Welcome to the first edition of Find Me Friday here on pastpresentfuture.
I really enjoyed the pictures of various buildings around Hobart in last Friday’s post. So much so that I thought I’d do it again.
But this time it has a twist. At the end of each Find Me Friday blog post there will be an unidentified picture of part of a building or installation or something within Hobart. Most probably it will be something that catches my eye on the way from the bus stop to work, or as I’m wandering around looking up at lunch time (apologies in advance if I bump into you).
It will then be over to you, my loyal readers, to identify the building in question – or at least the general location.
Fun, hey?
I think I’ve managed to change the comments section so anyone can post a comment, not just people registered with the various blog sites, so there’s no excuse – unless you aren’t familiar with Hobart, in which case you’d probably have no idea. Sorry about that.
First up, here’s today’s picture of the day.
It’s a building called the ‘Old Bell’ Chambers in Elizabeth Street. I saw it yesterday out of the bus window and thought the bell looked really interesting. I wondered why I’d never seen it before. Obviously I hadn’t looked up at the right time.
From the brief information available on Google it appears that the building was once the Old(e) Bell Inn (and/or Old Bell Tavern) before being converted into shops.
Shops currently located underneath this funky façade include the Happy Herb Shop, DeWaldt Service Centre, Solda’s Sound Centre and Too Bizarre.
According to a report in the
Mercury on 21 October 1936, the Old Bell Inn was ‘typical of its day and the rendezvous of hard-drinkers’. Apparently Marcus Clarke would frequent the Inn and write notes that became part of his book For the Term of his Natural Life, and a painting (or mural) on the wall was attributed to the convict artist Thomas Griffith Wain(e)wright (1794-1847).
The Mercury article goes on to say that at auction the building was described as ‘a modern property . . . a substantial two storeyed brick building . . . a fine block of property situated on a part of a main thoroughfare that is rapidly improving’.
At auction, bidding opened at 5,000 pounds and increased in bids of 100 pounds until it reached 6,400 pounds, at which price it was passed in for sale by private treaty. ‘The bidding was active, and the price offered approached very closely the reserve placed on the building.’
On 15 March 1951, following the building’s sale ay another auction, the Mercury reported:
many people in Hobart can recall the days when they used to frequent the old tavern with its sawdusted floors, and enjoy a glass of beer in the pewters which were one of its attractions. Old timers tell many stories of the building when it was a public house.
and now it’s over to you . . .
This is an easy one to start with. It’s somewhere in Hobart. I had to crop out part of the sign or it would have been too easy.
Post a comment with your answer. The building will be revealed next Friday.
