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BLACK BULL HOTEL
Date Opened : 1837
Date Closed : Current
Address :
58 Hindley Street, Adelaide
History
| BUFFALO'S HEAD TAVERN | 1837 | 1841 |
| THE BLACK BULL HOTEL | 1841 | 1869 |
| BLACK BULL INN | 1869 | 1878 |
| BLACK BULL HOTEL | 1878 | 1947 |
| BERKELEY HOTEL | 1947 | 1971 |
| BLACK BULL HOTEL | 1971 | 1972 |
| PRINCES BERKELEY MOTEL-HOTEL | 1972 | 2012 |
| CAMEO BAR | 2012 | 2014 |
| BLACK BULL HOTEL | 2014 | Current |
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| The Black Bull Hotel holds the distinction of being South Australia’s longest continuously licensed hotel, with a history stretching back to 1837. Its founder, James Chittleborough, began by trading drinks from a tent on Hindley Street before constructing a stone building in 1838. Having arrived in the colony aboard the Buffalo in 1836, Chittleborough named his new venture the Buffalo Head Tavern in honour of the ship. In 1841 he sold the business to Alexander Malcolm, who renamed it the Black Bull Hotel. To mark the change, a sign was hung out the front bearing a playful rhyme: “The bull is tame, so fear him not, So long as you can pay your shot. When money’s gone and credit’s bad, That’s what makes the bull go mad.” The sign also featured two images of a bull; one calm and placid, the other roaring in anger, a vivid metaphor for patrons who failed to pay their way. Over the decades the hotel became a hub for local groups such as butchers and tailors, though the original structure soon fell behind the times. Modest additions in 1861 were not enough, and in 1878 the hotel was completely rebuilt. The new Italianate-style building featured 15 bedrooms, an underground bar, and stables large enough for 30 horses. The Black Bull weathered the economic hardships of the 1890s, two world wars, six o’clock closing, and changes to the legal drinking age. After World War II it was renamed the Berkeley Hotel, a name remembered fondly by many Adelaide locals. By the 1990s it had embraced a younger crowd with a popular upstairs nightclub. In 2014 the hotel proudly reclaimed its original name, once again becoming the Black Bull, a fitting tribute to one of the state’s most enduring and iconic pubs.  |