Which is the oldest pub in Sydney?

The Fortune of War in The Rocks claims 1828, and its site is licensed from at least 1830, with John Boreham as first recorded licensee. That gives it the oldest licence in the city. Its building, though, is Tooth & Co.'s rebuild of 1921–22, so the fabric is a century younger.

Which Sydney pub is still in its original building?

The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel at Millers Point, built about 1836 as William Wells's sandstone house and licensed in the early 1840s. Its 1980s restoration was guided by a photograph taken in 1852, and it has brewed its own ales on the premises since 1986.

Is there really a smugglers' tunnel under the Hero of Waterloo?

The stone cellars are real and are the highlight of the ghost tours; the tunnel running down to the harbour and the press-gang stories are unverified folklore. The pub was built in 1843–44 by the stonemason George Paton, who received the first licence on 30 June 1845.

How much of the convict-era town survives around these pubs?

Enough to walk. The Rocks and Millers Point keep their early street pattern, their sandstone retaining walls and their stairs between levels, and all three pubs are on the New South Wales State Heritage Register. The buildings vary in date far more than the streets do.

3 pubs checked · updated 18 September 2026

The oldest pub in Sydney

The short answer

Oldest claim

Fortune of War Hotel

Says 1828. The first record is 1830.

Grade A · Documented

In Sydney the oldest claim and the earliest record belong to the same address: the Fortune of War on George Street in The Rocks, founded, it says, in 1828 by the emancipated convict Samuel Terry, with the site licensed from at least 1830. The building is not original — Tooth & Co. rebuilt it in 1921–22. For a pub trading in its own early fabric the answer is the Lord Nelson at Millers Point, licensed in the early 1840s in a sandstone house of about 1836.

Sydney's three oldest pubs all stand within a few hundred metres of one another on the sandstone spur between Circular Quay and Walsh Bay, which is the only part of the early town whose streets and levels survive in recognisable form. All three were built by men who arrived in the colony as convicts or worked alongside those who did: Samuel Terry, who founded the Fortune of War, was an emancipated convict, and William Wells, who built the house that became the Lord Nelson, was another. The material is local sandstone, cut by hand, and at the Hero of Waterloo you can still see the chisel marks. What complicates the dating here is not the licences, which are documented in the New South Wales heritage register, but the buildings: the brewery rebuilding programme of the 1920s replaced a good deal of early fabric with handsome interwar pubs standing on much older licences. The Fortune of War is the clearest example, which is why its neighbour a few streets uphill grades better on fabric while grading later on paper.

Three pubs, three kinds of claim

The Fortune of War has the licence, the hamper bar and the 1921 interior, plus a bistro and boutique rooms added in 2025. The Lord Nelson has the sandstone, the on-site brewery and the best case for continuous trade in original fabric; the New South Wales heritage listing gives its licence as June 1842, while the pub itself dates it to 1 May 1841. The Hero of Waterloo has the atmosphere: three storeys of hand-chiselled stone above Walsh Bay, a main bar little altered since 1928, log fires and jazz at weekends. The claim that it was a convict-built barracks of about 1804 is disputed and the 1843–44 construction date is not.

Walking them

The three sit on a route that takes about twenty minutes end to end, uphill. There is an order and some background in the oldest pubs of The Rocks. For the national argument, including why the title is genuinely unsettled, see the oldest pubs in Australia and Australia’s oldest pub: Hope and Anchor, Bush Inn or Woolpack; the state list is at New South Wales.

Sydney

Open the full map

The contenders, oldest claim first

ClaimProof

Fortune of War Hotel
Grade A
Sydney, New South Wales
The State Heritage Register has the emancipist Samuel Terry building a terrace of three on this site, completed in the mid to late 1820s and constructed as a public house known as the Fortune of War; its footprint appears in Robert Russell's survey of 1834, and the register places that terrace at today's 139-143 George Street. The first recorded licensee was John Boreham in 1830, for the sale of wines, malt and
Claims 1828; first recorded 1830; building c.1921.
Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel
Grade A
Sydney, New South Wales
The land came from a Crown grant to the plasterer William Wells dated 14 May 1836 and part of a grant in trust to Richard Driver of 30 November 1840; Wells is believed to have lived here until 1842, when the liquor licence was granted. The State Heritage Register calls the Lord Nelson the oldest working licensed hotel in the city and dates it from that licence of June 1842, while the pub dates its own licence to 1
Claims 1841; first recorded 1841; building c.1836.
Hero of Waterloo Hotel
Grade A
Sydney, New South Wales
The State Heritage Register has the land sold by a man named Clarke to the builder George Payten in 1840; Payten built the Garrison Church in 1842 and this hotel in 1843-44, and took out a licence in the name Hero of Waterloo in 1845. The stone for both church and hotel probably came from the Kent Street quarries, the earliest in Sydney. The register also explains the room a drinker stands in: the present main bar
Claims 1843; first recorded 1845; building c.1843.

The photographs above are other people's work, used under open licences. Every photographer, licence and source page is named in the image credits.

Common questions

Which is the oldest pub in Sydney?: The Fortune of War in The Rocks claims 1828, and its site is licensed from at least 1830, with John Boreham as first recorded licensee. That gives it the oldest licence in the city. Its building, though, is Tooth & Co.'s rebuild of 1921–22, so the fabric is a century younger.
Which Sydney pub is still in its original building?: The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel at Millers Point, built about 1836 as William Wells's sandstone house and licensed in the early 1840s. Its 1980s restoration was guided by a photograph taken in 1852, and it has brewed its own ales on the premises since 1986.
Is there really a smugglers' tunnel under the Hero of Waterloo?: The stone cellars are real and are the highlight of the ghost tours; the tunnel running down to the harbour and the press-gang stories are unverified folklore. The pub was built in 1843–44 by the stonemason George Paton, who received the first licence on 30 June 1845.
How much of the convict-era town survives around these pubs?: Enough to walk. The Rocks and Millers Point keep their early street pattern, their sandstone retaining walls and their stairs between levels, and all three pubs are on the New South Wales State Heritage Register. The buildings vary in date far more than the streets do.