Newtown in 1992 Student Pub Guide - Part II

In my last post I shared an introduction from the 1992 Student Guide to Sydney Pubs, describing the 'disproportionate number of Thai restaurants' and Newtown as an 'affordable place to live'. At least one of those is still true.

This time I'll share some of the actual reviews; my OCR is rubbish so you're going to have to make do with page scans which look deceptively old. 1992 wasn't that long ago - was it !? Click on the images for more legible versions.

The Sando reads much as a review would today - apart from the band names and the beer prices. Interesting how beer prices were a feature of this Pub Guide - I guess it reflects the target audience !


The Bank Hotel review seems to confuse Sleepers and the front bar; the loss of Sleepers as a bar to drink in rather than walk through is the greatest tragedy of the recent long-running renovations of the Bank.


Nothing too exciting in the Marly review - except the fake Duck Pond ! The Royal on Abercrombie also gets a half review as the beer garden out the back is being built.


Finally - RIP the faux tudor (Germanic style wooden walls apparently) of the Student Prince on Parramatta Rd - drinking bar of choice of the Mayor's soccer team back in the day. The last day of the season coincided with the last night of the Prince and we were unfortunately obliged to drink the pub dry - free of charge.


Lastly, The Shakespeare (Coopers old name) was so gnarly back in the day it didn't even rate a mention. How times change !

Newtown in 1992 Student Pub Guide

The 1992 Student Guide to Sydney Pubs, written in those long forgotten days before the internet, features a section on Newtown, including reviews of The Marlborough, The Bank, The Newtown, The Sando, as well as long forgotten neighbouring bars such as the Student Prince and Sydney Saloon.

The relevant page is below (click on the article to embiggen):
The disproportionate number of Thai restaurants are still there, but sadly the fruit shops don't stay open late any more, and you're more likely to be visiting Crispy Inn to satisfy late night cravings. Nearly 20 years on, the Landsdowne, Annandale and Sando are still your best bet for pub rock in the area, though thankfully no-one refers to Newtown as the 'Paddington of the South' any more; you can understand why the author didn't go on to an illustrious journalistic career !

I'll try and scan post some of the individual reviews if there's any interest.

Hatches Batches and Dispatches VI

So it's time for another edition of the semi-regular round up of some of the comings and goings on and around King St Newtown in the last month or so. Hoardings have gone up at Newtown Station, there are rumours of movement at Newtown Hotel, whose proposed renovations were recently approved - with 98 conditions ! As well, Newtown was in the news when local sculptor painted an anti-Burqa mural on his wall, challenging the usual local support for free speech and tolerance, and unsurprisingly pleasing Daily Telegraph readers.

The most read link shared by the mayor in the last couple of months though related to the $3.2M Newtown house sale. Not sure what that says !

See below for more:

New Openings

• Sabbaba is close to opening up next door to Max Brenner
  
• The Imperial Hotel re-opened after 3 years and many false re-openings
• The Watershed started a bike-hire scheme that got wide publicity
• @Newtown re-launched as Shush
  

Going ...

• Much loved Funky Cafe closed for nearly a week - not looking good. It's been on the market for a while now
• The much loved but short lived Newtown Gazebo finally fell foul of council safety regs

• Dresser to the mayor, Crazy Horse, is on the market:
  

Development Applications

• Dendy applied to add 10 screens to their Newtown mega-plex; including a tacky mural facing Camperdown Park
  
• Nothing else too exciting this month - click here for all current Newtown DAs from Sydney Council website.
  

Reviews

• The Inner-West focussed Sydney Fringe Festival opened and closed to mixed reviews
• Changing Lanes in Eliza Street was a sell-out success
• Plans for the renovation of Marrickville Metro are attracting much criticism
• Corridor gets a gushing review in the Gold Coast's local rag
  

Random

• There's not much life on King Street, Newtown in Queensland
  
• A For Sale sign appeared and quickly disappeared outside the old Erskineville PYCC