The Pubs of Port Adelaide, 1887
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To complement the South Australian History Festival and in recognition of the growing interest in Port Adelaide, I've posted a printable map of Port Adelaide's pubs in 1887, at about the time the number of pubs in South Australia and Port Adelaide peaked. The guide can be freely downloaded and distributed for non-commercial purposes by clicking on the image on the right.
Of the 30 pubs, 12 have survived as licensed pubs or will be re-licensed soon. Ten of the 30 were de-licensed in 1909 following a Local Option poll in 1907. The others have succumbed to a combination of changes to drinking habits and socialising especially following 'Six O'Clock Closing" (1916-1967), the decline in shipping through the twentieth century and, more recently, urban development. Posted 10 April 2021 Original content © Craig Hill 2021 |
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(Click image to download in new window; approx 16MB) |
Criterion Hotel (23), early 1930s [SLSA, B-29120 Click image to enlarge] This shows the original Criterion Hotel; when this photo was taken, the pub had moved several buildings to the west (left). |
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Brunswick Pier Hotel (9) c1898 [SLSA: B-25313 Click image to enlarge] The four women standing at the front door might well include Johanna Winslet, the licensee from 1898 until the hotel was closed in 1909 following the Local Option poll. |
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Prince's Hotel (2) c1875 [SLSA, Click image to enlarge] |
...and a brief note on the location of Knapman & Sons' Cannon Brewery
Locating precisely Knapman's Cannon Brewery on the map proved a bit problematic. No contemporary map of Port Adelaide shows the site of the brewery and the relevant Sands & McDougall's South Australian Directories simply list "Cannon Brewery - Knapman, W. & Sons" on the north side of Cannon Street, between Ship Street or the Minories and Formby Parade [1].
William Knapman [Sr] (1830 - 1908) was an entrepreneurial publican and brewer who built, owned or leased and/or held the license for no fewer than 8 pubs, around Port Adelaide or, mostly, in the Mid-North of the colony. In 1860 he leased and later owned the White Horse Cellar which occupied the building still standing on the Black Diamond Corner, and, by 1865, had converted part of a theatre attached to the hotel into the Port Adelaide Brewery [2]. In order to guarantee the supply of beer to his growing number of pubs, in January 1878 Knapman purchased lots 10 to 20 at the western end of Cannon Street [3] on which he built the "Cannon Brewery" and, by the end of 1883, to which Knapman transferred his brewery.
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In January 1884 the Cannon Brewery was described as "tower[ing] up like a mill on a site of 300 feet [about 90 metres] by 90 feet [27m] at [the corner of Minories and Cannon-street]. The tower itself with lookout stands about 70 feet [21m] high, and there are sheds, cottage and other erections on the grounds, representing a value of £3,000... Mr Knapman...turns out forty hogheads [1000 litres] a week." [4] Because most of the beer was destined for the Knapmans' pubs, there was little need for Cannon Brewery to promote its products; however the few advertisements showed that Knapmans' brewed "Pale Bitter Ale, XXXX Ale, XXX Stout and Big Gun Draught Ale, also ANA [a tonic water] which is now the Favorite Summer Drink." [5] With the deaths of both William Knapman Jr and Snr in 1900 and 1908 respectively, Knapman and Sons stopped brewing in 1910 to concentrate on the family's interests in pubs and real estate [6]. No other brewing company seems to have been interested in purchasing the brewery as a going concern (although some of the equipment was sold to the South Australian Brewing Company [7]) and, in November 1910, the property was offered for lease at "cheap rental" [8]. Over the next three decades the site was used as a chemical factory, a timber yard and by General Motors. The brewery buildings were demolished, it is believed, in 1941.
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"Cannon Brewery - Knapman" photographed from the Jervois Bridge,c.1915 [State Library of South Australia: B-71826/492, detail] |
Aerial photograph of Port Adelaide, with the "Cannon Brewery" highlighted, c.1928
[State Library of South Australia B-27326]
Contemporary Department of Engineering and Water Supply 'sketch books' of Port Adelaide [10] locate the brewery more precisely. A composite plan, constructed from several sheets of the Department's survey of the relevant section of Cannon Street in 1910 is here. Below, this plan has been overlain, at approximately the same scale, on a satellite image of the area that shows the current roadways and property boundaries (in yellow).
From this can be deduced that the main buildings of the Cannon Brewery were on what is now numbers 4 and 6, Knapman Crescent with the brewery stables stretching between numbers 8 and 14.
The location of the Cannon Brewery [Click on image to enlarge in new window]
Notes
| 1 | Sand & McDougall's South Australian Almanac and Directory, 1883 - 1910 |
| 2 | "Port Adelaide Brewery", Adelaide Observer, 23 December 1876, p.20; Alison Painter, Beer barons or bankrupts: early brewers in South Australia, 2012, p.129-130. |
| 3 | Land Services Group: GRO, Memorial 103/306, 2 January 1878; also Certificate of Title 679/92, 23 August 1901, plan showing allotments here. |
| 4 | "Annual Inspection of the Port Corporation", Evening Journal, 18 January 1884, p.3 |
| 5 | For examples, Express & Telegraph, 10 March 1898, p.1; The Compass, 4 August 1910, p.33 |
| 6 | Alison Painter, Beer barons or bankrupts: early brewers in South Australia, 2012, p.215 |
| 7 | op cit |
| 8 | Express & Telegraph, 18 November 1910, p.4 |
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State Library of South Australia:
Aerial view of Port Adelaide, 1928 [B 27326]; and
Aerial view of Port Adelaide, 1929 [B 10870], detail
here;
Because of the sailing ship in the background, the photograph of the Cannon Brewery reproduced, courtesy of Brian Samuels, in Alison Painter's Beer Barons and Bankrupts..., p.129, suggests that the brewery ran parallel and close to the wharf. However, it may well have been that pilots used the step in the wharf at the end of Cannon Street to swing ships, particularly in evidently strong southerly winds; the ship is therefore more or less perpendicular to the wharf, not moored alongside it. |
| 10 | South Australian State Records: Property and Survey Branch, Engineering and Water Supply Department..., Sketch books, GRG53/166/00000/8 Book 289, Port Adelaide, 1910 |
Posted 1 May 2021, with thanks to Alison Painter and Brian Samuels. Original content © Craig Hill 2021