The Royal Hotel on the corner of Baylis and Forsyth streets in the late 1800s. Photo: CSURA (Tom Lennon Collection).
If pub culture is anything to go by, it seems that Aussies are in no hurry to become a republic, with ‘Royal Hotel’ once again topping the list of most popular pub names in NSW.
A whopping 73 watering holes bear the name in 2025 and another 38 include a royal tip of the hat with names like Royal Mail, Royal Oak and the Royal Exchange.
In the Riverina however, royal watering holes seem to becoming less common with only a handful remaining and none in the larger centres of Griffith, Wagga and Albury.
West Wyalong, Tumut, Adelong, Grong Grong and Corowa all retain a kingly title while Coolamon makes the broader list with its Royal Tavern.
Other popular names on the top 10 list included the Commercial, Railway, Imperial, Tattersalls, Australian and the Grand.
“Royal Hotel continues to reign supreme as the most popular pub name in NSW, maintaining its crown since Liquor & Gaming NSW last reported this data five years ago,” said Minister for Gaming and Racing David Harris.
“Pub names are more than a simple sign on a building; they are windows into our history, with the names a reflection of the industries, traditions, and people that have shaped our state.”
Wagga Wagga and District Historical Society president Geoff Burch has spent decades researching the region’s pubs and said it was surprising that NSW’s largest inland city did not include a single pub name on the list.
“Of course, so many hotels have closed over the years and we’ve lost a lot of them,” he said.
“In the past though, I think we’ve had two Royals, two Commercials and two Railways if we include North Wagga, and then we’ve had one of all the others on the list.”
A woodcut print of the original Royal Hotel, Wagga Wagga. Photo: NSW State Archives Collection.
Wagga’s original Royal Hotel stood on the corner of Baylis and Forsyth streets and had the distinction of hosting actual royalty in 1868 when NSW Governor Somerset Richard Lowry-Corry, the 4th Earl Belmore visited “the Southern Districts”.
The Irish Viscount Corry and his Countess visited Wagga with much pomp and ceremony on 18 July 1868. According to the Sydney Mail, the hotel was decorated in their honour, with an illuminated crown and a traditional Gaelic greeting.
“Over the private entrance to the Royal Hotel, an arch of evergreens supported, embosomed in foliage, the coronet of an Earl, encircled with the well-known Irish motto, ‘Cead mille failthe’. From the gate to the door of the hotel a carpet had been laid down,” the Mail reported.
“Amidst a tremendous burst of cheering, he passed into the hotel, and shortly afterwards appeared on the balcony with the Countess, and bowed his acknowledgments to the crowd.”
The original Royal Hotel was demolished in the 1930s and a new Art Deco pub was opened under the name Carmody’s Royal Hotel in 1839. This too was demolished in 1979 to make way for a new Coles that would later become Sturt Mall.
That seems to have been the end of Wagga’s brush with royal watering holes, and today, The Jungle Duke is the most regal of the city’s pubs.
The ‘new’ Royal Hotel was built in 1939 by Mrs Carmody and demolished in 1979. Photo: CSURA (Tom Lennon Collection).
According to Mr Burch, the most unique pub name in Wagga would be the former Dew Drop Inn in the late 19th century that stood on the western edge of town where the Sturt and Olympic highways intersect today.
“One of the more interesting ones that’s still around would be the Palm and Pawn, which is very uncommon, and a lot of people still think it’s called the Palm and Prawn,” he said.
“In the 1960s and a little bit later all these suburban hotels were opened – Kooringal, Tolland, Ashmont and Turvey Park and of course they’re actually named after the suburb.
“You could say they’re not showing a lot of imagination, but then it does identify with that specific area and you certainly know where it is.”
The last new hotel to be built in Wagga was the Thomas Blamey which opened at Lake Albert in 1982 and Geoff said it looked likely the booming northern suburb of Estella would soon end the drought.
“It would be the first one in over 40 years, which is pretty unusual; so if they do get one up at Estella, it’ll be interesting to see what they call it,” he mused.
“Will it be the Estella Hotel or, who knows, they might even name it The Royal!”
NSW’s most popular licensed hotel names in 2025
- Royal Hotel – 73 venues
- Commercial Hotel – 34 venues
- Railway Hotel – 20 venues
- Imperial Hotel – 19 venues
- Tattersalls Hotel – 13 venues
- Grand Hotel – 12 venues
- Court House Hotel – 11 venues
- Australian Hotel – 9 venues
- Central Hotel – 8 venues
- Star Hotel – 7 venues
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