Pubs of Burnside - Turf Hotel and Fountain Inn
Published on 06 June 2019
On the western edge of the Burnside Council area were two hotels – The Turf Hotel (later the Parkside Hotel) and the Fountain Inn (now known as Parkside Hotel…there’s no new name under the sun for pubs, it seems). The Turf, opened in 1849, was located on the corner of Greenhill and Glen Osmond Road, opposite the Victoria Park Racecourse. The Fountain Inn was built on the corner of Glen Osmond and Fullarton Road. The two pubs covered the needs of race meet staff and attendees, travellers and locals in Eastwood, Parkside and Glenside as well as people from Unley.
The Fountain Inn originally built in 1858 and named so for the permanent spring it was built over. Like many early hotels, it was necessarily placed on fresh running water. The Turf and the Fountain were both placed on the same creek which ran into the parklands.
Image: The Parkside Hotel, 1878. City of Burnside Collection, EAS 1 BU
Beer and aerated waters were popular as from the beginning of colonisation, many people considered it was better to drink these than water from creeks, as contaminated water led to many health problems. The Fountain Inn was unique in continuing to have a water trough for horses placed opposite on the corner of Glen Osmond Road and Fullarton Road until the mid-1980s. It kept the idea of a pub being a 'Fountain’ alive.
The Fountain Inn was no stranger to notoriety - its location was a busy traffic spot from the beginning of its life, and at times the hotel was pressed into service to store bodies.
Image: The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929), Friday 14 February 1913, page 8.
The Turf ‘owed its impetus and name to the proximity of the Victoria Park Racecourse’ (Warburton 1981 p. 266). Built in 1849-50 when the major course moved from the northern Thebarton to the site at the southern end, it had the benefit of having a corner position on a busy road and of overlooking the course, especially from a large upstairs balcony.
Adventures over the years included a cattleman who booked into the Hotel with an excellent horse, saddle and bridle and a mob of cattle due, then borrowed five pounds and disappeared. Competition from the 30 or so booths on the course opposite for large meetings was intense but only the Hotel could provide 'A Grand Ball with full band on each of the three evenings’ of the meet (Warburton 1981 p. 266).
Image: SLSA PRG 280/1/24/346
A common sight in 1920 would have been a jockey exercising his horse in the south parklands on the opposite side of Greenhill Road across from the Parkside Hotel. This beautiful double-storied bluestone hotel with extensive lacework has now been demolished and replaced by a single storey Kentucky Chicken outlet.
Image: The Parkside Hotel, corner Greenhill and Glen Osmond Road, ca 1970s. City of Burnside Collection, EAS 1 BU.
Based out of the stables at the rear of the Turf, were upholsterers and saddlers, the Holt family. For decades they serviced guests, the horse crowd and passing trade. Years later, their loyalty was repaid as when the owners left the Hotel they purchased a block on Glen Osmond Road and built the Holts a workshop and shop combined - albeit not a beautiful Bluestone but a humble Besser Block one.
Behind the Parkside Hotel and around the creek bed in suburban Eastwood was a small brewery (Hallett and Tuckwell, 35). The Licensed Victuallers Gazette announced in 1885 that The Caledonian Brewery on Elizabeth street Eastwood ‘[had] now been established for a period of Twelve Months, and the brew has been pronounced by the public to be excellent. The proprietor solicits a trial from the Trade and Public. Good measure and low price. --- Three Pounds per Hogshead’ (ibid).
References:
Hallett Shueard and David Tuckwell, ‘Brewers and Aerated Water Manufacturers in South Australia 1836 - 1936. The Bottle Collector’s Guide’, Swift Printing Services Stepney 1993
Elizabeth Warburton, ‘The paddocks beneath: Burnside from the beginning’, The Corporation of the City of Burnside. 1981.
Original research by Diana Chessel, BA (AU/ Adelaide) Dip Social Studies (MU/ Melbourne)
Edited by Laura Evans, Historical and Cultural Officer