Former Currency Lass and Waratah hotels

90 & 92 Glebe Point Rd, corner of Mitchell St

Sergeant James Hogg and various publicans
At number 90, a supermarket rendered in Art Deco style covers the remains of an old stone inn, The Currency Lass, dating from 1858. On the opposite corner, at 92, the former Waratah Hotel dates form the 1860s. The building has undergone little alteration and is one of the earliest, most intact two storey corner buildings in Glebe Point Road.

Until 1881, pubs were open from 6am to midnight, seven days a week. The Temperance movement, drawing its fervour from evangelical religions, was successful in making Sunday trading illegal following the Liquor Act of 1882. The result was that drinkers bought more bottled beer to see them through the weekend, though gradually most pubs opened illegally on Sunday – according to police estimates in 1900, 80 percent of them.

Historian Max Solling recounts the story of Sergeant James Hogg, ‘a fair-haired former member of the Scottish constabulary’ who moved to Glebe in 1901 and set out to catch publicans trading on Sunday or after hours. ‘In a predatory mood, Hogg dispensed with his heavy boots for sandshoes, and invariably conducted his raid on a wet evening when, with umbrella pulled down over his head, he was not readily detected by cockies, as lookouts were termed. “Hogg by name, Hogg by nature”, drinkers muttered as Hogg’s successes mounted.’