The story of this place
The London Hotel has stood on Balmain's waterfront since 1870, serving the dockworkers who loaded and unloaded ships on Sydney Harbour. In its heyday, Balmain was a working-class suburb where coal lumpers and waterside workers drank after brutal shifts. The pub survived the area's gentrification in the 1980s, when yuppies replaced dockworkers and house prices skyrocketed. Today, the sandstone building remains one of Sydney's most authentic historic pubs, with harbour views from the balcony and ghosts of working-class Sydney in every corner.