The Park Gate Hotel, Parramatta 1879-1959

The Park Gate Hotel, George and O'Connell Streets, Parramatta 1911

The Park Gate Hotel was once located on the south-east corner of George and O’Connell Street, Parramatta, New South Wales, opposite the George Street Tudor Gatehouse to Parramatta Park.

The original land grant owner was William Charles Wentworth with 1 acres 26.5 perches which he later leased out to James Smith.

The earliest mention of Park Gate Hotel in Parramatta appears in 1879 when Annie Cripps nee Willis purchased it for £7,000. Her husband was John Fisher Cripps, a confectioner who once managed The Coffee Palace Hotel in lower Pitt Street and George Street, Sydney before it was burnt down. Their son, John Fisher Cripps, Junior was the proprietor and manager.

Back in Old Parramatta, there was a tram stop right along George Street until 31 March 1943. This convenience was highlighted in early advertisements published in Parramatta River: steamers & tramways guide, in addition to promoting ‘J.F. Cripps, Jun.’s Park Gate Hotel’ as a place for ‘families, wedding and other parties’. Cripps also applied for and was granted a billiard license.

On 20 February 1893, the hotel license was transferred to Rowland Nicolle. This was followed by a succession of publican license transfers including:

Henry Mullin - Saturday 1 July 1893

William John Sullivan - Friday 31 December 1897

Charles Ed. Shepherd - Wednesday 31 August 1898

Henry Lillyman – “Lillyman’s Park Gate Hotel” - Wednesday 6 November 1901

Ernest Crook (late of Coonamble) Telephone: 158 - 1904

Sarah Ellen Bignell (late of Manning River) - 1905

William Doughan (formerly of Glen Innes and Newcastle) - 1908

Mrs Sarah Doughan (widow of William Doughan) - Wednesday 26 May 1909

John Louis Mansergh - Wednesday 29 August 1909

Thomas Condon - Monday 20 December 1909

Victor Patrick O’Neill (formerly of Port Macquarie) - Wednesday 23 March 1910

Edwin Woodbury -  Wednesday 14 December 1910 - Note: his wife fell 16 feet out of the window

John Kohler - Monday 20 February 1911

Charles George Hadley (former licensee of Tattersall’s Hotel, Parramatta) - Wednesday 9 August 1911

Elizabeth Barber (a widow) - Monday 28 April 1913

Ernest John Nash and his mother - Wednesday 20 May 1914

Colin Campbell McPherson - Around 1917

Matilda Murray - Mon 16 December 1918 - Note: Although Murray signed a 9 years lease, she defied quarantine proclamations for hotels in Central Cumberland to close during the prevalence of the epidemic and failed to act on agreed improvements

Shiloh Wrate Standing - Monday 5 May 1919 - Signed a 8.5 years lease and agreed to make improvements. After 18 months, licence was transferred in October 1920.

John Stephen Beasley - October 1920

Edwin Gentle – 1923 - “Gentle’s Park Gate Hotel”

In 1923, it was put on the market for lease by Raine & Horne and described thus:

“This well-known and old-established Hotel is solidly constructed of brick, part of the building is of 3 floors, and part 2 floors. It has spacious verandahs. Contains about 20 rooms and offices. The property is let on lease, at a rental of £5 per week. Further particulars on application to the auctioneers.”

In 1927, Harry Herbert Gadd controversially transferred the publican licence from the Park Gate Hotel in Parramatta to Belmore.

During the 1930s, the Gleeson family leased the property for nine years and it was renamed the ‘Park Gate Guest House’. Advertisements from the time promote it as a ‘first class accommodation’ with ‘motor garages’ and a telephone number UW8990.

The Park Gate Guest House continued to operate until 1959 when it was mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald that the site was to be demolished on short notice. At the time it had 30 rooms and from a 1953 L.J. Hooker order of sale notice was described as being a “block of five Self-contained Flats, a Shop and Flat. Guest Houses and Garage.”

At present, the site is occupied by The Garfield Barwich Commonwealth Law Courts Building. The address has changed to 1-3 George Street, Parramatta. This building is a Ken Woolley (architect) building, which was completed in 1987 and is part of the Parramatta Justice Precinct and named after Sir Garfield Barwich.

Sources:

1. The Jubilee History of Parramatta: In Commemoration of the First Half-Century of Municipal Government 1861-1911; Edited by J. Cheyne Wharton; Parramatta, New South Wales; 1911
2. Park Gate Hotel, Parramatta 1879-1959; 15 December 2016; Courtesy Parramatta Heritage Centre