Mitre Tavern – Melbourne City Pub Tour for Seniors
Step back in time and uncover the rich history of Melbourne’s pubs on a guided walking tour specially designed for seniors. Among the highlights is the Mitre Tavern, a venue brimming with stories of colourful characters, sporting legends, and memorable events from Melbourne’s past.
Melbourne City Pub Tour
Time: 2–5pm
Cost: $60, includes a beer or wine
Limit: 10 guests per tour
Guide: Paul Daffey
More information here.
Enquiries: info@seniorsinmelbourne.com.au
Read also: Melbourne Pub Tour for Old Friends and Familiar Pubs
A Glimpse into the Past
The Mitre Tavern, one of four stops on the tour, has long been a hub of Melbourne’s social and sporting life.
In 1930, a man called H.W.N. Wilmot described some of the goings-on at the Mitre in an article for The Argus, which was then Melbourne’s major newspaper.
Wilmot’s tales revolve around the Mitre’s colourful patrons.
According to Wilmot, many patrons during the 1870s were part of the racing, hunting and coursing crowd.
Hunting involved the pursuit of foxes and rabbits while riding on horseback, with dogs leading the charge, while coursing was the proper name for the sport of racing greyhounds.
C.B. Fisher, Hurtle Fisher and Arthur Blackwood were among the leading coursing men, while George Watson is described as the “prince of starters” when it came to getting hunts under way on the fringes of Melbourne.
Watson apparently sold excellent hunting dogs to his mates – and never at full price.
Redmond Barry, the eminent judge and talisman of Melbourne’s intellectual life, was elected president of the Victorian polo club during its foundation meeting at the Mitre.
Sporting and Social Legends
Later, the Mitre became a meeting place for members of the legal and business communities.
Among the legal men, J.L. Purves – known as The Emperor – and his right-hand man Walter Coldham were regular patrons. In one instance, Purves was surrounded by a small crowd of admirers while he described his first case, in which he defended a girl for shooting her lover in Benalla.
Purves liked to describe his experiences on the hustings during campaigns to win a seat in Parliament. His friends included the pigeon shooting men William Sayer, Bill Gannon (from Sydney) and Lewis Clarke.
Every Monday, employees from the agricultural firm Dalgety and Company were supplied with five tickets that entitled them to buy lunch at the Mitre Tavern or the Mia Mia, which was the first of Melbourne’s tea rooms.
Business, Politics, and Everyday Life
According to Wilmot, many Dalgety leaders drank at the Mitre, including:
- W.G. Watson, the manager
- Edward Simmonds, the accountant, who was for so many years a member of the Liedertafel choir
- George Simpson, manager of the produce department
- Charles Bucknill, manager of the bond, in top hat and frock coat
- Edward Kenny, boon companion of Bucknill
- T.S. Huggins, who recently resigned from the secretaryship of the Royal Melbourne Golf Club
- Joseph Woolf McCheane, who had the reputation of having fished more and caught less than any other man in Melbourne.
Politicians often popped in during the morning, among them Thomas Bent when he was the Speaker and later when he was Premier. A.E. Clarke was known to drop in if there were anything that could be done to advance the prospects of the East Melbourne Cricket Club.
Characters and Clubs
Wilmot describes one particular character, Cornelius Bannister, as an athletic little man who wore his hat tilted to one side. Bannister characteristically walked into the tavern wearing a grey belltopper, a morning coat and a black tie, “followed by two cocker spaniels which never seemed to leave him”.
Of the clubs that gathered at the Mitre, a canoe club had a trophy hanging over the mantelpiece in the bar parlour, and the Melbourne Gun Club had its headquarters there.
“What tales of quail and snipe and duck shooting have been told within those old walls!” Wilmot says.
Apparently, patrons would often let forth with a “sing song”, such was the Mitre Tavern’s homely nature and the appreciative state of its patrons.
Tour details
Melbourne City Pub Tour
Tour: 2–5pm
Cost: $60, includes a beer or wine
Limit: 10 guests per tour
Accessibility: Full disabled access
More information here.
Booking enquiries: info@seniorsinmelbourne.com.au
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Seniors in Melbourne partners with tour guide Paul Daffey to promote and manage bookings for these walking tours. A commission is received from ticket sales to support the running of the Seniors in Melbourne website. All opinions and recommendations are entirely our own.
