Written by Peter Wilmoth.
The Hope Inn, at 348 Port Road, Hindmarsh, was first licensed in 1847 and rebuilt in 1884.
An article in The Observer on 18 September 1847 details a licence application by Mr Aldolphus Valentine Wyatt who had “applied for a licence for a house to be called The Hope fronting Port Road, Hindmarsh”.
It said: “Mr Smith, who appeared for the applicant, said that Mr Wyatt had applied last quarter for the licence, but for the house not being sufficiently finished, their worships thought proper to refuse the application with leave to apply at the present sitting.”
It went on to say that “the house was now finished and was everyway adapted for the purpose, and the situation was particularly favourable…
“The house had 9 rooms, being extensive stabling and stockyards.Mr Bayne on behalf of Mr Lovelock, of Bowden village argued that nothing could be said against his character of Mr Wyatt, but he considered that he was confident their worships would agree with him that another house in the village was unnecessary.”
But the village did indeed acquire another “house” and the pub’s licence was granted.
A Heritage Survey prepared for the City of Hindmarsh-Woodville by Patricia Sumerling sheds much light on the history of the pub. It tells us that unlike most hotels that were rebuilt in the speculation boom years between about 1876 and 1886 in bluestone or dressed stone, this hotel was built in brick, of which there are few examples of this period in and around Adelaide, even though there was a brickworks nearby.
The Hope Inn has had very few owners – just six since 1847 – and few publicans compared to other hotels in South Australia. Its longest-term publican, Margaret Kennelly, was associated with the hotel from 1908 until 1960 and her family for a further twenty years until the early 1980s.
Matched only by the Brecknock Hotel in Gilbert Street in the City of Adelaide, which has been owned and managed by the same family for almost a hundred years, this stability of ownership and management, says local historian Patricia Sumerling, suggests a kind of positive reputation that the hotel may have conveyed to a close -knit local working class community, particularly in the days of six o’clock closing.
In 1850 churches and pubs in South Australia were being built to cater for a growing settler population. A Hindmarsh Heritage Survey in 1983 noted that All Saints Church was opened in 1850 and pubs were critical additions to a new town. “Although they were much rowdier and less respectable, hotels were as important as churches as social centres and meeting places. They are now also a dominant feature of the district’s heritage. Given the increasing local population and the passing needs of travellers, several hotels were quickly established on the Port Road.”
These included The Land of Promise – licenced as early as 1840 – the Commercial Inn, The Hope Inn, The Hindmarsh Bridge Hotel, the Governor Hindmarsh Inn and pubs named after local trades such as the Bricklayers Arms, The Tanners Arms, The Joiners Arms and The Farmers Arms.
The names and the sites of most of these hotels have been retained, but the buildings have been substantially altered.
The Heritage Survey tells us that earlier in 1874 these two brewers bought the well-known brewery of Haussen and Catchlove which they renamed Haussen & Co. It said: “After the Hope Inn was brought under the Real Property Act, Botting’s son, F.J. Botting bought the hotel in 1896. At this time the property was valued at £3000. Five years after F.J. Botting’s death in 1911, his widow transferred the hotel into the ownership of the brewing company and it remained part of their holdings until 1978, even though ‘the brewery was closed in 1927 when arrangements were made with the Walkerville Co-operative Brewing Co. to supply beer.’”
The Haussen & Co brewery owned a number of hotels to the west of the city including the Commercial Hotel and the Hope Inn.
The Hope Inn was rebuilt for a prominent local brewing company Haussen & Co that owned many hotels to the west of the city of Adelaide and was subsumed into the Walkerville Brewery which was in turn taken over by the SA Brewing Company.
The pub later returned to individual ownership.
One of the greatest names associated with the hotel was Margaret Kennelly, a locally revered figure who was licensee of the hotel for 61 years.
In 1951 The News of Adelaide ran a piece about Margaret.
“In 1897 Miss Margaret Dwyer, 28, became licensee of the Hope Inn, Hindmarsh. She’s still there, though her name over the front door has long since changed to Mrs Margaret Kennelly. Her original licence is said to have been the first granted to a single woman in South Australia, though it’s not unusual now.”
The article continued:”
“Mrs Kennelly’s 54 years tenure of the licence – partnered for the past 20 years by Mr John Hume – gives her a runaway victory over the other candidates for the longest-held SA hotel licence. The Hope Inn, 104 years old, was controlled by her parents from 1881. She saw the first Port Road horse tram in 1880.”
It’s thought Margaret went to the Hope Inn when she was ll years old as her parents had the pub before her from 1890.
We learn about Margaret and her family through newspaper reports of the time. Over the course of two sad years, she lost her baby son and her husband.
In the personal notices in The Express and Telegraph on 25 February 1905 Margaret and John noted the passing of baby Frank. “On the 25th February, at the Hope Inn, Hindmarsh, James Francis (Frank), the darling and only son of James and Margaret Kennelly, aged 13 months. RIP.”
The next year another notice, on 12 July 1906, noted her husband James’s death. “On the 11th July, at his residence Hope Inn, Hindmarsh, dearly beloved husband of Margaret Kennelly. RIP.”
Margaret lived another 42 years and take pride of place as one of South Australian hotel’s longest licensees.
In 1929 she took in as partner her nephew Pompie Hume who referred to her as Aunty.
Margaret died in 11 August 1958 aged 89. An obituary spoke of her as a beloved Hindmarsh figure. “What a loveable gentle old soul she was – always so sincere, friendly and cheerful.
Family members were also involved in the pub. Mrs M. Hume, sister of Mrs Kennelly, was co-licensee and, according to a newspaper report in 1946, “was well known over a long period, and served in front bar for almost 50 yrs to within 3 days of her death”.
Margaret Kennelly’s nephew, Jack Hume, known as Pompie, was a co-licensee in the 1950s. A newspaper report noted that Jack lived with his aunt Margaret Kennelly at the Hope Inn and “since 1929 has been joint licensee at the hotel with her”.
Jack, who died aged 51 in 1955, was a much-loved local identity – “one of nature’s gentlemen”.
A newspaper noted that his funeral “carried 150 wreaths, police escorts… the mile long procession wending its sad way along the busy [Port] Rd to Cheltenham cemetery – all closed doors of business and other premises along the route. Wife, May, daughter Betty, brother Jim and sister Margaret. And his so-fond old aunt and associate Margaret Kennelly.”
As new generations now visit, The Hope Inn will remain an important part of Hindmarsh’s history.
