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The Tower Hotel

The Tower Hotel was first built in the Village of Woodforde, which was one of the old localities that has been amalgamated into the current suburb of Magill. The original inn was built on the north-east corner of Magill and St Bernards Roads in 1840. That establishment was known as the Woodforde Arms. After the Woodforde Arms a new inn was built on the site called the East Torrens Hotel, which traded under that name until 1910 when the landmark tower was added and it became known as the Tower Hotel. The hotel was built on land that was first surveyed in 1838, in an area then known as Makgill.1

The Tower Hotel


The Tower Hotel. 1938.
On the corner of Magill Road and St Bernard Road, Magill.
A 'West End' beer advertisement is attached to a balcony, and tram line wires are visible overhead.

The Village of Woodforde

Some authorities suggest that The Village of Woodforde was named after Dr John Woodforde, who had been surgeon aboard Colonel Light’s ship The Rapid, but it is more likely that it was named after the birthplace of John Hallett, one the original owners of Section 342, who was born in Woodford in Essex, England. The borders for the Village of Woodforde were Magill Road, Church Street, St Bernards Road and Glen Stuart Road.

John Hallett went into partnership with John Finlay Duff as Hallett and Duff had jointly financed the journey of the barque Africaine, which brought Hallett and Duff to South Australia with their families. The barque also brought out other gentlemen passengers including Robert Gouger, the Colonial Secretary. In 1841 the partnership was dissolved by indenture and Duff became the sole owner of all the land in Woodforde. He set aside 1½ acres in the north-west corner to build the St Georges Church of England. This church went on to become the first consecrated Anglican Church in the Province of South Australia and the church is still standing today.2

The Woodforde Arms (1840 - 1844)

The Woodforde Arms was the first inn to be built on the site of the current Tower Hotel. When it was constructed in 1840, it was described as a five-roomed weather boarded public house, well finished and substantially built on an acre and a half of excellent land. Also on the premises were a good skittle ground and blacksmith's shop.3

The inn was jointly leased by Robert Champlay and L. Lloyd. From the 8th of October 1840 to the 21st of March 1841, it was then run by J. Knox. From the 1st of August 1841 until 1843, it went back into the hands of Robert Champlay and in 1844, finally it was run by Samuel Lloyd. The inn ceased trading in 1844, but Samuel Lloyd who was also a blacksmith, still owned Lot 24 of Section 285 in Magill Village, which he sold to John Townsend, who built the World’s End Inn.4

The World’s End Inn on the corner of Magill Road and Pepper Street was first licensed on the 2nd of April 1845, shortly after the Woodforde Arms had ceased to trade as a hotel. The name of the inn reflected the idea of many, that Magill was very remote from the city. The World’s End Inn later became the World’s End Hotel and continued to trade until the 25th of March 1909 when the renewal of its licence was refused and it became a coffee house for a time. The building was eventually replaced by the red-brick post office in the 1960s.5

World's End Hotel

The World’s End Hotel approx. 1884
World's End Hotel, Magill on the corner of Magill Road and Pepper Street. At the time of this photograph the proprietor was SW Neville and he held this position during 1885. The two storey bluestone building has a small balcony above the front entrance. A hitching post and water trough stand outside the hotel.

The East Torrens Hotel (1852 - 1910)

The old weather-boarded Woodforde Arms was completely demolished sometime after 1844. Then in 1852, Captain Thomas Brooks Penfold the brother of Dr. Christopher Penfold who established the nearby Penfold's vineyard, had a two-storeyed ten-roomed brick building constructed on the same site. Attempts were made to relaunch it as the Woodforde Arms, but it failed to gain a licence under this name. It was not until James Munro re-named it the east Torrens Hotel in 1854, that it once again became a working hotel.6

It operated in close competition with the nearby World’s End Hotel, which had caused the closure of the Woodforde Arms. This more substantial stone and brick building, was aligned with the footpath on both road frontages.***8 By the late 1890s the property was owned by Emma Mary Whitling, who sold it for £2,100 on 4 March 1910.7

The Tower Hotel (1910 – Present)

The hotel changed its name to the Tower Hotel on the 13th December 1910, when it was almost totally rebuilt (at an additional cost of £9,000), closer to the footpath, and the tower was added by Thomas O’Mara (known as ‘Pure Old Tom’). The rebuild may have been done in part due to the vanquishing of its long time competitor, the World’s End Hotel, which ceased to trade due to its license not being renewed. The Tower Hotel has continued to trade under that name ever since, although over time it has continually been rebuilt and renovated.8

The Village of Magill

Captain Thomas Penfold also developed other businesses and properties along Magill Road during that time. A 12-acre portion of section 327 on the northern side of Magill Road was acquired by a blacksmith (likely Samuel Lloyd) and others in 1871 and was subdivided in 1877. Business development concentrated at the intersection of Magill, St Bernards and Penfold Roads. Captain Penfold developed properties on three corners of that intersection, including the hotel on the north-east corner. He established his home on the south-east corner of the intersection where he had acquired four and a half acres along Magill road. He built a bakehouse, general store and dwelling on the north west corner which was particularly identified with the Wadmore family which operated the store for two generations during the early twentieth century.9

The Tower Hotel Mural

The Tower Hotel has had a facelift thanks to the talents of Artist John Whitney, and members from the Campbelltown ArtHouse.

You'll find the mural on the side of the Tower Hotel, corner of St Bernards Road and Magill Road, Magill.

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm John Whitney, a professional artist. Murals and drawing is my main love. I began life as an art teacher and have been doing murals all around the state ever since. I got asked by the Campbelltown ArtHouse if I would help coordinate the mural for the Tower Hotel. It's all part of the Magill Village Redevelopment.

For the last year, we've been gathering information and data and research of it all. Getting the various permission from the Hotel and copyright things and this week, we've been finally doing it. So, we've had various members within the ArtHouse who've been coming along at different times to work on their either favorite bits or the specialties.

The actual design of the mural, we decided in the end to do it almost like a chronological series of events for the Magill area we began of course with pre-European, the natural third creek flowing through with the yabbies and then the Indigenous presence, then there's the white settlement and the 1840s. It was initially still called Makgill, because it was a Scottishman who designed and started the township and it had a K in it so we've actually put that on the wall which has already created lots of comments from passers by. It then moves through the various sort of buildings, hotels, institute and blacksmith shops, the grain store which is still there 100 years later on Magill Road, and working through the various celebrities and people who've lived in the area.

We've got Mary Penfold, who of course was the actual one who started the wine industry, Then there's a Mr Walker who had a big violet farm on Old Norton Summit Road and then Dorrit Black who's a well-known not only South Australian but Australian artist who lived in Magill, but then we've got a basketball team, local wheelbarrow races for the kids and then ends up with the schools - the original primary school now the Pepper Street Gallery and their logos and things. And the last image on the wall of course is the current Tower Hotel. So that's the mural.

It's about 11 meters long and it's on the corner there of St Bernards Road and Magill Road on the Tower Hotel wall.

Researched and compiled by Vaughan Williams & Sue Polkinghorn, from the Campbelltown Library “Digital Diggers” group.

Updated November 2021

If you have any comments or questions regarding the information in this local history article, please contact the Local History Officer, Helen Thiselton, on 8366 9357 or hthiselton@campbelltown.sa.gov.au

References

  1. Donovan & Associates. History & Historic Preservation Consultants (2012). Magill Village An historical overview. [online] Adelaide, South Australia. Available at: https://www.campbelltown.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/234910/Magill-Village-An-historical-overview.pdf.
  2. Magill Section 342 Woodforde Folder Local History Room, Campbelltown Public Library, SA. Viewed 23rd March 2017
  3. Advertising - PUBLIC HOUSE (1840, July 25). South Australian Register. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27441667
  4. Magill Section 342 Woodforde Folder Local History Room, Campbelltown Public Library, SA. Viewed 23rd March 2017
  5. Donovan & Associates. History & Historic Preservation Consultants (2012). Magill Village An historical overview. [online] Adelaide, South Australia. Available at: https://www.campbelltown.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/234910/Magill-Village-An-historical-overview.pdf
  6. WARBURTON, E. (1981) The paddocks beneath: a history of Burnside from the beginning. Corporation of the city of Burnside, S. Aust page 206
  7. Magill Section 342 Woodforde Folder Local History Room, Campbelltown Public Library, SA. Viewed 23rd March 2017
  8. Donovan & Associates. History & Historic Preservation Consultants (2012). Magill Village An historical overview. [online] Adelaide, South Australia. Available at: https://www.campbelltown.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/234910/Magill-Village-An-historical-overview.pdf

Photo References

  1. State Library of South Australia. (1938). 'Tower Hotel, Magill'. [online] Available at: http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/PRG+287/1/5/79 [Accessed 23 Mar. 2017].
  2. State Library of South Australia. (1884). World's End Hotel, Magill. [online] Available at: http://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+9717 [Accessed 23 Mar. 2017].