Scarborough Hotel
First Shown: 8 October 2018 on YouTube
Where is the Scarborough Hotel?, you ask. I'm not going to point out the obvious. Jeff and I decided to go there for lunch and video our trip. So, this is it. We live on the outskirts of the Sydney Metropolitan Area, near the Blue Mountains, so we welcomed the opportunity to visit the coast. Everyone likes to gaze out over the ocean and ponder gentle thoughts. In our case, we wanted a beer.
We set off giving us enough time to arrive before the kitchen closed and travelled through Liverpool, then Waterfall before entering the Royal National Park with its narrow roads and lush vegetation. We turned right into Lady Wakehurst Drive and headed south towards Stanwell Tops.
Stanwell Tops is a high cliff-face towering over the coastal waters and a popular spot for hang-gliding enthousiasts to hone their skills or plummet helplessly onto the rocks below (just joking). When we went through there we saw new road works being carried out to make the area safer for vehicles.
I wanted to see the Sea Cliff Bridge, on Lawrence Hargrave Drive, between Coalcliff and Clifton. It replaces a notoriously dangerous length of road cut into the cliff face that continually closed due to rock falls. I was impressed driving over the bridge as it is suspended over the water. Good job.
Shortly after the bridge we arrived at the hotel and surprise, surprise, the hotel carpark was full. It was a small carpark perched on the side of the cliff much the same as the hotel. So I drove to a spot I had located on a previous visit many years ago and parked alongside the railway line, one hundred metres from the hotel.
The Scarborough Hotel is heritage listed and dates back to July, 1887 when Edward James Lindsay applied for a license at the Wollongong Licensing Court for a house at Clifton, to be called the Scarborough Hotel. On behalf of the applicant, Mr Muir provided the Court with a plan of the building and there being no police objections, the application was granted. It wasn't long before Sydney officials such as The Minister For Works, the Hon. John Sutherland, was treated to light refreshments and groups, like the Independent Order of Oddfellows celebrated their second anniversary there and 30 members and guests of the Speedwell Bicycle Club, all dined at the hotel at the end of an outing.
We dined at the hotel at 2:30pm or should I say lunched, on seafood and beer. The hotel had a great atmosphere. When eventually we left the hotel I drove further south through Wombarra, Coaldale, Austinmer and Thirroul before climbing Bulli Pass and returning home via the Princess Highway.
