Clifton Gardens History Revealed

Discover the lost hotels, historic pool, and colourful past and history of Mosman’s Clifton Gardens.

By Alec Smart

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Clifton Gardens is a grassed reserve with a netted bathing area in Chowder Bay, on the south-west side of Mosman in Sydney Harbour. Adjacent to the historic Submarine Miners’ Depot, the idyllic picnic area with barbecues, children’s playground, basketball court and fishing jetty was once a bustling tourist destination featuring a huge swimming arena and two luxury hotels.  

Piers of the realm

There was a time in recent history when jetties – those long walkways mounted on pillars and extending over the sea – were a major social attraction. From the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries, jetties (or piers as they were more commonly known in Britain, Europe and the USA), often featured theatres, pleasure rides and amusement arcades. 

In Australia – as in the case of Clifton Gardens in Chowder Bay and historic Manly Harbour Pool (1931-74) – people were drawn not to novelty attractions along the boardwalk, but the bathing areas beneath. Protected by shark nets, here they could swim safely without fear of losing their legs – or their lives. 

At their peak, when trains and ferries made cross-country travel more affordable for the masses, seaside jetties – often repurposed cargo wharfs - attracted tourists across all social classes, from the gentry to commoners. 

These tidal pools were enclosed by timber walkways, sometimes consisting of upper and lower levels, from which the public could dive, sunbathe or stroll around. 

Sea bathing in Australia accelerated in the early 1900s when social swimming became popular after the repeal of repressive ‘public decency’ laws that previously forbade swimming in daylight hours. (However, gender segregation was enforced or encouraged until the mid-20th century). 

History: off the Cliffe

The Clifton Gardens parkland has a history steeped with names associated with wealthy American whaler and merchant seaman Captain E. H. (Edmund Harrison) Cliffe, who, in April 1832, arrived in Sydney aboard his whaling ship, the Lady Wellington.

Shortly after his arrival, Cliffe purchased a 56-acre estate on the water’s edge of the bay the Indigenous Borogegal clans called Gooree. He built a grand two-storey house with balconies, which he named ‘Cliffeton’.

Cliffe employed convicts to work on his estate – two of whom, John Ward and William Grimshaw, burgled his home and were later discovered in their hut drunk and in possession of most of the missing items. They were subsequently sentenced to death and hanged.

A whaling factory was founded in nearby Mosman Bay, four inlets to the west, in 1831, by Archibald Mosman, from whom the suburb is named. The whaling ships, many of them international vessels, often anchored in Chowder Bay as well as neighbouring Taylors Bay and Sirius Cove.

It is often stated that the name ‘Chowder Bay’ originated in the 1830s when visiting American whalers, to whom Cliffe reportedly sold water and vegetables, made fish chowder from shellfish (oysters and pipis)

along the shore. 

However, its origins may be more prosaic. According to an article in the Sydney Sun, published 7 August 1925, “In 1832 an estate on the foreshores was bought by E. H. Cliffe, who had made six voyages between Port Jackson and the East Indies as chief officer of a Vessel. Writing from the estate, he gave his address as "Chouder Bay". “Chouder" has a breath of the Indies in it and probably it was associated with some place or incident in Mr. Cliffe's East Indian career.”

Captain Cliffe often undertook maritime trade with India.

There is no word ‘chouder’ in Hindi, India’s most commonly spoken language, nor any geographic locations in India, so perhaps we should stick with the shellfish broth, even though the English origins of the word ‘chowder’ are obscure.  

Cliffe himself died in November 1837, aged 41.

Hoteliers and hoodlums

In 1871, hoteliers Duncan and Mary Butters converted Cliffe’s two-storey grand house into a 10-bedroom hotel and licensed bar, which they named Clifton Arms. A carpenter and shipwright, Duncan Butters also built a dining pavilion and a dance hall (the latter popular social centres of the era), and the Chowder Bay Pleasure Grounds were promoted enthusiastically in the Illustrated Sydney News.

A wharf was constructed in the bay to allow the berthing of Sydney steam-powered ferries and it was far enough out so that the vessels could drop and collect passengers in low and high tides.

The hotel, dance hall and pavilion pre-date the famous swimming arena, constructed in 1931, by 60 years, so during this time people were journeying to Chowder Bay for dancing, socialising and seaside picnics in the sheltered cove. 

For five years the Butters oversaw this popular venue, however, in 1875 Mary Butters died of lung inflammation (probably influenza), aged just 32, leaving Duncan caring for their six children. 

In 1878 Butters married Elizabeth, Mary’s former nurse, however, he was financially crippled by the Pleasure Grounds’ running costs. After being declared bankrupt, he sold the venue in 1879 to Irish ferry owner David Thompson, who moved into the hotel with his wife Mary and their five children.

Thompson was a wealthy merchant who oversaw several vessels that transported goods and people between Melbourne and Newcastle. Unfortunately, in the early 1880s, Sydney experienced a crime wave by rival gangs of ‘push’ mobsters, and they frequently crossed the harbour to the secluded Chowder Bay for drunken punch-ups and turf wars.

The Clifton Arms developed a nefarious reputation, and in June 1883, Thompson had his liquor license revoked.

Rebirth and rise

After a year and with the support of a public petition, authorities deemed Thompson fit to operate a liquor venue again, and in July 1884 Clifton Arms Hotel was granted a new license. 

Thompson then set about upgrading the establishment to attract a higher class of clientele, expanding the hotel from 10 to 40 bedrooms, replacing the dance pavilion to a larger 5000-seater venue, adding a new skating rink, and extending the ferry wharf.

To shake off the previous notoriety, Thompson renamed the now three-storey hotel with a bar at the entrance, the Marine Hotel, which opened in August 1885. 

Thompson also imported a bathing machine from Britain, which was a netted enclosure that was wheeled down into the sea and bathers could swim without fear of hungry sharks.

The revamped pleasure grounds were a major success and was soon one of Sydney’s premier attractions. 

In 1906, after the Thompsons had passed away (David 1900, Mary 1905), Sydney Ferries Ltd purchased the Thompson’s estate, which comprised the hotel, dance/functions pavilion, roller-skating rink, surrounding parklands and, of course, the wharf.

The new owners constructed a boatshed and a tramway between the hotel and the wharf. Curiously, they reverted the hotel back to its previous name, albeit modernising it from Clifton Arms to Clifton Gardens. 

Sydney Ferries also modernised the wharf, taking advantage of the new trend in public ocean swimming, which previously was illegal in daylight due to an 1830s law enforcing ‘Public Decency’. In 1902, Manly & North Sydney News editor William Gocher deliberately flouted the ban by swimming in daylight, in order to get arrested, publicise the ridiculous nature of the ban, and force a change in the law.

It worked - in November 1903, Manly Council were the first authority to permit all-day sea bathing, and other councils followed.

Sydney Ferries capitalised on the incredible popularity of ocean swimming, building an enormous circular shark-proof enclosure of timber and iron in Chowder Bay, which included diving platforms and two levels of promenades upon which 3,000 people could stroll or recline in deck chairs.

They reaped the rewards – regular ferry services brought day-trippers, honeymooners, etc., over to Clifton Gardens, which was most popular on the weekends in Summer. 

Decline and demolition

Sadly, the swimming arena slowly declined in popularity over the following decades and fell into decline. Sydney Ferries sold it in 1949 to Canadian businessman and Sydney nightclub owner Joseph Herbert. Herbert had grand plans to revamp the entire Clifton Gardens to a massive tourist resort, and commissioned an architect to design the venue. 

However, the redevelopment plan met with public opposition, including the NSW Trades & Labour Council, which proposed instead a public parkland. Dismayed, Herbert sold the venture to a new owner in 1956, and in October the bathing arena suspiciously burned to the waterline – and was subsequently demolished.

Over the next decade, the Clifton Gardens Hotel fell into disrepair and instead of being repaired and preserved, was demolished on 17 November 1967. Mosman Council then purchased the land and in the following years cleared the site and levelled it to a grassed public reserve. 

Recollections from a resident

During the research for this article, I discovered a woman named Mavis West who lived in Clifton Gardens Hotel as a young girl (1955-56, then 1965-67) while her parents were employees – her mother the cook, her father the bar manager. She kindly shared her recollections.

What was life like in the hotel? 

Fun, we had great staff there at the time, it was like a family. The Arthurs were the licensees - great couple.

I was the only kid that lived on the premises; a girlfriend lived up the road. I swam in the pool and fished off the jetty with Mum.

There used to be a dumb waiter from the public bar to the kitchen and I can remember the orders coming up, requesting my Mum be the one to cook the punters’ steaks. Mum was rather busy! 

I had a great time living in the hotel; I could have soft drinks and chips whenever I wanted! When I came home from school I could sit in the dining room and watch TV… There were separate staff quarters’ buildings on the premises.

Was the hotel busy all year around, or mainly catered to Summertime weekenders using the tidal pool? 

Busier in the summer time; the majority of people mainly came for the pub. There was a couple that came every weekend and sat in the beer garden listening to the horse races that they placed bets on prior.

Also used to have a jazz band on a Saturday night during the summer months, they docked at the jetty and lugged the gear through the park and set up in the beer garden. With their stripped blazers and boater hats they played great jazz (I was aged about 10 then).

Clifton Gardens was always a popular spot; companies would hold their Christmas Parties in the ballroom at the hotel and others would have them in the park, with a beer tent for the adults, Santa for the kids. The ballroom was used other times during the year as well. 

We had the 16-foot sail clubs stay at the hotel and hold races off the beach.

What was the circular swimming pool like - did you swim there often? 

The promenade, dressing rooms & diving platform weren't there in my years residing there. Unfortunately, there was a fire back in the day and the pool area burnt down, so what is there today is what was there when I was a kid.

When the hotel was demolished, how did that affect you? 

I can't remember the year it was pulled down, but I watched it every day, as we ended up moving into a block of flats next door. My bedroom window overlooked the hotel. (It was the first time I saw a female brickie too.)

I heard the bricks were used to build a house on the North Shore somewhere. It was a sad time…

The hotel should have been preserved - turn it into a nursing home or bed & breakfast, they could have done anything with it. It was about the time Jack Mundy was saving The Rocks that the hotel was pulled down. [Jack Mundy of the Builders Labourers Federation oversaw the ‘Green Bans’ that preserved Sydney’s historic buildings from the overzealous demands of the property developers under the corrupt NSW Premier Bob Askin.]