FRIDAY MAY 3 at BURNSIDE UNITING CHURCH, FISHER STREET, BURNSIDE
A CITY PUB CRAWL: an Illustrated History Patricia Sumerling
This talk includes the architectural merits of some hotels, from the most modest, to the more evocative styles that characterise Adelaide. It also discusses biographies of publicans, barmaids and patrons, as well as the many planned and unplanned events that take place in a hotel.
Taken from her latest publication Hotels of Adelaide: an Illustrative History (Wakefield Press), this talk is only the second she has presented about Adelaide’s pubs to HSSA meetings. Having a long-term interest in the State’s pubs, her first book was Down at the Local: A History of Hotels in Kensington, Norwood and Kent Town, 1998. (image: Southern Cross Hotel SLSA B757)
About the Speaker: Patricia Sumerling, a professional historian for 40 years, is co-author of the landmark publication Heritage of the City of Adelaide: An Illustrated Guide, 1990. She is the author of The Adelaide Park Lands: A Social History, 2011, and of Elephants and Egotists: In Search of Samorn of the Adelaide Zoo, 2016. In 2010 she debuted as a novelist with the 1902 historical crime mystery, The Noon Lady of Towitta (nominated for the Ned Kelly Crime Awards in 2011). She was winner of the Catherine Mary Gilbert Prize organised by History SA in 2006 for her article on a notorious abortionist, Madam Harpur. In 2013 she was awarded South Australian Historian of the Year by the History Council of South Australia. She has also been awarded the Maurice Keain Medal for SA history publications on two occasions.