heroofwaterloo

Downshire Street in The Rocks - GoogleMapsStreetView - goo.gl/maps/j0bdT . NB the distinctive tall chimney.

beachcomber australia Yes, well spotted, this is Downshire Street looking towards Ferry Lane. Part of the Hero of Waterloo can be seen in the distance. The trees are on Observatory Hill. I identified a similar photo by Charles Walton in the State Library of New South Wales State Library of NSW collection a few years ago -
acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=442810

See also:

FYI - a photo of the Hero of Waterloo Hotel

Where is The Secret Tunnel? www.heroofwaterloo.com.au/history.html

Was there a tunnel? Or merely a number of cellars? "There is an enduring legend that a secret tunnel from the pub's basement to a nearby wharf was used to press-gang drunken patrons onto ships looking for extra crew. It's easy to believe in ghostly tales of concealed trapdoors, shanghai-ed sailors and rum-smuggling when, perhaps after a drink or two, you visit the dimly lit maze of stone cellars beneath the hotel." - www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/hero_of_waterloo_hotel We need someone with a 'nerdy little pub history heart' to clarify - Nicole Davis agrippinamaior?

Nicole Davis will know for sure! Also - did they 'Bauhaus-ify" the exterior in 1917 too?

Sorry I've been in NZ!! From everything I've read there is no tunnel (sadly!) Just a warren of cellars underneath - but we can live in hope that will be found one day :-) Secret tunnel stories abound in so many locations. For example there was said to be a secret tunnel that ran from Madame Brussels brothel in Little Lonsdale Street to Parliament House in Melbourne - I like that story too :-) With regards to the exterior I believe it's actually stayed pretty much the same except for being painted. For example see this 1945 image: nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4655368 There are so many of these plans from between 1900 to 1940s that show planned modifications of pubs in Sydney and not all of them actually happened. Unfortunately I haven't found an interior shots from the general period - I wonder if anyone else knows?

naples?

# very attractive feature.....

Beautiful sweet memories
You are invited to post in

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That's nice

very cooooooooooool !!

Google Street view - maps.google.com.au/maps?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Sydney+... . I thought the "Hero of Waterloo' looks a bit plain nowadays. It has lost stonework from the top and those horizontal bands over the years. I wonder why. It now looks almost 'bauhaus'.

Recent photo -

And the Stevens Building (1900) next door -

Does anyone know why the building / warehouse at the end of the street lost two floors and got wider? Usually they added floors in the C19th.

The seven storey warehouse burnt down on the evening of Friday, 20 March, 1903. >>> The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 21 March 1903, pp. 11-12. <<< Keep reading, the account goes on beyond the highlighted segment. Seems to have been a spectacular fire. This of course means we've narrowed the date range for the photo: 1900 - 20/3/1903. Much narrower than the State Library of Victoria and City of Sydney Archives circa dates of 1901 and 1910.