Possibly the least positive part of the tour; stop 4, brings us to the location of the recently departed Bridie O’Reilly Hotel, previously featured on the corner of Sydney and Brunswick roads. The prominent location coupled with the longest tram line of the day (31,620 feet) gave the then named Sarah Sands fame well beyond Brunswick. Though it is not the oldest publican house in the Moreland area, much of its unique history has been surrounded by mystery and confusion. The original licensee had been commonly accepted to be the founder of the Hoffman Brickworks Company, but this has since quietly been disproven. The narrative now claims a Melbourne Shopkeeper had built the hotel, and named it after the ship that brought him to Victoria in 1852 - The Sarah Sands. Why the Bridie O’Reilly failed where the other original publican houses had persevered is a bit unknown as well. Perhaps it was partly due to its somewhat dodgy reputation in the 80’s and 90’s which may have kept new patrons away, or the that the rebranding of the Sarah Sands to an irish pub caused it to lose some of its identity and charm? This is all speculative, and unfortunately (no matter the reasons), the building and business fell to the economic pressures of today, and was put up for sale in early 2017. The building was subsequently bought by property developers to be turned into housing.
