The Good Ol’ Age has alerted me to the fact that from 7 September 2006, the Victorian Racing Museum in Federation Square is holding an exhibition about John Wren, pictured, at one time Australia’s richest man. Born in Collingwood in 1871, he died in Fitzroy in 1953 aged 82, having lived across the river in Kew, in what is now Xavier’s junior school, Burke Hall (then Studley House), a man who would have been an avid reader of Abbotsford Blog (but not its reviews of pubs and bars, for he was a teetotaller) had he only lived to see the day. He had toured the virtuosic violinist Fritz Kreisler, set up an opera company, owned The Criterion restaurant opposite St Paul’s, built a racecourse in Richmond, supposedly given two million pounds to charity over 5 years, bet his life savings on a legendary Melbourne Cup winner, Carbine, owned the 1904 Caulfied Cup winner, Murmur, built a public pool on the Yarra at Abbotsford, preferred the Collingwood Football Club to the Melbourne Club, and promoted boxing and cycling. What else he did besides is a matter of some controversy, though he did get right up the nose of my relative, Bill Judkins (one of Keith Dunstan’s favourite wowsers). The Judster was a Methodist lay preacher who, according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, saw “Wren, drink, gambling and Catholicism all combined into one terrible evil.” Short, bandy and sharp-featured, the Wrenster and the Judster were apparently frequently mistaken for one another to their mutual embarrassment. Continue reading “Racing Victoria’s John Wren exhibition”
I went for a walk to the Yak Speakeasy
The Yak Speakeasy has closed and I never got round to going there. Bars can be like that in Melbourne. But I met the new owner, Michelle, who’s going to preserve the place as an accoustic and country somethingorother venue, adding food. It opens in either a week or a fortnight. Meanwhile, I was pleased to take this photograph of some palm trees, full of the beer of the month from Piedmonte which accompanied my Badabing at Ladro after a bout at the Elm Family Hotel on Spring St — what a find, more anon — with my friend with the initials ABC. He is a departmental mandarin who the other day sent me on Her Majesty’s post a xerox of a little essay by Luis Bunuel about his favourite bars. Expecting twins, his account of our adventures will be published on Monday, providing it gets through the legals.
Locals: Gertrudes, Lambs Go Bar, The Vic
Well, The Age bar reviewers have been hard at work, recently reviewing:
- Gertrudes at the Exhibition Gardens end of Gertrude St in Fitzroy (pushing the boundaries of this little blog’s sphere of interest, it has to be said), owned by an astrophysicist and with lawyers pulling beer (apparently);
- The Vic, on the corner of Park St and Victoria St (I endorse the sentiments of the reviewer and was fascinated and delighted to learn that you can have Victoria St Vietnamese delivered there); and
- Lambs Go Bar, a bluestone building in Greeves St, just off Smith St, boasting 100 beers at any one time and has an amusing website. The first Tuesday of every month is “Wheel of Beer” where $5 buys you a spin of the wheel and a random beer from their selection.
All places where you have a good chance of avoiding glitterati, if that’s your thing, as it is often mine. The photo is of Portland’s Jeff Wallen‘s grandfather’s beer collection.