Liquid History - Exploring South Australia's past, a pint at a time

Thomas Cooper's 200th Anniversary Historic Pub-crawl - DRAFT GUIDE
For review only, not for distribution, incomplete and frequently changing

To commemorate the 200th anniversary of Thomas Cooper, the founder of Coopers Brewery, and to celebrate his life, we've created the "Thomas Cooper's 200th Anniversary Historic Pub-crawl" [TC200HPc]. An early version of the guide to the TC200HPc is attached below.

The Coopers Brewery website includes some biographical details on Thomas Cooper. Unfortunately there is no full biography of Thomas Cooper. The best source on his life and his legacy continues to be: Alison Painter, Tim Cooper & Rob Linn: Jolly good ale and old, Coopers Brewery 1862-2012 (2013), possibly still available from Coopers Brewery.

Thomas Cooper's 200th Anniversary Historic Pub-crawl
Version 1.4; large file, approx 23MB.

Click on the image above to view and download the current draft TC200AHPc guide (v1.4)

Posted 27 September 2026; updated 10 October 2026; original content © Craig Hill 2026

Advertisement for Coopers ale and stout, 1936
[Advertiser, 20 March 1936, p.47]

Cooper's Brewery, Upper Kensington [Leabrook], c.1890

Below, from the State Library of South Australia's photographic collection, is a "View of industrial style buildings, pictured from across a dirt road. Identified as 'Kensington', dated "Approximately 1890" and attributed to Ernest Gall. On closer inspection, the industrial buildings are Cooper's Brewery in "Upper Kensington", now Leabrook, and probably in 1888-1890. Click on the image below for the SLSA photograph.

It is possible that the figures in the doorway of the cellar/store (at right, highlighted in red; enlarged above) are Thomas Cooper (top) and John Cooper (bottom).

The photograph is consistent with an unattributed photograph of the brewery, dated 1893, reproduced on the SA History Hub site as well as Alison Painter's et al, Jolly good ale and old, Coopers Brewery 1862-2012, p.37, and also Lucy Harewood's watercolour of the brewery in 1890 (p.47). Alison's points out the telegraph pole; the brewery was connected - number 591 - to the Adelaide Central Telephone Exchange by 1891.

The advertisement for Coopers' ale and stout on the left shows the location and extent of the original Leabrook brewery (marked with a cross on the aerial photograph); click on the image to enlarge. Several aerial photographs of Coopers Brewery in 1936 - including that in the advertisement - are in the State Library's D Darian Smith collection of breweries and other businesses.

Posted 12 October 2026; original content © Craig Hill 2026

Mrs Sarah L Cooper, née Perry, (1841-1928), Thomas Cooper's second wife

From her obituary:
"The death of Mrs Sarah Louisa Cooper occurred at her residence, Stanley Street, Leabrook, on Monday [14 May 1928], in her eight-seventh year. Mrs Cooper was the widow of Mr Thomas Cooper, who founded Cooper's Brewery, at Kensington, in 1862. She was born in Wiltshire, England, in 1842 [sic] and arrived in South Australia 65 years ago. She was married to Mr Cooper in 1862 [sic, should be 1874] and there were eight children of whom three sons survive. The are Messrs Stanley R, Frederick and Chales Edward Cooper, each of Kensington. The late Mrs Cooper was very active in the home until recently, her chief occupations being sewing and cooking. She was highly respected by a wide circle of friends."

[Text and photograph from Observer, 19 May 1928, p.49; poor quality original photograph]

Thomas and Ann Cooper's Yorkshire

Map of north-western Yorkshire in 1854 [composite of National Library of Scotland, Yorkshire Sheets 167 and 168, published in 1853 and 1854]

Carlton in the early 1850s Click image to enlarge; on the enlargement, (1) shows the house in which Thomas, Ann Cooper, two children and Ann's brother most likely resided at the time of the 1851 UK census. Below is a recent photograph of the house.		Skipton in the early 1850s Click image to enlarge; on the enlargement, (2) shows the site of the [Old] Methodist Chapel in which Thomas and Ann were married in 1849; (3) Scott's Skipton Brewery, 1816-1912; (4) the original Ship Inn of which Ann's father, William Brown, was the publican until the mid-1830s; and (5) New Market Street in which Thomas and Ann lived, 1849-1850.
		[Above:] The original Ship Inn, Skipton, in about 1880. The pub, in the centre of the photograph, was demolished in 1888 to widen the corner on its right, connecting Swadford Street and Caroline Square (see map above); it was replaced by a larger public house which remained open until 1924. [Left:] Coopers' probable residence in Carlton in 2020 (6(?) New Street)