The Story of “the Ambassadors” Adelaide

The history of the “Ambassadors” dates back officially to 1841 when the City Arms, a single-storey inn with stockyards and good stabling was licensed for trade.

It s also recorded that in prior years to this, one Richard Pepperell, ran a tavern, the Red Lion in King William Street – location not stated – but it is of firm opinion that as Pepperell was first licensee of the City Arms, the inn was prior to 1841 the Red Lion. In 1873 Lloyd’s Coffee House, licensed and situated then on a site today taken up by part of the Savings Bank Buildings, took over the license of the old City Arms. And so it remained until 1881, when the premises were remodelled, two storeys added, and the name changed to United Service. This title remained until 1931 when the House again was subjected to face-lifting & retitling ... so came the Ambassador’s. A flash back to those days of the old coaching inn gives interesting reading & food for thought ...

Lend me an ear, ye who enter my bar, As I tell you a story of eras afar ..
Back o’er a century when history was young, When was founded an Inn in the year fourty-one,
Which was talk of the town with its elegant stables, Its gambling games and ordinary tables.
With the old rough bush bar of tallow and gum ... Kegs up on top of porter or rum ..
True, they didn’t have carpets, or fluorescent light .. But the pub didn’t close until late in the night.
And come Sunday they oft sang orchestral psalms ...To an organ or fiddles within the old Arms.

In the day when the dandy in velvet & lace, Did ‘Lancers’ with beauties with infinite grace;
Crinoline, bustle, and gingham of blue – This when Australia was “terribly new” ..
When bushmen & shearers & miners & cooks Would gather to “battle” with bartender “books”
On races conducted, an annual “meet” For brumbies and hacks in King William Street;
Where a gin case did duty as race starting post; And the stewards-cum-judge was always, Mine Host!

Then the meeting would end in a free-for-all spree, This long ago in a gone century ...
So progress occurred & Lloyds hit the fore With their ‘Coffee House’ sign hung over the door
Til ’eighteen-six [eight?] -one, which again ushered in The name ‘City Arms’, & the subsequent din
Of the celebrate crowd at the banquet & ball, And the beer drinking bouts & occasional brawl,
Struck terror to hearts of teetotal qualms; Then ended the ‘reign’ of the Inn City Arms.

So a city advanced through mulga wood scrub, And a modern 3-storey replaced the old pub
Came the century’s turn – the railways were born ...The phaeton gave way to the motor cars horn ..
They pulled down the stables; a new era begun ... And again a name change in Nineteen -3-One ...
And so the “Ambassadors” echoed the beat ... Of buses and trams in King William Street
Where once rang the hooves of brumby and hack ... past the finishing line ‘by’ the old hitching rack ...

Faded the names of a vanished decade ... the patrons of old, & the jokes that they played
And the threepenny pints, & the “Ordinaries” too ... The crinoline, bustle, and gingham of blue ...
This be the story of eras afar ... You’ve heard as herein, you lean on the bar ...