The Dry Dock Hotel is the oldest licensed pub in Balmain. The Dry Dock Hotel started life as the Dock Inn at 4 Thames Street between 1857 and 1861. From here, the pub moved to 42-44 Mort Street between 1865 and 1866. The pub is heritage-listed and formed an integral part of the shipbuilding and industrial heritage of the local area. The land on which the pub currently stands was part of a much larger grant to colonial surgeon Dr William Balmain made in 1800 by Governor John Hunter. The licensee Thomas Wakfer, purchased the property on the current site from James McCallum in 1867 for the princely sum of 295 pounds - a substantial amount at the time. By the mid-1860s, heavy industrialisation of the nearby Morts Dock area generated housing and employment in the local area. The pub owes much of its early history through the provision of both refreshment and accommodation for dock workers. The main gate for the dock was located only a short distance away at the opposite side of Cameron Street. The hotel was briefly known as The Clarendon in the early 1870s but then reverted to the Dock Inn until 1874, when it was renamed the Dry Dock Hotel. Mort's Dock continued to provide patrons for the Dry Dock until 1957 when rising costs, labour disputes and management problems forced it into liquidation. The hotel was one of the first to open a beer garden on the location of the current restaurant. Betty "Bottles" Holloway publican from 1979–82, was one of the first to introduce live music to pubs in the local area. The Balmain Bus is on a mission to find out all we can about this amazing woman for, without her, our pubs would be very droll indeed! Any news, photos or stories about Betty would be much appreciated. Please contact us or send them to Mike@BalmainBus.com and the next round's on us!

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