Lost Hotels: Black Horse Hotel, Leigh Street, Adelaide.

 

1926: Leigh Street, Adelaide. SLSA [B 3424]

 The Black Horse Hotel was located on Leigh Street, about halfway between Hindley and Currie Streets. The hotel opened in 1841 as the Foresters Inn and was renamed the Black Horse Inn two years later. It was built by Mr Whyles in 1841, who came to South Australia via Tasmania.[1] During the 1870s, the hotel was known as a place for musicians and actors to congregate.[2]

 In 1897, The Black Horse Inn was at the centre of a smallpox scare in Adelaide. An outbreak of smallpox among passengers onboard the ship Ninevah led to a call for those passengers to report to doctors. Some of the passengers had transferred to another ship heading to Western Australia, and two passengers were missing, Fleming and McPherson. A search in Adelaide was called. The two men were later captured in Port Adelaide by Detective Segerlind when he noticed them walking by the police station.
 The two men had purchased tickets to travel to Western Australia on the Buninyong, using the aliases William Haig and Robert Thompson. Upon their arrest, it was found they had stayed in the Black Horse Inn, which led to staff and patrons being assessed for smallpox. Meanwhile, the two culprits were shipped off to the Torrens Island Quarantine Station for observation.[3]

 

In November 1898, George Sutherland was brought before the courts accused of stealing jewellery to the value of 30 pounds from Jane Bristow at the Black Horse Hotel.[4] Sutherland, who also went by the alias H. Williams was well known to Adelaide police for stealing watches. He was brought before the courts in October 1899, and found guilty, receiving six years imprisonment with hard labour at Yatala Gaol.[5]
 Jane Bristow was the licensee of the hotel at the time of the theft. She had left her bedroom door unlocked, which was not her usual routine, and noticed her belongings missing later that day. Sutherland was arrested in Sydney and sent back to Adelaide for trial. He admitted to stealing the items and selling them in Melbourne.[6]

  It was alleged in 1905 that a fisherman named J. Nelson was accosted at the Inn. Nelson had worked on one of Daw’s fishing cutters and had travelled to Adelaide from Port Adelaide to sell some fish. He received his payment and was readying to leave for Port Adelaide when two men approached him outside the Black Horse Inn asking for a match. Nelson lit their cigarette, and the men invited him inside for a drink, which he refused. The two men hustled Nelson into the bar and ordered three drinks. One of the men then put Nelson in a headlock while the other rifled through his pockets, stealing a cheque for £9 10s, a £5 note, five sovereigns and some loose silver. The men then ran off into Leigh Street, leaving Nelson in the hotel.[7]

 

  The hotel proprietor, Mr M. Whelan wrote to the Advertiser to dispute the Nelson story. Whelan claimed the story was untrue and may have a damaging effect on the reputation of his establishment. He wrote,

On Friday afternoon in answering the bell from a parlor, which is situated a long distance from the bar—there being a long dining-room intervening—this parlor is entered from a side door off the right-of-way on the northern end of the hotel. I supplied one round of drinks, and no more, to four men (all of whom were perfect strangers to me), and in about five minutes afterwards the man, who I presume is Nelson, came into the bar and said he was robbed by those men in his company.
 He was somewhat excited and wanted' to know who the men were. I told him they were strangers to me, as was also himself, and advised him to interview the police. This is all I know of the case, and I consider I am entitled to an apology from your informant.

It is not a nice thing to have it said that a man was robbed in a public bar; it would give the public an impression that the Landlord was a consenting party. I may also state that I heard no noise whatever in the parlor, it being such a distance from the bar.

M. WHELAN,

Black Horse Hotel,

Leigh-street, Adelaide.[8]

 

  When Whelan was the publican at the Black Horse Inn, the property was owned by the Anglican Church, whose head office was directly across the road.[9] In 1906, Newton, McLaren Ltd. purchased the property. They traded under the name J.A. Newton and Co.  In 1921, J.A. Newton made the first radio receiver for commercial sale in South Australia.[10]  In 1907 the old hotel was demolished to make way for a new warehouse.[11]

 

  By the 1930s, the property was occupied by the S.A. Paper Bag Company.[12] Today, the building is known as Aston House, located at 15 Light Street. It contains a variety of shop fronts. The building was significantly renovated by the Ginos Group in 2010 to provide ground-floor retail space and two levels of office accommodation.[13]

 

 Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2025

 

 

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[1] 'Correspondence.', The Advertiser, (4 April 1907), p. 6.

[2] 'Bits for Boniface.', Quiz, (18 January 1907), p. 8. 

[3] 'Two Men Quarantined At Torrens Island.', Evening Journal, (11 February 1897), p. 3. 

[4] 'An Adelaide Robbery.', The Advertiser, (15 July 1899), p. 8.

[5] 'The Criminal Sittings.', The Express and Telegraph, (11 October 1899), p. 3.

[6] 'Police Court-Adelaide.', Chronicle, (12 August 1899), p. 15. 

[7] ‘Garrotted in a Hotel.’ The North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times’, (10 August 1905), p. 3.

[8] 'To The Editor.', The Narracoorte Herald, (15 August 1905), p. 2. 

[9] 'Our Notebook.', The Journal, (27 May 1916), p. 12.

[10] 'Passing By', News, (29 March 1951), p. 12.

[11] 'Topical Trifles.', Gadfly, (15 May 1907), p. 6.

[12] 'Death of Mr Robert Gillies', Border Chronicle, (30 June 1939), p. 3.

[13] ’15 Leigh Street.’, Ginos Group, (2025), https://ginosgroup.com.au/properties/leigh-street/.