Our History

The ‘Labour-in-Vain Hotel’, or ‘Labor-in-Vain’ as it was more commonly spelt, was built by George Hyde. Hyde was a resident of Fitzroy from as early as 1844, when the suburb was still mostly bush and known as New Town. At that time he followed the calling of a shoemaker, and had a shop near Joseph Broadstock’s famous Derwent Wine Vaults at Pink’s Corner. In today’s terms, roughly somewhere near the north western corner of Charles and Napier Streets.

By 1849 he had moved to Moor Street, right near the corner of Brunswick Street. Moor Street had only just got its name, being formerly known as William street. Here he had opened a grocery store, in what was then the budding suburb of Collingwood. He conducted the store for a number of years selling, hay, oats, bran and Maize, in addition to groceries. Mrs. Hyde ran the drapery department, where the ladies could procure a great variety of prints in fast colours, selected especially for the oncoming season.

During 1852-3 he erected bluestone premises on the Brunswick Street corner, consisting of eight rooms with room for a bar, plus a store-room and detached kitchen. There were stables at the rear of the building and on the same land, a detached timber and brick tenement of three rooms. By the end of 1853 Hyde had purchased three adjoining lots of land that together had a 135 foot frontage to Brunswick Street by 80 feet to Moor Street.

The corner block, which he bought from Henry Arnold, cost him £5,500.

Hyde, who was described as a highly respectable man, and an assessor to the Corporation (Melbourne City Council), applied for his publicans’ license in April 1853. The license was finally granted on the 11th of May, after being postponed for fourteen days in order to allow him to finish building. The hotel soon became a well-known wayside stop for travellers on the track to the Plenty River. Hyde served his customers, amongst other things, Wild’s No3 Pale Ale, which was brewed at the local Collingwood brewery on the corner of Otter and Bedford Streets. Mr. Wild’s Ales were held in good repute, and one of the better selling colonial beers in Melbourne at the time.

Hyde was a community minded man who took an interest in council matters. He even donated ten shillings to the Collingwood Commercial Cricket Club to improve their ground.

In December 1866 George Hyde died after having successfully run the Labor in Vain for over 13 years. Our beloved inn subsequently passed into the hands of William Scott, a District Master of the Grand United Order of Oddfellows. We have yet to unearth much about Scott, except that his father was, for what it’s worth, John Scott, keeper of the Royal Institute in Edinburgh. At the end of his three year stint at Labour In Vain, Scott died of effusion of the brain, caused by disease of the liver and kidneys. Although the author is not qualified in medical matters, it would appear that our Mr. Scott may have imbibed as habitually as the present proprietors. Scott left his good lady wife with the task of attending to the hotel.

It soon became apparent that Mrs. Scott didn’t aspire to be a publican. The furniture and fittings were auctioned in July 1870, only nine months after her husband’s death.

The list of effects that comprised the fittings included a number of antiques that would, if one still possessed them, be worth as much as the present building. The tables, chairs and couches were of cedar. The rooms were decorated with oil paintings and engravings – not to mention the curtains and cornices. The bedrooms were fitted with iron double and single beds, chests of drawers (cedar, no doubt) and washstands complete with porcelain jugs and basins and in the bar a five-pull beer engine, pewter pots and glassware. The list goes on.

In August that year Alexander Kelly became the proprietor of the ‘hospice’. Once again the landlord’s time as publican was so short it is difficult to find out any thing at all about his time here. On the 11th of May 1871 Kelly was in a dog cart driving his own horse, which was usually a quiet animal. His horse apparently shied at a hay cart, and ran into another cart. Kelly was thrown out, and in the process got his foot caught between the wheel and the step. He was dragged along the street some distance before being released. Kelly managed to hobble back to the pub, where the surgeon was called and subsequently treated his badly crushed foot and ankle. The injury, however, was rather more severe than first thought, and the leg had to be amputated a few days later after an artery opened up. Kelly, who was 51, died of loss of blood, leaving a wife and ten children.