THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH HOTEL

Myth, reality and the Archer family

By Glenn Martin, November 2016

EARLIEST PHOTO

The hotel is at the corner of Harris Street and Union Street in Pyrmont, Sydney, close to Darling Harbour. It was built by William Archer in 1881, when the area bustled with activity from the nearby docks.The photo (in possession of the Archer family) shows the hotel in its early years, and features William Archer and other members of the family.

THE HOTEL IN 2016: HARLEQUIN INN

The hotel still exists. From the 1990s it has been called the Harlequin Inn.It has been remodelled inside as a sports den. It exhibits sports paraphernalia, eg there are football tops everywhere, pinned to the walls, all signed by popular footballers.There is no sign of the past – no old photos of the hotel – nothing.

FAMILY ANCESTRY

But there is a connection between myself and the hotel. My mother was born Nell Archer. She was born in 1923 in Marrickville. She married Sid Martin, and their three children were Helen, Glenn (me) and Brian.Nell was the child of Thomas Richard Archer. His father was James Archer, and his father was William Archer.So, I am a great great grandson of William Archer, the founder of the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel.Thomas Richard Archer, Nell’s father, was born around the corner from the hotel, at 3 Paternoster Row, in 1886, just five years after the hotel was built. Nell Archer

(born 1923)

Thomas Richard Archer (1886-

1936)

James Archer (1857-1917)

William Archer (1813-1894)

PATERNOSTER ROW

The first two houses in Paternoster Row belonged to the Archer family. The houses were built in the early 1880s, at the same time as the hotel. William Archer lived at Number 1, and James, his son, lived next door at Number 3. The houses are small. It must have been crowded. James and his wife Alice had eight children.The houses are still there, in 2016.(In the photo, Number 1 is at right, Number 3 is at left.)

THE STORY

This was Nell’s story, as she had heard it from Aunty Dolly, who was the youngest child of James Archer. (James was the publican of the hotel after William Archer, for a few years.)

 

The hotel was called the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel because two ancestors, a young English lad and a young Scottish lass, had worked at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. They had married, then come to Australia and established the hotel. The hotel had a white horse on the roof. The hotel was still in the possession of the Archers when Darling Harbour underwent a major redevelopment in the 1980s. The hotel was demolished and they moved out to Windsor, taking the horse with them and setting it up at a liquor outlet there.

THE STORY AND REALITY

We know that one part of the story is wrong. The hotel still stands, so it did not get demolished in the 1980s.But what about the rest of the story?Were there two young lovers who worked at Edinburgh Castle and who came to Australia and established the hotel at Pyrmont?

THE TWO YOUNG LOVERS

The romantic story of boy-meets-girl while working at the castle is not what the records tell us. It is true, however, that William Archer was English and his wife, Ellen Welch, was Scottish. William was born at Harpenden in England in 1813. He was convicted of theft in 1838 and transported to the colonies. During his seven-year sentence he worked for a farmer in the Hunter valley. (The image shows William’s Certificate of Freedom, granted in 1844.)Ellen came to Australia as an assisted migrant, working as a servant. She was from Fife in Scotland, born in 1822. William and Ellen met and were married in 1844 in the Hunter. There is romance enough in this.

FREE SETTLERS

There is another part to the story that Nell told – “All the Archers came to Australia as free settlers. They were not convicts!” But we know this is not true. Right?Well, William Archer and Ellen went back to England, probably in the late 1860s. We know, because in the 1871 English Census, the family is shown living at Wilmington in Kent, where they have an orchard. Then the Archers return to Australia, grandly, in a new ship, the St Osyth, in 1874. And so it can be said….they came to Australia as free settlers!

THE HOTEL’S NAME

The name of the hotel raises the question: Why?Did William Archer invent the story about he and Ellen working at Edinburgh Castle for their children? No….this does not explain the name, because the hotel was called the “Duke of Edinburgh”. Not “Edinburgh Castle”.(There is an Edinburgh Castle Hotel in Sydney (shown at left). It was established in 1886.)The answer lies in the person who was the Duke of Edinburgh. He was Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH

The Duke was the first member of the Royal family to visit the Australian colonies. His visit was not the kind of “fly in, fly out” affair that occurs today with distinguished visitors. He stayed in Australia for seven months, from November 1867 to June 1868, and he visited again from January to April 1869.He was received all around Australia with great excitement and affection. It was seen as recognition of the development of the colonies beyond their convict beginnings, to be a respectable and valuable part of the British Empire.Attention surrounding the Duke’s presence was magnified by the fact that he was shot and wounded by an Irish dissident while in Sydney. (The Irishman was subsequently hanged.)During his second visit, the Duke dedicated the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

CONNECTION BY ASSOCIATION

We know that people, and companies, often seek to associate themselves with something popular or admirable in order to create their own connection to it. I think this explains why William named the hotel after the Duke of Edinburgh.There was a Duke of Edinburgh Hotel at Brixton in London (built in 1860s) when William was back living in England. (Alfred became the Duke in 1866.) After the Duke’s visit to Australia, hotels co-opting his name sprang up everywhere – Melbourne, Sydney (there was another at Enmore), and even rural Queensland.Perhaps William was trying to cement his new standing in the community as a respectable “free settler”.

Duke of Edinburgh Hotel at Walkerston near Mackay, Queensland. Built before 1883.

ON THE TRAIL OF THE WHITE HORSE

There is still a mystery. What can we make of the story of the white horse?There is no sign of it at the Harlequin Inn.Could we find it in photos of the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel?There is the early photo, in the 1880s, where no horse is to be seen.And there is a photo from 1949 (at right), which shows the hotel basically the same as it looks in 2016, and again there is no white horse.(The photo was taken by Tooths, the brewers.)

ANY WHITE HORSES

There is no trace of the white horse at Windsor. I have visited all of the hotels and liquor outlets in Windsor and looked. There are old hotels there, and there are hotels with old pictures, but no horse.There are two White Horse Hotels in Sydney, at St Peters and Surry Hills. The one at Surry Hills has a sculpture of a horse on top (see the photo), but the horse is modern (and it is silver).

THE SOURCE OF THE HORSE?

But remember, William Archer was born at Harpenden, Hertfordshire (1813).He was transported in 1838, so for 25 years he had lived in Harpenden.And it so happens that there was a White Horse Tavern in Harpenden, which is still in business after an estimated 350 years.

WILLIAM AND THE WHITE HORSE INN

This is the White Horse Inn as it looked in about 1900 (at right) and in about 1930 (below).

William’s occupation at his trial was stated as ‘groom’, and it is quite possible that he worked at the White Horse Inn.

LOOSE ENDS

The story of the Archer family and the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel still has some loose ends, mainly about the white horse. It seems clear there was a basis of reality in the link between William Archer and the idea of the white horse.But we don’t know how it was represented or what happened to it. Was there a sculpture or a picture that has drifted away somewhere and been lost or destroyed? Perhaps we have to accept that some stories will remain unresolved.And where did Nell’s story originate? It may have come from William’s son, James Archer (pictured at right). Perhaps it was James’s colourful way of reinventing the past.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Story and images by Glenn Martin, from a variety of sources, public domain and/or in personal possession.November 2016

Contact:glenn@glennmartin.com.au