The Duke of Edinburgh Hotel in Pyrmont was founded by William Archer in 1881. There was a great story wrapped around the hotel in the Archer family, but how much of the story is true? Research by Glenn Martin, William's great great grandson.

1. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH HOTEL
Myth, reality and the Archer family
By Glenn Martin, November 2016

2. EARLIEST PHOTO
The hotel is at the corner of Harris Street and
Union Street in Pyrmont, Sydney, close to Darling
Harbour. It was built by William Archer in 1881,
when the area bustled with activity from the nearby
docks.
The photo (in possession of the Archer family)
shows the hotel in its early years, and features
William Archer and other members of the family.

3. THE HOTEL IN 2016: HARLEQUIN INN
The hotel still exists. From
the 1990s it has been called
the Harlequin Inn.
It has been remodelled
inside as a sports den. It
exhibits sports
paraphernalia, eg there are
football tops everywhere,
pinned to the walls, all
signed by popular
footballers.
There is no sign of the past –
no old photos of the hotel –
nothing.

4. FAMILY ANCESTRY
But there is a connection between myself and the hotel. My
mother was born Nell Archer.
She was born in 1923 in Marrickville. She married Sid Martin,
and their three children were Helen, Glenn (me) and Brian.
Nell was the child of Thomas Richard Archer. His father was
James Archer, and his father was William Archer.
So, I am a great great grandson of William Archer, the founder
of the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel.
Thomas Richard Archer, Nell’s father, was born around the
corner from the hotel, at 3 Paternoster Row, in 1886, just five
years after the hotel was built.
Nell Archer
(born 1923)
Thomas Richard
Archer (1886-1936)
James Archer
(1857-1917)
William Archer
(1813-1894)

5. PATERNOSTER ROW
The first two houses in Paternoster Row belonged
to the Archer family. The houses were built in the
early 1880s, at the same time as the hotel.
William Archer lived at Number 1, and James, his
son, lived next door at Number 3. The houses are
small. It must have been crowded. James and his
wife Alice had eight children.
The houses are still there, in 2016.
(In the photo, Number 1 is at right, Number 3 is at
left.)

6. THE STORY
This was Nell’s story, as she had heard it from Aunty Dolly, who was the youngest
child of James Archer. (James was the publican of the hotel after William Archer, for
a few years.)
The hotel was called the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel because two
ancestors, a young English lad and a young Scottish lass, had worked
at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. They had married, then come to
Australia and established the hotel.
The hotel had a white horse on the roof. The hotel was still in the
possession of the Archers when Darling Harbour underwent a major
redevelopment in the 1980s. The hotel was demolished and they
moved out to Windsor, taking the horse with them and setting it up at
a liquor outlet there.

7. THE STORY AND REALITY
We know that one part of the story is wrong. The hotel
still stands, so it did not get demolished in the 1980s.
But what about the rest of the story?
Were there two young lovers who worked at Edinburgh
Castle and who came to Australia and established the
hotel at Pyrmont?

8. THE TWO YOUNG LOVERS
The romantic story of boy-meets-girl while working at the
castle is not what the records tell us. It is true, however, that
William Archer was English and his wife, Ellen Welch, was
Scottish.
William was born at Harpenden in England in 1813. He was
convicted of theft in 1838 and transported to the colonies.
During his seven-year sentence he worked for a farmer in
the Hunter valley. (The image shows William’s Certificate of
Freedom, granted in 1844.)
Ellen came to Australia as an assisted migrant, working as a
servant. She was from Fife in Scotland, born in 1822.
William and Ellen met and were married in 1844 in the
Hunter.
There is romance enough in this.

9. FREE SETTLERS
There is another part to the story that Nell told – “All the Archers came to Australia as free settlers.
They were not convicts!” But we know this is not true. Right?
Well, William Archer and Ellen went back to England, probably in the late 1860s. We know, because
in the 1871 English Census, the family is shown living at Wilmington in Kent, where they have an
orchard. Then the Archers return to Australia, grandly, in a new ship, the St Osyth, in 1874.
And so it can be said….they came to Australia as free settlers!

10. THE HOTEL’S NAME
The name of the hotel raises the question: Why?
Did William Archer invent the story about he and Ellen
working at Edinburgh Castle for their children?
No….this does not explain the name, because the hotel was
called the “Duke of Edinburgh”. Not “Edinburgh Castle”.
(There is an Edinburgh Castle Hotel in Sydney (shown at
left). It was established in 1886.)
The answer lies in the person who was the Duke of
Edinburgh. He was Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert.

11. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH
The Duke was the first member of the Royal family to visit the
Australian colonies. His visit was not the kind of “fly in, fly out”
affair that occurs today with distinguished visitors.
He stayed in Australia for seven months, from November 1867
to June 1868, and he visited again from January to April 1869.
He was received all around Australia with great excitement
and affection. It was seen as recognition of the development
of the colonies beyond their convict beginnings, to be a
respectable and valuable part of the British Empire.
Attention surrounding the Duke’s presence was magnified by
the fact that he was shot and wounded by an Irish dissident
while in Sydney. (The Irishman was subsequently hanged.)
During his second visit, the Duke dedicated the Royal Prince
Alfred Hospital.

12. CONNECTION BY ASSOCIATION
We know that people, and companies, often
seek to associate themselves with something
popular or admirable in order to create their
own connection to it. I think this explains
why William named the hotel after the Duke
of Edinburgh.
There was a Duke of Edinburgh Hotel at
Brixton in London (built in 1860s) when
William was back living in England. (Alfred
became the Duke in 1866.)
After the Duke’s visit to Australia, hotels co-
opting his name sprang up everywhere –
Melbourne, Sydney (there was another at
Enmore), and even rural Queensland.
Perhaps William was trying to cement his
new standing in the community as a
respectable “free settler”.
Duke of Edinburgh Hotel at Walkerston near
Mackay, Queensland. Built before 1883.

13. ON THE TRAIL OF THE WHITE HORSE
There is still a mystery. What can we make of
the story of the white horse?
There is no sign of it at the Harlequin Inn.
Could we find it in photos of the Duke of
Edinburgh Hotel?
There is the early photo, in the 1880s, where
no horse is to be seen.
And there is a photo from 1949 (at right),
which shows the hotel basically the same as it
looks in 2016, and again there is no white
horse.
(The photo was taken by Tooths, the brewers.)

14. ANY WHITE HORSES
There is no trace of the white horse at Windsor. I have visited all of
the hotels and liquor outlets in Windsor and looked. There are old
hotels there, and there are hotels with old pictures, but no horse.
There are two White Horse Hotels in Sydney, at St Peters and Surry
Hills. The one at Surry Hills has a sculpture of a horse on top (see
the photo), but the horse is modern (and it is silver).

15. THE SOURCE OF THE HORSE?
But remember, William
Archer was born at
Harpenden,
Hertfordshire (1813).
He was transported in
1838, so for 25 years he
had lived in Harpenden.
And it so happens that
there was a White Horse
Tavern in Harpenden,
which is still in business
after an estimated 350
years.

16. WILLIAM AND THE WHITE HORSE INN
This is the White Horse Inn as it looked in about
1900 (at right) and in about 1930 (below).
William’s occupation at his trial was stated as ‘groom’,
and it is quite possible that he worked at the White
Horse Inn.

17. LOOSE ENDS
The story of the Archer family and the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel
still has some loose ends, mainly about the white horse. It seems
clear there was a basis of reality in the link between William
Archer and the idea of the white horse.
But we don’t know how it was represented or what happened to
it. Was there a sculpture or a picture that has drifted away
somewhere and been lost or destroyed?
Perhaps we have to accept that some stories will remain
unresolved.
And where did Nell’s story originate? It may have come from
William’s son, James Archer (pictured at right). Perhaps it was
James’s colourful way of reinventing the past.

18. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Story and images by Glenn Martin, from a variety of sources, public
domain and/or in personal possession.
November 2016
Contact:
glenn@glennmartin.com.au