Every old city has a character the respectable histories would rather leave out. Sydney had Bobby Hancock. Wheelwright, publican, fence by some accounts, man about town with a mistress on each arm, Robert Hancock built a mock castle beside his George Street pub, had a statue of himself carved in stone while he was still very much alive, and finished his days running one of the roughest pubs in Glebe, the Lady of the Lake. When he died in 1876 the regulars laid him out on the tap room table and drank to him. Then his statue went out to Rookwood to stand over his grave, and it is still there.
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Who Was Robert Hancock?
The Dictionary of Sydney sums him up in one blunt line: a "publican and petty criminal who had himself immortalised in a stone statue in 1844". It lists him as a publican and "local identity", owner of the Tower Inn on George Street and of the Lady of the Lake Hotel in Glebe from 1873 to 1876. He died in Glebe on 26 February 1876 and was buried at Rookwood the next day.
The fuller story of his working life comes from the blogger Julie of Thru my Sydney Eye, who went through his papers after spotting his statue at Rookwood. She writes that Hancock followed his father into a wheelwright business on George Street in 1837, while leasing the Britannia Inn at the same time. He gave the wheelwright trade away in 1847 and bought the Wellington Inn and the Tower Inn, which he renamed Tower Court. In 1873 he moved on to the Lady of the Lake in Bay Street, Glebe. She also found that he married Catherine Ball in May 1829, and she found no record of children.
His gravestone says he died aged 69, which would put his birth around 1806 or 1807.
A Wheelwright on George Street
John Arthur Barry, in his history The City of Sydney – The Story of its Growth, which I have transcribed on this blog, remembered Hancock as "a wheelwright, whose shop stood near the site of the present Roberts's Hotel, at the corner of George and Market streets. Here he flourished, made much money, and eventually retiring from business, built himself the residence of which the curious tower formed a portion." The Visit Sydney Australia "Lost Sydney" page tells it the same way, calling him "a shrewd, hard-working wheelwright" who had his smithy at George and Market Streets.
Hancock's Tower
This is the part everybody remembered. Behind the Tower Inn, on George Street opposite the railway, Hancock put up a folly more than 40 feet high, about 12 metres, with battlements and dummy guns. The Dictionary of Sydney thinks the Tower Inn was built about 1847 and gives the building's life as the 1840s to 1894, when it was pulled down. Shirley Fitzgerald's Ultimo entry in the Dictionary, drawing on Geoffrey Scott's 1958 book Sydney's Highways of History, says it "stood behind George Street at what became Quay Street from 1840 until 1894".
Barry gives the best description of it. It was "constructed of large squared stones, with battlemented walls, from whose lofty embrasures protruded dummy guns, or 'Quakers'". It "looked more like some mediaeval fortress than aught else", with "the carved effigy of a knight in armour" at each corner and a low roof topped by a large weathercock. Between the tower and the old inn beside it, Hancock laid out a courtyard with flower beds and trellises.
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The Lady in the Tower
A building like that was always going to collect stories. Barry wrote that "all sorts of 'fairy stories' clustered around this building, the favorite one being that Hancock had erected it for the purpose of therein immuring his wife, Bluebeard fashion, in some dim and gloomy chamber; and children used to look up half scared, half expectant, at the high windows, to catch a glimpse of the unfortunate lady peering from her prison."
Fitzgerald asks the same question: "Did Hancock have a lunatic wife locked up in his sinister-looking tower? Probably not, but there were plenty of children who declared that they had seen her white face peering from an upper window."
The Lost Sydney page has a duller explanation. It says Hancock believed an Englishman's house is his castle, so he built a watchtower as part of his home to scare off thieves, and liked to take guests up to show off a view of Sydney few others ever saw.
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The Neighbourhood
The "Old Chum" columns in Truth, which I have also put on this blog, used the tower as a landmark. Across the road from it was the Christ Church Parsonage, in the grounds next to the Benevolent Asylum, and the asylum itself "stood right opposite Hancock's Tower, the site being now a part of the Central Railway Station". The parsonage and the asylum were demolished to make way for Central.
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The Man Himself
Hancock's reputation went well past wheels and beer. Fitzgerald quotes him as a "fence, womaniser and owner of notoriously bad hotels". Max Solling, Glebe's historian, writes that Hancock "kept at least four mistresses at various times and often drove down George Street in a spanking carriage and pair with two of them together, one feathered beauty on each arm."
Julie at Thru my Sydney Eye found two more things in his papers at the State Library. One was a court case over cheating the two children of a friend out of their inheritance. The other was a fight over his own will after he died, between a version from 1870 and another from 1875.
The Lady of the Lake, Glebe
In 1873 Hancock took over the Lady of the Lake Hotel on the corner of Bay and Greek Streets, Glebe. The name almost certainly came from Sir Walter Scott's hugely popular 1810 poem The Lady of the Lake, though none of the sources I found says so outright.
Under Hancock the pub got a reputation. The Dictionary of Sydney says it became "a rendezvous for larrikins of the lowest type". The Glebe Society, as Julie quotes it, said that when "the Lady of the Lake's wealthy owner Robert Hancock took over, the place became a haunt for derelicts, outlaws, vagabonds, thieves and 'haybag' women".
Solling puts the Lady of the Lake into the bigger picture of Glebe drinking. In the 1800s the local pub was bigger and more comfortable than most working men's homes, open from 6 am to midnight seven days a week. In 1892 Glebe had 28 pubs.
A Wake on the Tap Room Table
Hancock spent his last years at the Lady of the Lake and died there on 26 February 1876. Solling tells what came next: "His body was laid out on the tap room table, farthing candles placed at his head and feet, and patrons invited to drown their sorrows. After a wild wake, local imbibers followed the cortege to Rookwood Cemetery."
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The Statue at Rookwood
The statue that once stood in his courtyard now marks his grave. Barry wrote that Hancock "left orders, so it is said, in his will" for it to go over his grave, "and the statue may still be seen by the curious at Rookwood". Julie describes it as a life-sized gentleman in very English landed-gentry style with a hunting dog at his side. The front says he died in 1876 aged 69, and a plaque on the back of the base says it was put up by Robert Hancock in May 1844, 32 years before he needed it.
As Julie points out, statues of the dead person are rare in Australian cemeteries. Most are religious or Greek and Roman figures, which makes this one stand out.
Timeline
- About 1806–07 – Robert Hancock is born (worked back from "aged 69" on his statue).
- May 1829 – Marries Catherine Ball (Thru my Sydney Eye).
- 1837 – Takes over his father's wheelwright business on George Street and leases the Britannia Inn.
- 1840 – The tower goes up, by Scott's and the Lost Sydney dating.
- May 1844 – The stone statue of Hancock and his dog is put up.
- About 1847 – Tower Inn built, by the Dictionary of Sydney's dating. Hancock gives up wheelwrighting and buys the Wellington Inn and the Tower Inn, renaming it Tower Court.
- 1873 – Takes over the Lady of the Lake Hotel, Bay and Greek Streets, Glebe.
- 26 February 1876 – Dies at the Lady of the Lake. Wake on the tap room table.
- 27 February 1876 – Buried at Rookwood. His statue later stands over the grave.
- 1894 – Hancock's Tower is demolished.
Where the Sources Disagree
- When the tower was built. Shirley Fitzgerald (Dictionary of Sydney, Ultimo, after Geoffrey Scott) and the Lost Sydney page say 1840. The Dictionary's Tower Inn record says the inn was "thought to have been built about 1847". Julie at Thru my Sydney Eye says Hancock bought the Tower Inn in 1847, which suggests the tower may already have been there.
- Who built it and why. Barry and Lost Sydney say Hancock built it as part of his own home after making money as a wheelwright. Lost Sydney says it was a watchtower against thieves. Barry passes on the story that it was a prison for his wife, and Fitzgerald says "probably not".
- Wheelwright or crook. Barry and Lost Sydney paint a hard-working, successful tradesman. The Dictionary of Sydney calls him a "petty criminal", and Fitzgerald calls him a "fence, womaniser and owner of notoriously bad hotels".
- Where the statue first stood. Barry places it in the courtyard between the tower and the inn. Julie reasons from its 1844 date that it was first put up at the Britannia Inn.
- Whose idea the grave statue was. Barry says Hancock left orders in his will, "so it is said". Julie says his papers show it was moved from his pub to the cemetery after his death.
- When the Lady of the Lake was at its worst. The Dictionary of Sydney says it "became infamous in the 1880s under notorious publican Bobby Hancock", but its own records have Hancock dying in 1876. So the 1880s date can't be right for Hancock himself.
- A second "wheelwright" in the 1840s? An 1848 directory index lists a "Hancock" on George Street. I haven't been able to check whether that was Robert.
My Earlier Posts
- The City Of Sydney – The Story Of its Growth – John Arthur Barry (includes his description of Hancock's Tower)
- Old Sydney – The Truth Newspaper – Saturday 12th September 1914 (mentions Hancock's Tower)
- The Benevolent Society and the Benevolent Asylum
- Devonshire Street Cemetery – The Burial Ground Under Central Station
- Old Sydney – 'Old Chum' – The Truth Newspapers
- Ultimo House – Ultimo
Sources
- Dictionary of Sydney, "Hancock, Robert (Bobby)" – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/person/hancock_robert_bobby
- Dictionary of Sydney, "Tower Inn" – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/tower_inn
- Dictionary of Sydney, "Lady of the Lake Hotel Glebe" – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/lady_of_the_lake_hotel_glebe
- Max Solling, "Glebe Pubs", Dictionary of Sydney, 2016 – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/glebe_pubs
- Shirley Fitzgerald, "Ultimo", Dictionary of Sydney (citing Geoffrey Scott, Sydney's Highways of History, 1958, pp 56–59) – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/ultimo
- Julie, "Taphophile Tragics – Being up yourself", Thru my Sydney Eye, 26 June 2012 – http://sydney-eye.blogspot.com/2012/06/taphophile-tragics-being-up-yourself.html
- "Lost Sydney: Lookouts", Visit Sydney Australia – https://www.visitsydneyaustralia.com.au/lost-lookouts.html
- John Arthur Barry, The City of Sydney – The Story of its Growth (transcribed on My Australian History Journey) – https://myozhistoryjourney.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-city-of-sydney-story-from-its.html
- "Old Chum", Truth, 12 September 1914 (transcribed on My Australian History Journey) – https://myozhistoryjourney.blogspot.com/2021/07/old-sydney-truth-newspaper-perth-old.html
- Images: Wikimedia Commons, with credits under each picture.