Paris House Part 1: Octave Desneux

 

Octave Desneux opened his new venture, Paris House, ‘a business to be carried on to correspond with the best houses in England and on the Continent’, on Tuesday, 16 November 1886.

This new restaurant was housed in a building at 173 Phillip Street formerly known as Victoria Chambers. Close to the theatres, on the corner of King Street opposite the Insolvent Court and within a stone’s throw of the Supreme and District Courts, Paris House was ideally positioned to attract the patronage of the men of the law. The newspaper reports do not throw any light on what happened to the tenants of Victoria Chambers or on how the necessary renovations, which ‘converted a suite of barrister’s chambers from … dark and dingy darkness … into a bright and airy cluster of dining rooms’, were financed, but Desneux had spared no expense. His establishment boasted nineteen attractively decorated, handsomely furnished and carpeted rooms, the most modern cooking appliances (the kitchen range alone was said to have cost £200), and linen, silver plate, and glassware personally selected and imported from Paris. The ‘culinary department’ was in the hands of the highly accomplished and experienced 'Mons. Calixte'. Desneux brought style, glamour, comfort, and luxury to the Sydney dining scene (see Daily Telegraph, 16 November 1886, p. 3; Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), 16 November 1886, p. 6; Illustrated Sydney News, 7 January 1887, p. 24). Advertising emphasised that at Paris House parties of gentlemen and ladies could be served meals in a series of rooms where they might dine privately ‘without being exposed to the gaze of strangers’, suggesting this was one of the main attractions of a properly run restaurant and was one of Paris House’s distinguishing features.* 

Paris House was not the first establishment in Sydney to be called a French restaurant, but it was hailed as ‘a boon to epicures and all people of epicurean tastes’ (Bulletin, 1 January 1887, p. 15). More ambitious than previous restaurateurs, Desneux was also more successful. His tenure at Paris House lasted for nine and a half years.

Front page of the Bulletin, 14 January 1888.

Just when and how Octave Desneux came to Australia is unclear. According to the Bulletin he had ‘continental as well as American experience’ including time as chef at ‘the Monopole in New York and the Palace Hotel in San Francisco’. On his own admission he had 20 years’ experience, working aboard yachts and steamers, and in hotels and restaurants, including ‘the largest houses’ in France, England, and America’. Of his time in Australia, there is evidence that Desneux had worked in Melbourne before he was engaged at the South Australian Club Hotel in Adelaide in 1883 (Bulletin, 1 January 1887, p. 15; South Australian Register, 15 August 1883 p. 3; SMH, 16 November 1886, p. 6. Later advertising in Le Courrier Australien claims Desneux had ’60 ans d’expérience dans l’art culinaire’ but this must have been a misprint, for example Le Courrier Australien, 21 May 1892, p. 3). It is possible that he had spent time on Messageries Maritimes ships travelling between Marseilles and Noumea via Australian ports and this may be how he came to Australia in the first place (See Public Records Office Victoria outwards passenger lists, on board the Sydney, December 1885, destination Sydney and Noumea. Messageries Maritime began operating to Noumea in 1882).

Paris House was welcomed by Sydney gourmets and by 1892 Desneux had expanded his interests. In that year he opened a shop devoted to charcuterie (in conjunction with ‘le célebre charcutier ALLARD‘ who claimed extensive experience (Le Courrier Australien, 3 September 1892, p. 1).  This establishment was in addition to ‘la rôtisserie select’ he already operated in King Street and supplied with poultry from his Eden Farm in Way Street, Marrickville.** 

But the 1890s were difficult times even for ‘The Sydney Delmonico’. Patrons no longer flocked to Paris House to pay 2s 6d for the table d’hote at lunch time or 4s for dinner. Early in 1895 Desneux resorted to advertising that he had ‘fitted up some special rooms’ where a first-class luncheon (three courses, sweets, and a small bottle of wine) could be enjoyed for the outlay of only 1 shilling, in the hope that he would be ‘favoured in the future with the same patronage as the past’ (Daily Telegraph, 12 January 1895, p. 2). His hopes were not realized, instead he was declared bankrupt, and Paris House came under new management in June (Daily Telegraph, 6 June 1895, p. 1). 

Meanwhile Octave Desneux had married Alice M. Ferrier. The evidence from his court appearances indicates that Desneux continued to work at Paris House until he was finally discharged in 1898 (Evening News, 24 March 1896, p. 5; Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection, Bankruptcy Index 1888-1929, NRS-13658-1-[10/23045]-9976). He then took up a colonial wine license and transferred his attentions to the Café Riche at 90 King Street (SMH, 15 September 1898, p. 7). 

At some point Mr and Mrs Desneux moved to New Zealand. In September of 1899 Octave formed a short-lived partnership with fellow Frenchman, Ernest Béguely, to open the Café Victoria, Restaurant des Gourmets, in Brandon Street, Wellington (New Zealand Evening Post, 15 September 1899, p. 6).*** Desneux had left the business before the end of the year and Béguely was declared bankrupt in February 1900 (Evening Post (NZ), 8 February 1900, p. 5; New Zealand Mail, 15 February 1900, p. 9).

The next definite sighting of Desneux is in September 1908 when he opens a new restaurant, called Paris House, in the Wairarapa Farmer’s Buildings on Lambton Quay in Wellington (advertising for this venture has Desneux as ‘late of the Wellington Club’, Evening Post (NZ), 26 September 1908, p. 1; Dominion, 6 October 1908, p. 3). An ‘exorbitant rent’ and a tendency to give his clients ‘too much for the prices he charged’ meant that this was another short-lived enterprise and Desneux was bankrupt again by March 1909 (Evening Post, 9 March 1909, p. 7; Dominion, 31 March 1909, p. 11).The following year he took over the license of the Grand National Hotel in Petone but again this venture only lasted twelve months (Evening Post, 21 January 1910, p. 1; Evening Post, 7 March 1910, p. 8; New Zealand Truth, 26 March, 1910, p. 6.; New Zealand Times, 8 February 1911, p. 9).

Perhaps after all these ups and downs Desneux finally decided to give up on the idea of his own business. There is some evidence that, despite his several failures, Desneux was a better manager of his finances than his bankruptcies might suggest. For example, he appears to have had investments in land in New Zealand (Evening Post, 22 April 1911, p. 2; NZ Herald, 19 November 1912, p. 12; NZ Herald, 19 March 1921, p. 10).

Octave Desneux died, aged 68, at Herne Bay (a suburb of Auckland) on 27 July 1922 (Auckland Star, 27 July 1922, p. 1).

 

The trials of Octave Desneux demonstrate the difficulty of attracting customers interested in good food and developing restaurants which offered not just excellent cuisine but also a suitably sophisticated atmosphere. Paris House was properly recognised as the premier Sydney restaurant under new management in the twentieth century, but Desneux should be remembered for establishing the standard for sophisticated dining on a grand scale - ‘la maison sans rivale, la seule oú l’on mange la veritable cuisine Parisienne, préparée par la cuisinier du jour’ (Le Courrier Australien, 3 September 1892, p. 1).

Cartoon which appeared in the Bulletin, April 9 1892, p. 20.

'He who knows how to eat knows how to live, and he who knows how to live knows how to eat'.

Mention should also be made of the highly accomplished chef, 'Mons Calixte', who started at Paris House in 1886. With such a distinctive name, ‘Mons Calixte’ is no doubt Calixte Denat. Denat was born in Lyon around 1858 and probably first arrived in Sydney in 1884 before heading to Noumea. He returned to Sydney in 1886 just in time to team up with Desneux. The timing of this arrival with the opening of Paris House strongly suggests that Denat and Desneux were known to one another before this date.**** 

How long Denat remained at Paris House is not recorded. On 9 July 1888 he married Mary Watson in Melbourne (The Argus, 12 July 1913 p. 13). Later that year he was employed at the French Club, and in 1890 he and a Mr. Halasy opened the Café Anglais, advertised as ‘the most handsomely appointed restaurant in Australia’. It was reported that the two gentlemen had visited Paris the previous year to ‘provide themselves with all the requisites’, and here Denat provided a ‘happy combination of an English dinner and French cookery’ in opulent surroundings (Table Talk, 7 February 1890, p. 12-13). Octave Denat went on to have a successful career in Melbourne, opening his own Café Denat in 1893. He also died in 1922 after falling from a tram (Herald (Melb.) 21 November 1922, p. 14).

* For more on the private versus public nature of early restaurants see Rebecca Spang, The Invention of the Restaurant (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 79. The restaurant offered ‘a model of sociability and service’ which set it apart from the café. A café held large numbers of patrons eating together in the same space, served light lunches and beverages, and provided newspapers, while a restaurant consisted of small rooms with no communication between the groups of diners.

** See Sands Directory for 1892; Evening News, 19 September 1892, p. 5 and 1 September 1892, p. 3. The rôtisserie business was at 140 King Street, the charcuterie at 111 King Street. The shop at 140 King Street supplied, in addition to ‘les meilleurs rôtis’, ‘les meilleurs fromages, les meilleurs pâtés’ and ‘les fines conserves’. How long either of these additional businesses operated is not clear. The charcuterie is listed in the Sands Directory for 1892 and 1893, the poultry shop/rôtisserie in 1892, 1893 and 1894. Allard remains a mystery. Desneux’s advertising claims that Allard was ‘ex-fournisseur [supplier] de la maison Chevet, des premiers restaurants de Paris, et depuis trente ans fournisseur de la Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes’ (Le Courrier Australien, 3 September 1892, p. 1). While it is clear Desneux raised his own poultry at Eden Farm the extent of the activities carried on there is not specified.

*** It is possible, but by no means certain, that Desneux and Béguely met in Sydney. See NSW Police Gazette, 10 August 1904, p. 322. 

**** For arrivals in Sydney see Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters https://marinersandships.com.au. Denat is listed as ‘Denst’, head cook, arrived in Sydney 1 May 1884, on Shannon ex London; also arrived in Sydney 8 November 1886, ‘first cuisinier’, on Dupleix from Noumea. Denat’s naturalisation papers (15 December 1900), available at National Archives of Australia, confirm that he first arrived via Shannon, ex London.

The Fate of the Café Français

Frederick Beach’s professional management helped maintain the reputation of the Café Français and ensure its on-going success. Another important factor in the establishment’s favour was its convenient location, on the city’s main thoroughfare, surrounded by commercial premises and banks. The location of the Café Français assumed even greater significance once the plans for the bridge across the harbour and the underground rail system in the city were mooted.

 In 1914 the Café Français premises and the adjoining two buildings at 289 and 295 George Street (a hairdressing salon and a furrier respectively) were reported as having been sold privately for £45, 000 (Evening News, 26 June 1914, p. 7). At the time there was speculation that the purchase had been made on behalf of the state government (Sunday Times, 28 June 1914, p. 4). By the end of 1915 it was common knowledge that the buildings had been secured by the government as the site of the George Street entrance to the yet-to-be-built underground railway station at Wynyard (Construction and Local Government Journal, 24 December 1915, p. 6).

Café Français, George Street ,Sydney, 17/9/1916, Government Printing Office, at State Library of New South Wales.

This transaction attracted a deal of public interest when it was revealed that in fact the government had paid £55,000. The Mirror of Australia were able to show that the transaction had been completed in a somewhat roundabout and secretive manner. Essentially the purchase had been made through a proxy/nominee and the government had subsequently paid £10,000 more than if they had purchased the property on the open market or waited until the City Railway Act had been passed, which would have conferred the power to resume properties as required. While journalists may have smelt a rat it isn’t clear that there was any rat to smell albeit the transaction was unusual, the real purchaser was not disclosed to the original vendor and who pocketed the final proceeds of the sale is not clear.

 

In August 1914 the trustees of the will of the late Lewis Wolfe Cohen (who was the purchaser of the property in 1882?) sold to an Albert Arthur Armstrong for £45,000. In May 1915 Armstrong agreed to sell to William Coleridge Paterson Hough, a medical practitioner. On 30 November a deed of conveyance was signed by Armstrong, Hough, and the Honourable W. J. H. Cann, Minister for Public Works. Hough entered into the contract as “agent for the construction authority” and requested the vendor (Armstrong) to convey the land to the construction authority, who paid the £55,000 to the mysterious Albert Arthur Armstrong (Mirror of Australia, 29 April 1916, p. 3). 

Was Armstrong a person who would normally be in a position to pay £45,000 and what did he know when he entered into the original contract in 1914? Why was it necessary for the government to engage an intermediary in the purchase from Armstrong? (Mirror of Australia, 6 May 1916, p. 3). These were questions worth asking, but the official line was that there was nothing to see here. The transactions had been carried out on behalf of the government by the estate agents Richardson and Wrench. It was Richardson and Wrench who had suggested the real purchaser should not be disclosed and it was Richardson and Wrench who provided the cheque for the deposit money via the "reputable nominee". It was also on their advice that the transaction proceeded when it did since, had the purchase been delayed till the end of the year (ie. held over until the government was entitled to resume), the expiring leases would undoubtedly have been renewed and not only would the owners have claimed the full amount paid (£55,000) or more, but large sums could have been claimed, and would be legally sustainable, for loss of trade by the tenants (Daily Telegraph, 1 May 1916, p. 4; 2 May 1916, p. 4). 

 

The first stage of the underground railway, from St James station to Central, was opened in December 1926, by which time work had commenced on the section including Town Hall and Wynyard Stations. In the meantime, business continued as usual at the Café Français.

 

After Frederick Beach’s retirement the business was taken on by Andrew Black, a well-known singer, and previously the licensee of Pfahlert’s Hotel. Black undertook some alterations and then died unexpectedly (SMH, 13 December 1918; Construction and Local Government Journal, 13 January 1919, p. 3; SMH, 16 September 1920, p. 8). His widow, Ellen, carried on the business until 1924, no doubt calling on her experience at Pfahlert’s (her first husband, Mr. Lichtscheindel [sic], had been the owner of Pfahlert’s).

 

The next licensee was Alfred Thompson. A company calling itself Café Français Limited had been formed with subscribers Thompson, Ruth Thompson, C. A. Clarke, E. J. Whitehead, C. W. Walsh A. U. Gubbins and J. W. Armstrong who now ran both the business in Sydney and the Royal Hotel in Taree. Nothing more is known about these individuals. A report in Smith’s Weekly has this company going into liquidation in June 1928 and the business then being carried on by trustees until October 1928 (Smith’s Weekly, 21 September 1929, p. 1). A hurried sale of the furniture, fittings, etc. of the Café Français, part of the assigned estate of A. E. Thompson, was advertised in October 1828 (SMH, 9 October 1928, p. 17). The Railway Commissioners then took possession of the premises, and the business was closed for 10 days. When the Café Français reopened, Mr Joseph S. Levy was the manager and licensee for a new syndicate who intended to build "a mammoth hotel" on the site (Sunday Times, 7 October 1928, p. 2).

 

The ins and outs of this transaction are not easy to decipher relying only on newspaper reports but, as with the transactions ten years earlier, there is a whiff of collusion in the air. The scheme for this monster hotel had been hatching since March 1927 when Levy, who was well-experienced having managed Usher’s Hotel and the Carlton Hotel in Sydney and the Grand Hotel in Wellington, New Zealand, travelled to the United States and England to study the latest developments in hotel design. The subsequent grand plan was for an enormous building with a frontage of 148 feet (45 metres) to George Street, rising 150 feet (46 metres) above Wynyard station and bridging Wynyard Lane, thus giving access to Carrington Street, with shopping arcades, bar entrances, lounges, smoking rooms, and all the other accoutrements of a palatial hotel. The estimated cost was £750,000. Levy was pleased to announce that the syndicate had a 60-year lease on what would be the Plaza Hotel (Sunday Times, 7 October 1928, p. 2). It was also made clear that Joseph Reuben Gardiner, one time boot manufacturer and recently involved in a well-publicised divorce case, was a principal of the syndicate.

 

Just when the building housing the Café Français was pulled down is not entirely clear, but the best indication is early 1929 (Building, vol. 44 no. 260, 12 April 1929, p. 82). In September 1929 Smith’s Weekly reported on the "George Street excavation scandal" claiming that the Railway Department were carrying out work to the tune of £100,000 all for the benefit of a "private syndicate’" This was just the beginning of a long and complicated saga concerning the building of the new hotel and the terms of the associated lease which held up construction for years (21 September, p. 1).

 

Wynyard station was opened in 1932, to coincide with the opening of the Harbour Bridge. There was as yet no progress on the hotel, but the terms of the project were clearer. The Sun newspaper explained that having excavated the site the Railway Department would "erect the building to the height of one floor above the level of George Street", the hotel syndicate would then pay the government interest on their expenditure to date and annual rent for their 60-year lease. At the end of the lease, the entire building, including any portion erected by the syndicate, would become the property of the Railway Department. The conditions further stipulated that work should commence immediately and the syndicate were required to spend £150,000 on their part of the construction (The Sun, 23 December 1932, p. 9). Why building had not commenced was not explained although the Sydney Morning Herald claimed the hold up was the refusal of the government to finance their part of the deal (10 June 1932, p. 13).

 

In December 1933 Joseph Reuben Gardiner was elected as a member of the NSW Legislative Council, an appointment which may have given him easy access to the right authorities if not any direct involvement in the government’s machinations over the future of the hotel project. In the meantime, a temporary Café Français had been erected, perched precariously on columns, clinging to one corner of the excavation site. Again, the exact date is not clear but it is likely  that this temporary accommodation was in place by early 1930.* This interim structure did not meet the requirements of the Liquor Act because it did not provide any bedrooms but in June 1934 the Licensing Board and the Railway Commissioners reached agreement with the syndicate, who were assured that work on the hotel could commence in twelve months once the foundations had been completed (SMH, 28 June 1934, p. 9).

Both these photographs, Excavations and Plaza Hotel Temporary Bar and Peapes' Menswear Store,  are from the Sam Hood Collection at the State Library of New South Wales, dated 29 January 1935.

This image is also from the Sam Hood Collection, Part II, Box 038, Hotel Cafe Francais (291 George Street) of J. Levy and excavation site for Wynyard House and the Railway Station Arcade, 1935, State Library of New South Wales.

The first progress was the calling of tenders for waterproofing the basement walls. Finally, the steel columns to carry the new Plaza Hotel were starting to be put into place in 1935 (SMH, 25 July 1935 p. 7). Perhaps discouraged by the time it was taking for the hotel to be up and running, Joseph Levy resigned at the beginning of 1937 and took up the management of the Wentworth Hotel (Daily Telegraph, 14 January 1937, p. 8; The Sun, 6 March 1837, p. 2).By early 1937 the temporary Café Français must also have been demolished with Truth announcing in April that the George Street ground floor and the lower mezzanine floor of the Plaza Hotel had been "partly completed" (Truth, 4 April 1937, p. 10). 

 

Joe Gardiner, no longer a member of the Legislative Council, still had grand plans. Reportedly "anxious that the old name and its associations should be retained in his new and luxurious establishment", a large part of the lower mezzanine was occupied by a "high class café known as Café Français Palm Court’" The new Café Français had capacity for 500 people and promised cookery and service of the highest standard. It was still anticipated that the finished hotel would occupy five further floors below the lower mezzanine level, while there would be another 11 floors above George Street providing 550 bedrooms.

 

How long a vestige of the Café Français was maintained after this date is hard to gauge. No further mention is made of its function as a restaurant or whether the name survived for long. Gardiner’s interest lay elsewhere. He lined the ramp down to the station from George Street with bars and bottle shops, which raised the ire of the Sydney Diocesan Synod and led the Bulletin to describe the Plaza Hotel as "a congeries of cafes, bars and bottle joints which forms … the most hideous feature of the hideous entrance to Wynyard Station" (Smith’s Weekly 12 September 1936, p. 3; The Labor Daily, 19 August 1938, p. 10; Bulletin, 10 August 1938, p. 13). Gardiner’s plans for the hotel continued to flounder while he weathered all manner of disputes - over building regulations, the licensing laws, underpayment of wages and the final terms of the lease with the Railway Commissioners which had not yet been signed, along the way earning himself an unenviable reputation for breaking the rules (SMH, 28 July 1938, p. 17; The Sun, 18 March 1939, p. 12).

 

Smith’s Weekly took up the story:

 

Completion of the Plaza Hotel, and a long-delayed clean-up of the Wynyard Station eyesore, are expected to result from negotiations now going on between the Minister for Transport (Mr. Bruxner) and the proprietors of the hotel. Ever since the station became a vital terminus eight years back, its ugly incompleteness has been a Sydney scandal.

In reply to questions from this newspaper, [the Railway Commissioner, Mr. Hartigan] said not long ago that the delay in completion of Wynyard was a matter concerning only the lessees. The terms of the contract between the Railway Department and the Plaza Hotel proprietors were not the public’s business.

 

With the approach of the time for the final drafting of the 60-year lease, as per the original contract, the matter had been given to the Minister for Transport to resolve (Smith’s Weekly, 25 February 1939, p. 2). Gardiner now admitted that his plans were much reduced, and the hotel was only likely to be a seven-storey structure. 

 

In June 1939 the Licensing Court again moved to refuse the renewal of the hotel’s liquor license on the grounds that the licensee failed to provide "the proper accommodation of at least four bedrooms and two sitting rooms constantly ready for public use, as required by the Liquor Act" (SMH, 6 June 1939, p. 60). Given all the back and forth there had been over the lease, including new clauses which prevented entrances to the bars from the ramps and passageways and the display of liquor advertisements within the station, as well as changes to the plans which had held up any further construction, the case was held over until the conditions could be finally agreed and the upper floors, which were to contain the guest rooms, could be built. In the event the license was refused but the hotel was allowed to continue trading pending an appeal (The Sun, 26 June 1939, p. 3).

 

Negotiations dragged on. The lease was finally signed in January 1941, but Joseph Reuben Gardiner died before it could be executed. A new agreement was then negotiated with his executors stipulating that at least four bedrooms would be provided on the first floor within seven months to ensure the granting of a liquor license (The Sun, 5 February 1941, p. 9; Daily Mirror, 13 June 1941, p. 11; The Sun, 30 June 1941, p. 5). The Plaza Hotel then came into the hands of a Melbourne company, Avrom/Avron Investments Pty. Ltd who purchased the assets of Joe Gardiner’s estate (SMH, 1 August 1941, p. 8).**

 

In September 1942 the Bulletin noted that "the clutter of scaffolding" surrounding the Plaza Hotel had finally been removed, "but for reasons known best to the lessee and the N.S.W. Railways Dept." the result was not as intended and the hotel had "reached completion at its second storey" with the acres of potential floor space over Wynyard station, originally intended to be revenue-earning, remaining empty air. The writer speculated on the possibility that someday the public might be told what went wrong "not since 1939, but in the seven years before that" (The Bulletin, 2 September 1942, p. 10), although the questions surrounding the future of the site dated back to 1914.

 

Satisfying the requirements of the Licensing Board and the Railway Commissioners proved to be an insurmountable impasse. Despite "extensive remodelling" in 1948, by 1950 the Plaza still only had 12 bedrooms, although it could boast 13 bars and 5 bottle departments along the ramp from George Street, nicknamed "Bottle Alley" (Tribune, 7 January 1948, p. 3; Construction, 1 September 1948, p. 5; Truth, 16 July 1950, p. 48). 

 

Giving evidence to the Royal Commission on Liquor Laws in NSW in 1952 the then licensee and manager, John Bonaventure Limerick, claimed that the Plaza paid the biggest license fee in the state and was also the biggest distributor of alcohol in the state but still only had 8 bedrooms available to the public (Daily Mirror, 1 April 1952, p. 3; 12 May 1952, p. 2). The issue came to a head the following year. The Licensing Court finally order the lessee to build 100 bedrooms, and four toilet blocks. An additional bar at the Carrington Street entrance had been approved earlier. The plans for the bedrooms must be lodged by 31 March 1954 (requiring approval by by the Railways Department) and building work completed within 12 months (Daily Telegraph, 16 August 1953, p. 10; Daily Mirror, 9 November 1953, p. 9; SMH, 10 November 1953, p. 11). The license was once again cancelled in 1956, effective June 21, pending an appeal, because work had not commenced (Canberra Times, 30 May 1956, p. 7).

Plaza Hotel, City Circle, Wynyard NSW, 1 January 1958, Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection, NRS-17420-2-28-858/173.

 

It appears however that the hotel continued to trade.

 

For a quarter of a century the George Street entrance to Sydney’s Wynyard station has been flanked with a series of bars and bottle-departments bearing the name Plaza Hotel. In the shadowy blue-prints of this institution, produced from time to time over the years when the question of renewal of liquor-licence came before the court, hovered a lofty edifice of from 6 to 10 or more stories designed to convert the string of saloons into a first-class residential hotel … During that long period the lease issued by the NSW Department of Railways has often seemed about to be cancelled, just as the liquor-licence has often seemed about to be withdrawn. Both however have survived … until recently (Bulletin, 9 March 1960, p. 6. “Beer castle in the air”).

 

At a hearing in December 1959 the Licensing Court gave the current lessees until July of 1960 to add 74 bedrooms. In February 1960 the lease changed hands again and it was announced that the new lessees would go ahead with the building of a modern hotel. The Bulletin was skeptical, adding "suspicion seems to hang heavily over Wynyard" and querying why the transfer of the lease had been granted without calling for tenders (9 March 1960, p. 6).

 

Newspaper clippings in the City of Sydney Archives confirm that Wynyard Plaza Pty Ltd were to be granted a 99-year lease on the Plaza Hotel site and that work would commence in May 1960. Photographs in the State Archives collection indicate that construction did proceed to a point, although a note in the Tribune in February 1961 claims the new project had run out of money and was "doomed to be temporary" (22 February 1961, p. 3). Not long after this the whole site was redeveloped with construction of the Menzies Hotel facing Carrington Street and Wynyard House fronting George Street.

 

There was no suggestion that the new hotel would house a Café Français, but the Menzies Hotel, officially opened on 17 October 1963, 110 years after Cheval established the original Café Français, and did go on to gain a reputation for luxurious accommodation and excellent food.

 

 

*Plans for premises to be used as a temporary bar dated September at Museums of History NSW, State Archives, NRS-9590-4-[Plan 72265]-Plan 72265. Argus (Melb.), 29 June 1934, p. 8 "for years it has been a skeleton having little more than a bar at the side of the deep excavation of Wynyard Station." 

 

** The original Plaza Hotel syndicate comprised A. Abrahams (Melbourne), E. Abrahams (Melbourne), JR Gardiner MLC, JR Kerr (financier), CH Gardiner, EF Gardiner, W. Berkman  (financier) and Joseph Levy (SMH, 28 June 1934, p. 9). Details of Avron/Avrom Investments are sketchy but in the 1950s the chairman was Lewis/Louis Hyams snr and the managing director Philip Hyams who were related to Alfred Abrahams through marriage – Philip Hyams was Alfred Abraham’s nephew.

The Café Restaurant Français Part 2

 After the Chevals departed Sydney the Café Français maintained its reputation as one of the city’s principal establishments.

 

John Maloney was licensee from 1865 until 1874. He was also involved with the Sir Joseph Banks Hotel at Botany, which he ran initially with his nephew Samuel Moreton (Empire, 15 July 1868, p. 5; Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), 30 November 1868, p. 4). Whatever Maloney’s plans were, it seems that the Sir Joseph Banks venture was less than successful. On more than one occasion he advertised that he was leaving the Café Français (SMH, 23 September 1868, p. 7; SMH, 28 August 1869, p. 12) until eventually Maloney was declared insolvent and announced the closure of the Café Français due to losses incurred as lessee of the Sir Joseph Banks Hotel (Empire, 26 June 1871, p. 1; Evening News, 1 July 1871, p. 2).

 

The next licensee was Thomas Briggs, who, according to the available record, almost immediately transferred the license back to Maloney. Maloney then held it until February 1874 when it transferred to James Wheeler who was licensee for around twelve months (NSW Government Gazette, 26 September 1871, p. 2149; Empire, 4 November 1871, p. 3; SMH, 25 February 1874, p. 7). The Café Français was in the hands of Thomas Mansell Giblin (SMH, 27 June 1879, p. 7) for the next eleven years. During his tenancy the freehold was sold for £39,500 to ‘the Hon. Mr. Levy’ (SMH, 28 April 1882, p. 9; Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate, 15 June 1882 p. 2), and when the new owner decided to increase the rent Giblin decided it was time to move on.

 

The next incumbent was Mrs W. P. (Elizabeth) Bowes late of the Australian Hotel, Bourke Street, Melbourne, who closed the café while she oversaw extensive alterations and additions, redecorating, renovating, and refurnishing, paying ‘especial attention’ to the ventilation (SMH, 12 February 1886, p. 5; SMH, 15 Feb. 1886, p. 2; SMH ,17 August 1886 p. 2). The rejuvenation began with the façade – the ‘ancient shop front’ in George Street being replaced by a modern one ‘neatly ornamented in the Italian style’ with four large plate-glass windows and wide double doors.

 

Mrs Bowes inherited an establishment ‘in a condition of disrepair and dinginess’. The floors were ‘old, worm-eaten and decayed’, the stairs dark, narrow, and unsafe. A team of fox terriers had been employed to keep the rats at bay, but the place was also infested with cock roaches. A detailed description of the refurbished premises provides a picture of how the café restaurant functioned. On George Street there were two entrances – one to the café and the other to the restaurant/public dining room. The latter was 63 ft by 18 ft and housed three rows of tables capable of seating 100 customers. At the far end of the room was a small private bar and a heated carving table and servery. The kitchen was behind the dining room equipped with all the latest equipment, including a serving lift connecting to the floor above. The kitchen also communicated with Wynyard Lane for deliveries etc. The café, which measured 68 ft by 18 ft, housed a counter fitted with ‘three pull beer engines’ and a buffet. A lounge room adjoining the café for domino players and smokers was set up with marble topped tables and easy chairs. Stairs form the lounge room led to another bar. From the café another flight of stairs led to the first floor where there was a club room and a private dining room, a private drawing room and a parlour, as well as the billiard room, manager’s office, storeroom, and three bedrooms. The second floor housed a total of 13 bedrooms and two bathrooms. Lavatories were also provided in the restaurant and café, conveniently located near the entrance in both cases. The site had a frontage of 40 ft to George Street and 76 ft to Wynyard Lane and was 90 ft deep. In total the building contained 28 rooms exclusive of the restaurant and café. (SMH, 15 March 1887, p. 8).

 

 

Layout of the Café Français in 1919.

George Street (293) (Cafe Francais) (01/01/1919 - 31/12/1919), [A-00548025]. City of Sydney Archives.

Mrs Bowes had some experience of running a licensed premises. She had taken over the management of the Australian Hotel in 1879 on the death of her husband, William Patrick Bowes, a well-known sportsman who was killed in a hunting accident (The Herald (Melb.), 25 August 1879, p. 3; Argus, 20 November 1879, p. 8). As a result of business falling off, losses from bad debts, and depreciation in the value of the Australian Hotel Elizabeth was declared insolvent in June 1885 (Argus, 25 June 1885, p. 5). She was released from sequestration in February 1886, the same month she took over the Café Français (The Age (Melb.), 8 February 1886, p. 6). Who financed the extensive alterations to the cafe restaurant is not recorded? What sort of fare was now being served in the restaurant is also not recorded.

 

Mrs Bowes transferred the license to William Stewart Balfour in August 1888 (SMH, 3 August 1888, p. 4) and the Café Français briefly became the city office of the Bondi Aquarium Company, but exactly what Balfour’s association was with the Aquarium and pleasure grounds, is not known (SMH, 18 February 1889, p. 1).

In December the lease on the café premises was purchased by John James Roth, a wine and spirit merchant, and the licensee and manager became Olaf Andersen (SMH, 13 December 1889, p. 4; Daily Telegraph, 24 December 1889 p. 7). Andersen was a native of Denmark and ‘a thoroughly efficient restaurateur’ with considerable experience both in Europe and in ‘the best colonial establishments’. Anxious to maintain the reputation of the Café Français as ‘one of the best places for procuring a refresher or a first class dinner at moderate figures’ the new team promised ‘a daily menu fit for the most fastidious epicure’ (The Australian Star, 18 February 1890, p. 2). Andersen’s association with the business did not last long and the liquor license went back to William Balfour in April 1891 (SMH, 17 April 1891 p. 7). Despite his initial optimism, by the end of that year Roth was selling up at the Café Français due to the failure of his wholesale wine and spirit business (SMH, 9 November 1891, p. 7; 14 November 1891 p. 3). Jules Gandiol appeared on the scene briefly as ‘le directeur du restaurant’ (Le Courier Australien, 30 April 1892, p. 4) but finding someone to run the dining room proved elusive (SMH, 31 May 1892 p. 8) until the license was taken up by Mr Frederick Dewe Beach in November 1892 (Evening News, 4 November p. 7).

 

Frederick D. Beach was a qualified confectioner and caterer before he arrived in South Australia in 1850. He worked briefly in Adelaide before taking his skills to the Victorian goldfields. Returning to Adelaide, in the 1860s he established Beach’s Restaurant on Hindley Street (The Advertiser (Adelaide), 15 November 1895, p. 5). There is no record of what prompted him to consider extending his business to Sydney, but he took over the Café Français with his son Frank at the end of 1892 and then transferred the license to his eldest son Frederick James Beach early in 1893 (SMH, 17 February 1893, p. 6; The Register (Adelaide), 1 May 1928, p. 8).* Frederick James had the advantage of a good education, experience gained in the restaurant business in Adelaide, and the support of his brother (presumably Frank) who acted as chief cook and buyer (The Register (Adelaide), 1 September 1883, p. 7; Evening Journal (Adelaide), 6 September 1884, p. 1; SMH, 2 February 1909, p. 5; The Register (Adelaide), 1 May 1928, p. 8). The café became popularly known as Beach’s Café Français, and remained a fashionable venue for meetings, celebratory dinners, functions, and events of one sort or another. Stability reigned for the next 25 years until Frederick James Beach retired in 1918. But the saga of the Café Français did not end here.

*Frederick Dewe Beach died in 1895, his son Herbert Way Beach carrying on the Adelaide business until it was taken over in 1909 (Advertiser (Adelaide), 15 November 1895, p. 5; The Register (Adelaide), 3 July 1909, p. 14). Frederick Dewe Beach was married to Elizabeth Way the sister of Sir Samuel Way, chief justice and lieutenant-governor of South Australia.

French on the Menu in Sydney, 1850–1900.

The Café Restaurant Français run by Timothée Cheval and John Poehlman may have been the first of its kind but it was by no means the only establishment in Sydney in the latter half of the nineteenth century to boast that it was run as a French restaurant or to promote its Frenchness. The sagas of these businesses suggest a hospitality scene where competition was fierce and margins narrow. Optimism and even skill and competence were not sufficient to ensure success in this environment. Partnerships perhaps formed in haste, or on short acquaintance, and establishments started with inadequate funds inevitably led to closures and bankruptcy. Longevity might depend on good luck as much as good management. The following vignettes provide some idea of the vicissitudes proprietors experienced, and glimpses of the society of the time in particular the interactions between members of the French speaking community.

1. Aux Frères Provençaux 

In March 1854 Ernest Budin and François Mellon advertised the opening their business Aux Frères Provençaux Café and Restaurant de Paris at 491 George Street, in the premises which had been the “French Stay Warehouse” run by Budin’s wife, the widow Fanny Protois.[1] They intended the establishment would be kept “in the Parisian style” (Sydney Morning Herald, hereafter SMH, 20 March 1854, p. 2; 25 March 1854, p. 5), offering “dinner always ready at the choice on the bill of fare” and assuring patrons that the “cooking and attendance is at present impossible to be surpassed in Sydney” (Illustrated Sydney News, 29 April 1854, p. 11). In May the café moved to 220 George Street where they could now also offer board and lodging (SMH, 17 May 1854, p. 6). Budin dedicated himself to providing Sydney with “an establishment indispensable to the individual comfort of the inhabitants”.

The details of the arrangement between Budin and Mellon are unknown, but in August 1854 the partnership was dissolved and Budin carried on the business alone, promising the cuisine would be “conducted by French and English cooks of great experience” and “the tout ensemble” would be of a style “hitherto unknown in the colony” (Empire, 5 August 1854, p. 8; SMH, 4 September 1854, p. 8).

Again, the exact details of the fate of Aux Frères Provençaux are not entirely clear but what they do reveal is the closeness of the small French speaking community. For example, when M. Massinot, late of his partnership with Timothée Cheval, was looking for an appointment as a butcher he could be contacted through Ernest Budin at 220 George Street (SMH, 16 October 1854, p. 1). 

The proprietors of Aux Frères Provençaux announced in February 1855 that they had “secured the services of a first-rate cook also a glacier both having been attached for years to the most celebrated cafes de Paris” (SMH, 20 February 1855, p. 6). Just who these gentlemen were is not explained, and here the trail becomes somewhat murky. At the quarterly licensing meeting in March 1855 the license for Aux Frères Provençaux transferred from Budin to Mr F. Osmond (Empire, 7 March 1855, p. 7), but at the annual licensing meeting held in April Alphonse Barbier applied for, and was granted the license to Aux Frères Provençaux. (SMH, 17 April 1855, p. 2 applications of publican’s general licenses; granted 27 April see Museums of History NSW, State Archives collection, NRS 14403 [7/1503]; reel 1237). This is the same Alphonse Barbier who had been in business with Alexandre De Mars, Timothée Cheval’s original partner, in Bathurst (Bathurst Free Press, 14 January 1854, p. 4). Barbier may have been the “first rate cook” referred to in the advertising in February.

At around this time Barbier forms a partnership with Guillaume Arzilier who was perhaps the “glacier” who joined Aux Frères Provençaux. Where Osmond fits into the scene is not clear, he may have purchased the premises at 220 George Street from Budin and leased them to Barbier and Co.? Whatever the arrangements “the shop at 220 George Street at present occupied by Barbier and Co. as the Café de Paris” was advertised to let in May 1855 (SMH, 17 May 1855, p. 1).

On 7 June “Barbier and Co. of the Café and restaurant 220 George Street, known as the Frères Provençaux” announce they have taken the premises formerly known as the German Club in O’Connell Street and will open there on 1 July (SMH, 7 June 1855, p. 1). Only ten days later the auction of the furniture and fittings of Aux Frères Provençaux is advertised due to the dissolution of the partnership of Barbier and Co. (SMH, 18 June 1855, p. 6) and the estate of François Barbier and Guillaume Arzilier “restaurant proprietors” was placed under sequestration on 19 July (NSW Government Gazette, 24 July 1855, p. 1968).

Meanwhile, F. Seghers and Co., “the successors to the proprietors” of the “Café Restaurant des freres Provenceaux [sic] Hotel restaurant”, advertised that they have indeed moved to the German Club premises at 18 O’Connell Street, and “retained the services of their celebrated chef de cuisine” (Empire, 12 July 1855, p. 1). François Seghers was a Belgian, late of Duprez and Seghers, tailors, and in September the license of Aux Frères Provençaux transfers to him from Alphonse Barbier (Empire, 5 September 1855, p. 3). Who the other partners were in F. Seghers and Co. is not revealed but perhaps Barbier, if not one of the partners, is “the celebrated chef de cuisine”. No further mention is made of the building in O’Connell Street until it is auctioned in 1857 (SMH, 16 January 1857, p. 7). 

To confuse the picture further, in September 1856 Frederick Osmond (to whom Budin transferred his license in 1855) moved on to the Digger’s Arms in Pitt Street (SMH, 12 September 1856, p. 8) where he continued to advertise a menu with a distinctly French flavour – for example, “mutton cutlets, sauce piquante; salmi of teal a la Bigarade; saute of goose aux olives; sweetbread of veal sauce tomate; tripe a la Lyonnaise; kidneys au champagne; sausages aux choux; cold meats: ham, tongues, potted game, partridge aux truffles, pate de fois gras, mayonnaise of lobster” (Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, 27 September 1856, p. 3) – suggesting he may have taken the “first rate cook” with him.[2]

2. Alphonse Courvoisier and the Hotel de France

Alphonse Courvoisier, who had worked for Timothée Cheval at the Café Restaurant Français for the previous five years, transferred first to the City Wine Vaults in George Street briefly before taking up the license for the Customs House Hotel in Macquarie Place in 1860 (SMH, 3 December, p. 7, 1859; SMH, 4 January, p. 3; SMH, 4 April 1860, p. 2). He was confident that “his long experience in the culinary art and his practical knowledge of the duties of a restaurant” would stand him in good stead (SMH, 3 December, p. 7, 1859). He promised a bill of fare “that might be expected from a first-class professional cook” (SMH, 7 January 1860, p. 1) which included food to please all comers from hodge-podge, roast beef and grilled chops to fish au gratin, epigramme [sic] of lamb with piquante sauce, calves’ liver a la bourgeoise, and milenaise [sic] of veal (SMH, 20 January 1860, p. 1; 31 January, p. 1). His tenure at the Customs House lasted about 12 months – in April 1861 the auction of the whole of his household furniture was advertised and in September the license was transferred to Francis Byrnes (SMH, 19 April 1861, p. 7; Empire, 4 September 1861, p. 7). With the number of hotels providing food in the city it is unlikely Courvoisier’s talents went to waste for long, and he claimed to have spent some time as chef at the Civil Services Club when, in 1868, he announced the opening of his café restaurant at the Hotel de France “King and George Streets opposite the Joint Stock Bank and nearly opposite the City Bank” (SMH, 9 July 1868, p. 1; Illustrated Sydney News, 11 July 1868, p. 16). This was a significant undertaking. The café downstairs was spacious, well-furnished and “lofty and well ventilated to suit the tropical climate”. The “equally vast proportioned chamber upstairs” housed two billiard tables and the hotel also offered accommodation. Among the “numerous other spacious apartments” was a ladies dining room, staffed by female attendants, described as “a great novelty in New South Wales, and an article long wanted” (Newcastle Chronicle, 25 July 1868, p. 3; SMH, 9 July 1868, p. 1). Courvoisier ran his establishment “in quite the Parisian style” and it soon became a popular venue for meetings of clubs and associations and formal, celebratory dinners.

How prominent Courvoisier was in the French community is not known. His wife, Louise/Louisa, spoke French having been born in the Channel Islands (Dutton, p. 21) but was technically a British subject. How they met and why they came to Australia is also unknown but they were not alone in Sydney. Louise’s brother, Charles Martel, worked as a waiter at Petty’s Hotel, and a sister, Ellen Marie, also lived in Sydney. It is possible Louise and Alphonse were the guardians of Louise’s nephew, Ernest Grasset, the orphaned son of another of her sisters (see death of Ernest, Evening News, 18 June 1875, p. 2).[3]

By 1869 Alphonse felt settled enough in Sydney with his successful business and extended family ties to become naturalized.[4] Subsequent happenings suggest that he may also have had political leanings which could have prompted him to leave France in the first place (rather than the quest for gold, see Dutton p. 21) and he saw little prospect of returning to France. There is also some evidence that he had links to New Caledonia. Reports of shipping departures and arrivals indicate that a Monsieur Courvoisier visited New Caledonia in March 1873 (Australian Town and Country Journal, 1 March 1873, p. 27; SMH, 14 March 1873 p. 4) and again in June (Sydney Mail, 14 June 1873, p. 751) and December (SMH, 11 December 1873, p. 4).

That his establishment in Sydney was both well-known, referred to simply as “Courvoisier’s”, and well-respected is attested by his clientele. Monsieur Pouzolz was on his way to Noumea to take up his position as president of the supreme court and chief justice of New Caledonia, when he died there in June 1873 (SMH, 25 June 1873, p. 4). The following year Courvoisier played host to more notorious guests. Henri Rochefort and his companions were political prisoners, Communards, members and supporters of the Paris Commune, the short-lived revolutionary socialist government which ruled France from 18 March to 28 May 1871. They had been exiled to New Caledonia, and escaped from detention in March 1874, Rochefort himself only having arrived there in December 1873.[5] Rochefort, Pascal Grousset, Francis Jourde, Olivier Pain, Achille Baillière and Bastian Granthille arrived in Newcastle on 27 March and by 1 April Rochefort, Grousset and Baillière were in Sydney, ensconced at Courvoisier’s hotel.

Their arrival was the subject of much interest with commentary both for and against the rebels from both the local community and the French establishment appearing in the newspapers. According to Rochefort’s account of his time in Sydney it was M. Bonnard, the French Consular Agent in Newcastle who recommended Courvoisier’s hotel, but Rochefort also claimed that he had prior knowledge of Courvoisier. Apparently, the tutor of his (Rochefort’s) children had met Courvoisier’s brother in La Rochelle and had mentioned that Alphonse was in Australia (Dutton, p. 21). It is hard to judge how true this statement is, particularly in the light of the barely plausible story Rochefort and friends concocted to explain how they had managed to escape from New Caledonia (see SMH, 30 March 1874, p. 4), but it does lend weight to the idea that Courvoisier sympathised with the radicals. It is Rochefort who also claims that Courvoisier had land holdings in New Caledonia and would in future be regarded as a criminal there for having helped the escapees (Dutton, p. 24). Although in all his interviews with the press Rochefort was careful not to implicate anyone in the planning of the escape, a M. Courvoisier was in New Caledonia in December 1873, leaving Noumea four days before Rochefort arrived which could be taken to suggest a tenuous connection between Courvoisier and the planning of the escape.[6]

Courvoisier’s guests stayed only a few days, leaving Sydney on 11 April (Evening News, 11 April 1874, p. 2) but what of the aftermath? How Courvoisier’s role in offering them accommodation was regarded by French officialdom is not recorded. The French Consul General in Sydney, Eugène Simon, made it clear, in a letter addressed to the public, that the truth of the matter was Rochefort and his friends were convicts, perpetrators of plunder, arson and murder and tried as criminals. They should not be romanticised as political prisoners. Sympathisers might well be well-meaning but they were “manifestly thoughtless” (Evening News, 4 April 1874, p. 2). Although the publicity surrounding Rochefort’s presence may have been good for business by attracting the curious, his association with the “communist” cause may not have been so good for Courvoisier’s personal standing in the French community.

The new year, 1875, began with Courvoisier announcing he was selling up - all the effects, goodwill, lease license, furniture and the four billiard tables of Courvoisier’s Café and Hotel de France were for sale by private contract. The net profits of the establishment were claimed to be £2000 per annum so that “to any person with sufficient means and a knowledge of the business’, this offered “an opportunity of realising a fortune in a few years.” (SMH, 16 February 1875, p. 6). Courvoisier was giving up this lucrative business because he had “realized a competency” and was about to retire and return to France. There is no reason to doubt the veracity of this claim that Courvoisier was in a financial position to retire, similar explanations were often proffered to counteract any suggestion that the business was in trouble and the owner staving off bankruptcy.

In April, Mrs Courvoisier left Sydney for Noumea (SMH, 16 April 1875, p. 6) which raises the suspicion that the Courvoisiers were not necessarily planning to return to France, but just what their connection was to New Caledonia is not known. Whatever their plans they did not come to fruition – François Alphonse Courvoisier died on May 5 (SMH, 6 May 1875, p. 1), he was 50 years old and did not leave a will.[7] Louise was described by Rochefort as “the life and soul of the establishment” (Dutton, p. 21) but now she was faced with the prospect of running the place on her own. She was granted the license for the hotel (SMH, 31 May 1875, p. 2) and applied for, and was granted, administration of her husband’s estate with help from Hippolyte Felix Delarue (watchmaker and jeweller) and her brother Charles Martel. In the meantime, she dealt with the tragic death of her nephew Ernest (see note 2). Louise may have been very competent but she nonetheless took her brother on as a managing partner in the business (SMH, 28 October 1875, p. 2) before deciding to sell out in June 1876 (SMH, 5 June 1876, p. 7). Courvoisier’s Hotel was taken over by Mr George Frazer/Fraser, late of the Scott’s Hotel in Melbourne, who purchased the lease and furniture for £1500 (SMH 15 June 1876, p. 5; 21 June 1876, p. 2).

What happened to Louise’s siblings is not known. Whether Frazier’s £1500 made Louise a wealthy widow or only went to covering her debts is also a mystery. In either case this story does not end happily. It seems that Louise subsequently went back to New Caledonia and was murdered there in “The Great Kanak Revolt” of 1878 (SMH, 25 July 1878, p. 4).[8]

Over 15 years Courvoisier had set a standard for Sydney which would not be matched until Paris House opened in 1890. His “his long experience in the culinary art and his practical knowledge of the duties of a restaurant” had stood him in good stead. The restaurant dining public had responded positively to his professionalism and appreciated the sophisticated ambience, disciplined service, and good food at the Hotel de France. But not all successful eating establishments boasting French flair were restaurants for the wealthy and well-connected or big hotels with lavish dining rooms. One of the longest running businesses with French credentials in Sydney in the nineteenth century was A La Flore Australienne.

3. Henri de Josselin and A La Flore Australienne

A La Flore Australienne opened in August 1861 as a “French confectionery and pastry establishment” which also sold wines and spirits imported from Europe. The business was originally a partnership between Henri de Josselin and Louis Saclier. Louis Saclier had previously been in business as a house decorator selling imported wallpaper and more recently had set himself up as an agent for French wines and spirits.[9] Henri de Josselin had been in the colony since 1855.[10] A la Flore Australienne promised an entirely new establishment “without rival in Sydney or even Australia” providing French confectionery and pastry, along with an unrivalled stock of liqueurs, wines and spirits imported from Europe. Advertising made a point of the accommodation provided for “ladies requiring lunch or refreshments” in a room “furnished with elegance” where they were assured of “every convenience and politeness” (SMH, 30 July 1861, p. 1; 24 August 1861, p. 5).

The business faltered before the end of the year and the partnership was dissolved, effective 1 January 1862 with Henri de Josselin continuing the business alone (SMH, 8 January 1862, p. 1; 12 February 1862, p. 1). A La Flore Australienne continued to sell imported confectionery, to supply lunches, cater for functions, picnics, and weddings, and provide seasonal delicacies along with iced drinks, jellies, and ice cream. By 1867 de Josselin could boast he now had “one of the largest, coolest, best and most comfortable dining rooms in New South Wales” where he paid strict attention to politeness and cleanliness, coupled with moderate charges and cuisine arrangements second to none (SMH, 3 April 1867, p. 8). For all his claim de Jossselin’s business was probably only modest but well enough known and patronised to prosper, at least until the early 1870s. Early in 1872 he downsized, relinquishing his lease on 319 George Street, and selling off household furniture, ivory handled cutlery, restaurant tables and chairs, bed steads, bedding and a “magnificent French billiard table” to concentrate his operations at the adjoining 317 George Street (SMH, 29 April 1872, p. 7). In June 1873 he advertised A la Flore Australienne for sale (SMH, 7 June 1873, p. 3) and presumably failing to attract a favourable buyer then moved to 307 George Street (SMH, May 13 1874, p. 10).

Throughout 1875 and 1876 he continued to advertise his private dining and ladies’ rooms, his French confectionery and pastry of all kinds and the availability of wines and spirits, for both wholesale and retail customers. In 1877 he did not renew the lease for 307 George Street (SMH, 30 April 1877, p. 1) and moved again this time to 9 Bond Street where he stayed until August 1878 (SMH, 15 August 1878, p. 12) when the address for A La Flore Australienne changed again to 12 Charlotte Place (SMH, 26 September 1878, p. 1). Here he claimed to have made extensive alterations to provide large airy luncheon rooms and an elegant ladies’ room, suitable for ladies and families, “not to be equalled in the colony” (SMH, 2 October 1878, p. 2; 9 November 1878, p. 15).

Perhaps de Josselin had over capitalised on his new premises or maybe business was falling off, but in January 1880 he was declared insolvent (NSW Gov. Gaz., 9 January 1880, p. 127). Bankruptcy was a common fate for restaurateurs and caterers but most seemed to bounce back and de Josselin was no exception. By November A La Flore Australienne was back in business at 409 George Street (SMH, 12 November 1880, p. 12). His advertising rarely specified items he offered on the menu, but it would appear de Josselin had, over his nearly twenty years in business, established a reputation for his meat pies and “celebrated veal and ham pates of old time renown” which he now made available on Wednesday and Saturday (SMH, 11 January 1881, p. 1).

Henri de Josselin had had a good run, but he was now 65 and no doubt ready to retire. In May the newspapers carried advertisements for the sale by auction of the equipment associated with A La Flore Australienne – the china, earthenware, glassware, furniture, and copper moulds, the ice cream machine, the coffee fountain, and the remaining candid fruits, syrups, and jams. Henri and his wife Rosa then rented Wascoe House, in what is today Blaxland in the lower Blue Mountains, from William Deane where they provided accommodation for gentlemen and families seeking a change of air in this “charming mountain retreat”, promising moderate terms and “a good table” (SMH, 20 August 1881, p. 16 and 1 October 1881, p. 18; 22 December 1882, p. 10).[11] But Henri’s time enjoying the fresh air of the mountains did not last long. Henri Etienne de Josselin, native of “Mentzac, Department de la Haute Vienne”, died suddenly on 22 May 1883 (SMH, 26 May 1883, p. 1).

 

---

[1] Budin claimed, on his application for naturalisation, to have arrived in Australia via Gypsy Queen in 1852 (Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection, Naturalization Index 1834–1903 [4/1200], reel no. 129, p. 518). Other evidence suggests he may have arrived in January 1853 (SMH, 8 January 1853, p. 4) on a boat from the “south seas” sponsored by Didier Joubert. Louis Victor Protois died in January 1852 (Shipping Gazette, 10 January 1852, p. 15). Budin and Fanny Protois were married by May 1853 (see SMH, 21 May 1853, p. 5)

[2] Alphonse Barbier tried his luck in his own business again in Melbourne (Argus, 21 November 1857, p. 5), but was again unsuccessful (The Age, 18 June 1858, p.2). He died in Melbourne in 1886 (Australasian, 20 March, 1886, p. 3). François Seghers returned to tailoring (SMH, 1 January 1862, p. 6).

[3] Ernest’s death was due to unintentional poisoning with carbolic acid. At the trial it was noted that he was entitled to property under Alphonse’s will, but this was not the case. François Alphonse Courvoisier died intestate, Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection, NRS-13660-2-[17/1779] series 2, Probate Packets. Ernest, the son of Auguste Theodore Grasset and Elizabeth Martel/Mortel, who married in Sydney in 1857, was born in Forbes in 1865. Auguste mined for gold in Forbes and died there in 1866. When Elizabeth died has not been established. Ellen Martel/Martet married Edmund E. Marie in Sydney in 1866. Edmund’s death has not been established.

[4] Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection, Naturalization Index 1843–1903, [4/1202],reel no. 130, p. 96.

[5] For Rochefort and the Communards in Sydney, see https://www.isfar.org.au/bio/rochefort-henri-1831-1913/ and K. R. Dutton, “Henri Rochefort and his companions in Australia.” Explorations 32 (June 2002), pp. 3–39, https://www.isfar.org.au/article/32-1/. For Rochefort ‘s arrival in Noumea see Empire, 4 February 1874, p. 3.

[6] Courvoisier left Noumea on 4 December (SMH, 11 December 1873, p. 4), Rochefort arrived on 8 December (Empire, 4 February 1874, p. 3).

[7] Travel to and from Noumea by steamer took approximately seven days. Madame Courvoisier returned to Sydney on 3 May, just in time for her husband’s death (Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 8 May 1875, p. 590).

[8] For the uprising see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1878_Kanak_revolt

[9] For Saclier see SMH, 9 April 1855, p. 6; Museums of History NSW, State Archives Collection, NRS-13654-1-[2/8917]-3704; agent for French wines and spirits Empire, 27 May 1859, p. 8.

[10] Henri de Josselin arrived as an unassisted immigrant on the Mercedes, birthplace Bordeaux.

[11] Henri de Josselin married Rosa Ann Wilson in 1862. Wascoe House was originally the Pilgrim Inn, situated at what was then Wascoe Junction. The remains are in the McDonald’s car park at Blaxland. The main property consisted of 13 rooms with an additional cottage of 5 rooms, situated on 56 acres with garden and orchard. Trains stopped at Wascoe’s platform on every trip. Advertised for sale SMH, 28 April 1873, p. 2, and William Deane offered it to let fully furnished SMH, 23 March 1881, p. 14.