 1884 the Licensing Bench renewed Lee's license for the Lion Hotel in North Adelaide, owned by rival brewer Henry Beaglehole, despite having awarded James Albert Ellery a certificate (temporary license) for the same pub on 5 March. Exactly when the new hotel was complete is unknown. That the stock-in-trade, furniture, etc of the old hotel was sold in December 1883 implies that at least the initial phase of the new hotel must have finished at least by the end of that year or in early 1884, in time for the Annual [March] Meeting of the Adelaide Licensing Bench. Tender for the erection of an un-named hotel in Grote Street, August 1883 [Express and Telegraph, 16 August 1883, p.1] Presumably to avoid opposition to a new license application by the Police Inspector or by the licensees of competitive pubs, on 21 February 1883 Penaluna's lessee, Thomas Brett, applied not only for a general publican's license (with billiard table license) for the old hotel but also to "remove [the] license to other premises", that is to transfer the license to the new Metropolitan Hotel. The license was therefore not for a 'new house' and consequently potentially "not required", but rather 'continuing'. On 11 March the Adelaide Licensing Bench granted both, the only opposition - rejected - coming from Robert George on the grounds that "the house was not good enough for the position...[However] it was shown that the new establishment was much better than the old one" [Evening Journal, 12 March 1884 p.3]. The "New Metropolitan Hotel" opened on the evening of Monday 24 March 1884. Unlike similar new hotels such as the City Market/Langham, there was no grand public ceremony, nor, as far a I have been able to determine, any description in the local press or trade publications. However, the "New Metropolitan Hotel Billiard Room" was opened on 15 April 1884 with a well attended exhibition billiard match featuring Herman Albers, the South Australian champion, and a new, adjustable Allcock billiard table [Evening Journal, 19 April 1884, p.5] On 9 September the license was transferred from Brett to Lee, effectively completing the transition from the 'old' to the 'new' pub, despite, in April 1884, Lee's legal dispute with W K Simms & Co over the cost of his beer and Lee's subsequent resignation from the Licensed Victuallers' Association. Advertisement for opening of the 'New: Metropolitan Hotel, 24 March 1884 [Register, 22 March 1884, p.7] Murphy's Metropolitan Hotel, c.1891 The apparently vacant block to the right of the pub was used for stables and other outbuildings [State Library of South Australia BRG 400/1/76; click image to enlarge] The Metropolitan Hotel of 1909

Alfred Wells, architect [Express and Telegraph, 14 January 1905, p.5; click for full image]

In March 1908 Edwin Weidenbach took out a 15 year lease on the Metropolitan [LSG CT 781/165]. Probably with funding underwritten by the Penaluna estate, in the following October Weidenbach submitted architectural plans for major additions to the pub. According to the registers of plans submitted to the municipal building surveyors and the Council and local board of health in August-September 1908, the additions were for "shops and living accommodation" valued at £1850, increasing the number of bedrooms to 40 and almost doubling the Grote Street frontage of the pub. Subsequently, in October 1909, the architect Alfred Wells tendered for "additions to the Metropolitan Hotel". Tender for additions to the Metropolitan, October 1908 [Register, 6 October 1908, p.2] There is some admittedly circumstantial evidence that the additions of 1909 were part of Danker's original plan of 1883 and that Penaluna's executors and/or lessees postponed making further investments in the hotel during the uncertainties of brewery amalgamations and acquisition of many City hotels from the 1880s, the Temperance movement and Local Option campaigns from the 1890s and, above all, the tightening of credit during the depression of the 1890s. However, by 1909, as one contemporary reported, "at the time of its erection the [1883] hotel was considered ample for all needs, but this proved to be a mistake, for with the advancing years the demand for accommodation has increased to such an extent that it has been found necessary to add 15 extra bedrooms" [Register, 6 April 1909, p.4]. Significantly the main additions in 1909 were bedrooms and bathrooms on the first floor and two shops separate from the pub on the ground; significantly also, the plan did not include additional places for the sale and/or consumption of alcohol...yet. The successful contractor appears to have been Charles Henry Martin (an obituary for whom is here). The building was completed in or soon after April 1909 when, according to the correspondant from the Register, "numerous other improvements and alterations, including the construction of a verandah and balcony are being carried out and when all of these shall have been completed the lessee (Mr. E. Weidenbach) will have a house thoroughly in keeping with this progressive portion of the city" [Register, 6 April 1909, p.4]. The Assessment Book for the City of Adelaide approved on 22 November 1909 lists the properties, separately, as "Shop" And "Hotel" with rateable values of £100 and £500 respectively, almost double the value of the assessment of December 1908. In early June 1909 a sub-contractor, Thomas(?) Green, advertised for a "painter wanted for kalsomining" at the Metropolitan Hotel [Advertiser, 8 June 1909, p.12], suggesting the the building was finished probably by late June or early July, by which time one of the shops had been occupied. Shops unrelated to the 'trade' were not unusual in the late nineteenth and early to mid- twentieth century, especially in pubs on major thoroughfares. This included, for examples, barbers (White Hart), tobacconists (Rundle), milk bar (Victoria), a milliner (Red Lion) and a laundry service (Plough & Harrow). On 29 May 1909 the shop on the south-eastern corner of the extended Metro was subleased for seven years to John Abraham Michaels and Thomas Paleas George who, by early June had opened the a restaurant and oyster bar. By September 1909 the focus of the shop, now Michael & George's Metropolitan Fish Shop, was retailing "Fresh Fish of all kinds at [the] right prices" [Advertiser, 8 September 1909, p.2]. It seems that the fish shop was also unsuccessful and, on 10 February 1910, the lease was transferred to Richard Moore, the new licensee of the pub. There is some evidence that from March 1910 to July 1916 Moore used this shop as another bar, possibly boasting the longest bar in Adelaide. Since then the shop has been used for various other mostly pub-unrelated purposes, including, Podromas Constantine's restaurant for most of the the 1920 and 1930s and in the late 1960s as a florist's shop (see photograph below). The second 'shop' was initially a dedicated bottle shop. As was required by the Licensing Act of 1908, in June 1909 the licensee Edwin Weidenbach was granted a license for an 'additional bar' for the 'sale or supply of liquor', very likely for the "bottle department" as shown on the plan of the Metropolitan Hotel in 1928. Consequently, in July 1909 Weidenbach advertised for a "young lady", presumably a registered barmaid, specifically for the bottle department. Interestingly from December 1924 to March 1930 the small shop was sublet to The English Scottish & Australian Bank although it is unlikely that it was occupied by the bank. Advertisement for the Michaels & George restaurant and oyster bar, July 1909 [Quiz, 2 July 1909, p.7] - on the south-eastern corner of the pub Advertisement seeking "Young Lady for bottle department", July 1909 [Advertiser, 19 July 1909, p.12; click to enlarge] Advertisement for the Metropolitan Hotel, "N.B. up-to-date Bottle Department", July 1910 [Southern Cross, 15 July 1910, p.19; click to enlarge] ...and a Heritage public urinal? In late July 1909 Adelaide's Town Clery tendered for "A Public Convenience, Pitt Street, at rear of Metropolitan Hotel" on land that, on 23 September 1909, the Corporation leased for 21 years from the Penaluna estate and Edwin Weidenbach. The work was completed by the end of November 1909. Although now used for storage, the urinal survives in the north-western corner of the Metropolitan, a memorial to one of the unacknowledged services pubs rendered to the general public. • • • On 13 April 1920 the Adelaide (Midlands) Licensing Court took evidence on the "redundancy of hotels...within the four squares of Adelaide" and to show cause why licenses should be renewed, including that of the Metropolitan Hotel. (The Licensing Court inquiries into the redundancy of hotels, 1918-1921 and, unrelated, Local Option polls are complex topics that I hope to address elsewhere.) Ethel Bartrum [then licensee] of the Metropolitan Hotel stated that the tariff was 8/- a day. Inspector Smedley [showed] that there were 16 bedrooms [for the public] in which there were 22 beds. Since March 1909 there had been four convictions but none against the present licensee. From January 1 1919 to February 29 1920, there have been 7138 persons accommodated. [Daily Herald, 14 April 1920, p.1] This represented an occupancy rate of approximately 76%, compared to 69% for Adelaide's premier hotel, the Hotel South Australia on North Terrace. In October 1921 the Licensing Court refused to accept applications for eleven pubs in Adelaide. Fortunately the Metro was not one of them. • • • From 1909 to 1928 changes to the Metropolitan seem to have been minor, incremental and mostly internal. According to the Adelaide City Council building records the architect Alfred Wells applied for building approvals for extensions to the hotel's cellar (September 1910), bar fit-out (June 1912) and changes to the balcony and verandah, presumably the addition of the wide verandah on Grote Street (May 1913). Interestingly, except for Dick Moore's conversion of the shop into reputedly the longest bar in the City in about 1910 - well before the introduction of six o'clock closing in 1916 - there seems to have been no changes specifically to facilitate the "six o'clock swill". Given the popular myth that even the external walls of pubs were tiled to allow hosing off of the bodily excesses of drinkers, it is also interesting that on 14 November 1927 the Adelaide City Council approved plans for changes to "building lines", the partial tiling of the main external walls of the pub, for which the contractor was L H Martin [ACC Archives, Register of Plans, July 1924 - Dec 1935]. The tiles can be seen in enlarged photographs of the pub in 1928 and 1967 below; they have since been removed. Paddon's Metropolitan Hotel, 1924 [State Library of South Australia B 2389; click image to enlarge] By January 1922 the Metropolitan Hotel was, according to a tender for its leashold "admittedly one of the leading hotels in the city..." ...commanding a large and lucrative business, is centrally situated, attractive, and possessing possibilities of farther expansion of business, by reason of its situation in the midst of a rapidly growing business centre. The Hotel will be leased as a FREE HOUSE. [Register, 28 January 1922, p.3] A similar advertisement in February 1925 claimed that The Metropolitan Hotel ["an ABSOLUTELY FREE HOUSE"] is one of the best-known Hotels in the City of Adelaide, It has for a great number of years, and still commands, one of the biggest bar trades in the city. It is most favourably situated for the bar trade, being at the corner of Grote and Pitt streets, and right opposite the Great Central Market. The Hotel is in first-class order, and has recently been refurbished throughout with modern and artistic furniture, and is in every respect a first-class hotel, both for bar and residential trade. Besides the trade in the bar (which is exceptionally good), there is an up-to-date Bottle Department, with a turnover exceeded by few city houses. [Register, 28 January 1922, p.3] ...and again in October 1925 [The Hotel Metropolitan] has undergone a thorough renovation since occupiied by Mr. Gordon Dryer, as well as being completely refurnished. Mr. Dryer is making a speciality of accommodation and meals at the "Met." There is close on 40 good, airy, clean, well-furnished bedrooms, also sitting and smoking rooms, so everything has the nature of a comfortable, cosy home from home about it. All the latest conveniences have been installed and a splendid wireless set with receivers in the front and saloon bars are always in use when broadcasting is on. Mr. Dryer was one of the first publicans in the State to have the wireless, so all the latest sporting news is always available. The bottle department is replete with every brand of ales, wines and spirits, and as this hostelry is close to all places of amusement and the markets, and the trams pass the door regularly, it has deservedly become one of the most popular resorts in the city.[Sport, 2 October 1925, p.12] In June 1928 the architectural firm of McMichael & Harris tendered for additions, mostly to bedrooms, bathrooms and the kitchen. The successful contractor was W T Collyer; the changes, approved in August 1928, were valued at £1282 [ACC Archives, Register of Plans, July 1924 - Dec 1935]. Apart from similar internal alterations approved in December 1950 and valued at £850 [ACC Archives, Register of Plans, 1 July 1936 - 31 Dec 1956] and according to the plan (below) of proposed additions to the Metropolitan Hotel approved by the Licensing Court, there were no further major changes to the hotel until at least 1962. Tender for additions to the Metropolitan, June 1928 [Register, 13 June 1928, p.2] Advertisement for L H Martin, tiler of the Metropolitan Hotel, December 1928 [Sport, 13 December 1928, p.21] Plan of proposed additions to the Metropolitan Hotel, 1928 [SRSA GRG67/34/00000/281; click to enlarge (26MB)] This plan, itself based on the 1909 building, appears to have been used for minor changes until at least 1962 Dreyer's Metropolitan Hotel, c.1928 Note the glazed tiles at the front of the hotel. Those are not flag poles on the roof of the pub, but very probably a "wireless" radio antenna. The then-commercial radio station 5CL began broadcasting on 27 November 1924, followed by 5DN on 24 February 1925. Probably more important for the "punters" at the Metropolitan as well as other pubs, in 1924 5CL's Arnold 'Ike' Treloar broadcast a horse race for the first time in Australia and probably in the world; this had major implications for illegal gambling, much of which occurred in pubs on Saturday afternoons. The first radio broadcast of an Australian rules football match was in 1925. [State Library of South Australia B 9592; click image to enlarge] The Metropolitan Hotel, 1967 [State Library of South Australia B 17612; click image to enlarge] • • •

Advertisement for the 'old' Metropolitan Hotel, January 1883 [Frearson's Weekly Illustrated , 6 January 1883, p.775; click to enlarge]

Advertisement for the Metropolitan Hotel, including "the largest bar in South Australia" attended by "four live men", 1912 [Daily Herald, 4 October 1912, p.1; click to enlarge]

Advertisement for the Metropolitan Hotel, 1913-1915 [Sport, 9 July 1915, p.2; click to enlarge; poor original]

Advertisement for (Gordon) Dreyer's Metropolitan Hotel, October 1926 [Sport, 22 October 1926, p.6; click to enlarge]

		Owners and publicans of the Metropolitan Hotel, 1858-c1960 Over its first hundred or so years, the Metropolitan Hotel had just 'one' owner: John Penaluna and his estate although, by 1980, his beneficiaries' interests in the properties were measured in "undivided 240ths parts". Despite its connections with initially the Lion Brewery and later the Walkerville Brewing Company/South Australian Brewing Company, at no time was the pub owned by any brewery. From 1858 until 1962 there were 27 licensees with an average tenure of 40 months. The longest serving licensee for the 'old' Metropolitant Hotel was John Penaluna himself (approx. 148 months) and, for the 'new' pub, Gordon Dreyer served about 216 months and with his brother, Stanley Dreyer, over 20 years. Reflecting the increasing corporatisation of the trade, from 1947 until 1962 and presumably beyond, the pub was leased to the Metropolitan Hotel Ltd which appointed managers who held the license for the pub on behalf of the company. A list of the owners, historically significant lessees and licensees of the Metro, 1858-c1960, is here. Left: Dansey Murphy, amateur thespian and licensee of the Metropolitan, 1891-1892 [Quiz and the Lantern, 7 April 1898, p.8; click image to enlarge] Phyllis Sexton/Smerdon One of only three female licensees to 1962 [Mail, 14 August 1950] Selected publicans of the "Met" Edwin Weidenbach (1851-1927), publican and long-term lessee of the Metropolitan Hotel Edwin Weidenbach, nd [Private Collection (Peter S)] "Mr. Edwin Weidenbach, a well-known South Australian, died at his residence at Glen Osmond, on Monday at the age of 75 years. He was a son of the late Mr. Moritz Weidenbach, and was born in a valley at the back of Glen Osmond while his father was 'trying his luck' at the Victorian gold diggings. Fortune smiled upon him, and on his return to South Australia he purchased land close to his home, where he subsequently established a nursery. This, he afterwards disposed of. Young Edwin was educated at the late Rev. W. H. Mudie's school; and when he finished his studies he went to Birdwood where he entered the store-keeping business of P. Pflaum & Co. Later on he came to Adelaide, and joined his mother in the management of the King of Hanover Hotel, at that time one of the best known hostelries in Rundle street. The business was conducted in an 'exemplary' manner for 14 years. Then Mr. Weidenbach sold out and took a long holiday. He was, however, of a very energetic disposition, and later on became the landlord of the Globe Hotel, which was situated, at the corner of Rundle Street and Stephens place on the site now occupied by James Marshall & Co a huge, drapery emporium [now David Jones]. This hotel, which was a leading sporting house, largely patronized by supporters of the turf, Mr. Weidenbach kept for several years. He disposed of it about 1888 and shortly afterwards purchased [the lease of] the Metropolitan Hotel in Grote street. Here, by means of his knowledge of the trade, and his proverbial energy, he worked up a large and lucrative business which he controlled until about 16 years ago when he retired and settled down at Glen Osmond where he had remained ever since. His principal hobby was gardening, and his main recreation motoring. He has left a widow and three daughters..." [Observer, 7 May 1927, p.11] ...and another three Metro publicans Hugh Paddon (1923-1925 ) [Chronicle, 16 May 1935, p.35] President of the Licensed Victuallers' Association of South Australia when six o'clock closing was introduced. Paddon's obituary in the Chronicle, 18 May 1929 p.35, is here. Gordon Riley Dreyer (1925-1928, 1929-1934, 1935-1944) [SLSA: PRG 280/1/38/167; photograph of West Adelaide Football Club premier team, 1922] "Hotelier and sportsman", secretary of the West Adelaide Football Club, office-holder of the Licensed Victuallers' Association of SA Stan Dreyer (with brother Gordon, 1928-1929, 1944-1947) [Sport, 10 May 1928, p.20] According to the Sport, 21 November 1929, "Stan is one of Adelaide's best known ail-round sports..." He was also Secretary and player, United Licensed Victuallers' Association Cricket Club in the 1920s and an active supporter of the West Adelaide Football Club. And a mother: Eliza Jane Dreyer (Grimm) The following is from an obituary for Mrs Dreyer Last Saturday [25 September 1926], Mrs. Eliza Jane Dreyer, one of the oldest identities of West Adelaide, died at "Grandview," South Terrace. The late Mrs. Dreyer was born at Port Lincoln 55 years ago, but when she was a small child her parents moved to Adelaide, and practically the whole of her life was spent in the western portion of the city. In 1890 she was married to the late Mr. William Dreyer [Carl Eduard Wilhelm Dreyer?], whose family settled in West Adelaide in the early fifties [1852]. Mr. and Mrs. Dreyer took over the Prince Albert Hotel in Wright Street, one of the oldest hostelries in the State, and which had been conducted by Mr. Dreyer's father. When Mr. Dreyer died in 1893 his widow carried on the business for 30 years and records on file show that for 72 years the family have held a hotel licence in the West-End. Mrs. Dreyer was one of the founders [!] of the present extensive business of the Walkerville Brewing Company. It sprang from a co-operative concern formed by a syndicate of 12 publicans, and Mrs. Dreyer was the only woman in the syndicate. It traded under the name of Clark and Co., in the building now occupied by the East Adelaide Laundry [on the north-western corner of Stephens Terrace and Eighth Avenue, Joslin]. Later on it took over another brewing firm, Ware and Co., and the name was changed to Clark, Ware and Co. Then the old Walkerville Brewery was absorbed by the firm, and it became the Walkerville Brewing Company. Of the original 12 shareholders, only Messrs. William Warren and James Wells are now alive. Mrs. Dreyer held her interest in the brewery right through, and it proved an excellent investment. She also improved the Prince Albert Hotel to a remarkable extent, bringing it from a very small edifice to one of the best hotels in West Adelaide. Two sons, Stanley and Gordon, of the Hotel Metropolitan, survive. Mrs. Dreyer will be mourned by a large circle of friends among whom she was noted for her charitable works and kindly disposition. Owing to her business interests Mrs. Dreyer did not take a prominent part in public life, but she worked ,hard on the committee of the District Nursing Association, and allied herself with many movements working on behalf of the sick and needy. [Sport, 1 October 1928, p.16] Barmaids of the Metropolitan Hotel With his wife, Ann, and four daughters, it is unlikely that John Penaluna would have needed specialised "barmaids" in the 'old' Metropolitan. A cursory Trove search suggests that the first advertisment for a "young lady for saloon" appeared in July 1887 or more specifically for a 'barmaid' for the Metropolitan Hotel in September of the same year, then once in 1889...and none thereafter(?). Who the successful applicants were - their names, ages, backgrounds, experience in other hotels and what happened to them after leaving the pub - is unknown. However, as was required by the Licensing At of 1908, in March 1909 three women registered as barmaids: Hilda Abraham and Minna Bergmann as currently working at the Metropolitan and Peggy Drayton who had worked at the Metropolitan in the pervious year, although none were employed necessarily as 'barmaids'. Currently little if anything is known about Peggy Drayton or about Hilda Abraham except that Ms Abraham likely returned to Port Pirie and by about 1912 became a barmaid at the Barrier Hotel and was still remembered over twenty uears later [The Recorder, 7 September 1935, p.3]. Minna Bergmann, however, might well have been the wife of Edwin Weidenbach, registered under her maiden name and probably as a precaution as and when her husband was not the licensee. and possibly Daisy Chard (1873-1927), champion female whistler and part-time barmaid "Daisy Chard" (Rebecca Cohen) in about 1900 On 26 February 1909 Daisy Chard (stage name of Rebecca Cohen) also applied for registration as a barmaid, working at the Young Queen Hotel in Gawler Place and previously at the Globe Hotel in Rundle Street. Ms Chard was a well know vaudeville performer, as a "serio-comic" actor and singer and famously as a "chamption female whistler", performing in a number of theatres including the Theatre Royal in Hindley Street, Empire Theatre in Grote Street and at the Metropolitan Hotel itself. The Australian Variety Theatre Archive includes a short biography and an obituary is here. Although there is no direct evidence, it is likely that Ms Chard worked as a barmaid at the Metropolitan at least intermittently in about 1910-11.

Live music and other entertainment at the Metro for almost 150 years Advertisement for the Metropolitan Hotel Concert Hall, 1878 [Express and Telegraph, 24 August 1878, p.1] Daisy Chard (see "Barmaids" above) leaving the Metropolitan, 1911 [Advertiser, 20 March 1911, p.2] The "famous theatrical house", 1946 [Sport, 24 August 1946, p.13] • • • The Empire Theatre, Grote Street, c.1927 [SLSA B 9615] Like many pubs at the time, both the "old" and the "new" Metropolitan Hotels included a room large and flexible enough for 'assemblies', lodge and other meetings, 'quadrille parties' and other dances, commemorative dinners and other functions, possibly a billiard room, possibly even dormitory-style accommodation. Not unusually, therefore, in the late 1870s licensee George Ley advertised the availability of a hall and also weekly concerts with a 'first-class pianist' (see top left). A cursory Trove search suggests that, from the early 1880s the hall seems to have been used less for entertainment and mostly for lodge- and trade union meetings and for electoral and political rallies. By the beginning of the twentieth century the pub's concert hall had been superseded by much larger professional theatres and other distractions nearby. The plan of 1928 (above) does not show a dedicated 'assembly' hall for concerts or other purposes. The reputation of the Metro as a "famous theatrical house" seems to have related more to the entertainers who lodged (and drank) there rather than performed at the hotel. From the 1880s to the 1920s the Market precinct became a centre for popular entertainment, initially circuses and menageries, later variety theatres and, from about 1909, moving pictures. Licensee George Ley was something of an impresario. As well as promoting weekly concerts, on 9 November 1878 he requested leave from the City Council "to use a vacant piece of ground at [the north-western corner of] the Central Market...for Ashton's Circus" [Express and Telegraph, 13 November 1878, p.3], almost directly opposite the hotel on Grote Street. This location was subsequently used by at least six other circuses from 1879 to 1908. From at least 1879 to 1886 Ley and later licensees were granted permits for extended trading hours during circus seasons [South Australian Government Gazette, in passim,1879-1886]. From about 1909 the hotel was also patronised by audiences and performers from several theatres that had been built nearby. On July 1925, for example, a newspaper listed three members of William Anderson's Dramatic Company as residents of the hotel [Sport, 3 July 1925, p.6]. The Empire Theatre, a dedicated vaudeville/variety theatre and later cinema, was opened on April 10 1909 approximately on the site previously used by the circuses; although its facade remains, the theatre closed in 1948. King's Theatre on the corner of King William and Carrington Streets opened again as a variety theatre in February 1911 and the Lyric [Picture] Theatre in Grote Street in December 1911. Most significantly, in September 1913 the Princess/[New] Tivoli.../Her Majesty's Theatre was opened adjacent to the Metropolitan across Pitt Street. and continues to be a tangible link between the Metropolitan Hotel and live entertainment. The South Australian Builders' Labourers' Union founded at the Metro, 1883 Notice of a meeting for builders' labourers, 6 January 1883 [Express and Telegraph, 24 August 1878, p.1] Founding[?] of the Builders' Labourers' Society, 9 January 1883 [Evening Journal, 11 January 1883, p.2] On 6 January 1883 A Muller convened a meeting of local builders' labourers apparently to set up the Builders' Labourers' Society, forerunner of the Builders' Labourer's Union (see left)). Although the notice for the meeting does not mention the venue it was the Metropolitan Hotel, presumably in the 'lodgeroom'. According to James Murphy's perhaps unreliable recollections, when the recently established United Labourers' Union enrolled fruit-pickers as well as unskilled 'pick and shovel men', "some of the old members of the hod-carriers called a separate meeting at the Metropolitan Hotel, and set up the organistion now known as the Builders' Labourers' Union" [Daily Herald, 1 September 1923, p.4]. Subsequent meetings confirmed the formation of the Society and collection of fees ("calling in of pence-books") on 9 January [Evening Journal, 11 January 1883, p.2]; for the passing of working rules on 7 February [Register, 9 February 1883, p.5]; for the election of officers on 28 February [Evening Journal, 24 February 1883, p.1]; and several others related to undefined "important business", the adoption of new rules and subscriptions to a fund the Society's banner. These meetings were held at the Metropolitan until December 1883 when it was announced that, for reasons unknown, the weekly meetings of the Adelaide Builders' Labourer's Society would be held at the Sir John Barleycorn Hotel in Rundle Street. First South Australian Rubgy Union Football Club founded at the Metro, 1884 Meeting to form a Rugby Union Football Club [Express and Telegraph, 18 July 1884, p.2] Report of the inaugural General Meeting of the Rugby Union Football Club [Advertiser, 31 July 1884, p.6] Meeting to form a Rugby Union Football Club [Express and Telegraph, 29 July 1884, p.2] The first Rugby Union Football Club was founded formally at the [new?] Metropolitan Hotel on 22 July 1884. A well-attended general meeting, also at the Metro, on 29 July confirmed the formation of the Club, elected office-holders, set the subscription at 10/6 per year, decided that the club colors should be black and decided to hold a practice match at Victoria Park on the following Saturday. The Club did not last long. At its poorly attended first Annual General Meeting, not held at the Metro, on 13 May 1885 the Club was wound up. "It appears that the interest manifested in the game in this colony is not sufficient to keep the club going," reported the Evening Journal, "Last year something like thirty-six gentlemen were enrolled and four matches were played with teams picked by the captain and vice-captains, fourteen a side being chosen, but owing to the lack of interest displayed it was decided to disband the club..." The next club formed seems to have been the Adelaide Rugby Football Club on 5 May 1932.

This draft 8 July 2026. The first 'final' version will be posted eventually to coincide with the opening of the new Market Square. Original content © Craig Hill 2026