THE OLD BELL HOTEL Elizabeth St. Hobart
THOMAS NEVIN's STUDIO 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart
State Library of Victoria
Title: Portrait photograph of Marcus Clarke in riding gear [picture].
Date(s): ca. 1866 [unattributed] alt. title, "Marcus Clarke aged 20, 1866"
Description: 1 photographic print on carte de visite mount : albumen silver ; 10.3 x 6.3 cm.
Source: https://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/49163
Marcus Clarke & Frederick Haddon in Hobart, 1870
According to Michael Wilding (2021, pp 106-36), Marcus Clarke's health was affected by the failure of two commercial publications in which he had heavily invested - the Colonial Monthly in 1868 and Humbug – A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Satire in January 1870. His doctors ordered "a change of air to the more salubrious climate of Tasmania" where his stated intention to his financial backers was "to write up the criminal records". Financing Clarke's exploration of convictism was editor of The Argus, Frederick William Haddon. On a previous visit to Tasmania in January 1869 Haddon may have posed for this fetching photograph taken by Henry Hall Baily at his studio, 94 Liverpool Street, Hobart Town. He would again visit Tasmania, this time accompanying Marcus Clarke, arriving at Launceston on 21 January 1870 and at the Port Arthur prison on 26 January 1870.
This subject of this photograph was mistakenly identified as Marcus Clarke when sent to auction in 2019 (Sydney Rare Books Auctions, passed in) and again currently at Leski's Auctions (May 2026).
Source online at Leski's Auctions, Melbourne May 2026
Catalogue notes:
Lot 1116:
[TASMANIAN INTEREST] A circa 1870 carte-de-visite featuring Marcus Clarke (1846-1881), Australian novelist best known for his 1874 novel "For the Term of His Natural Life", produced by H.H. Baily (Hobart). Taken during a brief visit to Tasmania in January 1870 at the behest of the Argus, Clarke is seen here striking a pose befitting a young bohemian of the time, lying on a chaise longue, gazing directly at the camera.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY Frederick William HADDON (1839–1906)[extract]
Source: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/haddon-frederick-william-3686
... Haddon worked first as a contributor to the Argus and then as sub-editor. He became co-editor of the new weekly Australasian in 1864 and sole editor in 1865. He was promoted editor of the Argus on 1 January 1867. Under his guidance it became, according to Richard Twopeny, 'the best daily paper published out of England'. Meanwhile Saturday night gatherings at his lodgings in 1867-68 and quarters which he briefly shared with Marcus Clarke attracted talented literary friends who in 1868 formed the Yorick Club. Haddon, one of the first trustees, withdrew as the club lost its Bohemianism but retained ties with Marcus Clarke and in 1870 went with him to Tasmania...
Marcus Clarke, F. W. Haddon and Aubrey Bowen
Author / Creator Johnstone, O'Shannessy & Co.
Date: [ca. 1846-ca. 1881] 1870
Source: State Library of Victoria
https://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/208344
Michael Wilding on Marcus Clarke at Port Arthur
This extract is from Michael Wilding's article on Marcus Clarke's Port Arthur experience (footnotes excluded):
TRANSCRIPT
The trip is described in a series of articles Clarke wrote three years later, when the closure of Port Arthur was announced and, no doubt hoping to generate some book sales, a month after Old Tales of a Young Country had been published. The three articles were published in The Argus, 3, 12 and 26 July 1873, and the last two reprinted in The Australasian, 26 July and 2 August.19 Clarke’s reference to the 1830 Tasmanian ‘war of extermination, known as the Black War’ provoked angry correspondence, with the result that The Australasian did not reprint the first article, and Mackinnon excluded it from the Austral Edition.
‘You will find it difficult to get down to Port Arthur unless you’ve got friends there!’ said the genial but imperative landlady of the Ark Hotel. ‘Of course, I mean friends in the Government,’ she added, seeing that I looked askance.
We had friends in the Government, for Hacker, my companion, was a man of mark at the office of the Peacock and had hinted vaguely of columns of lead minion to be supplied by my eminent hand.20
Clarke’s account of his visit captures the horror of the place.
To me, brooding over stories of misery and crime, sitting beside the ironed convicts, and shivering at the chill breeze which whitened the angry waters of the bay, there was no beauty in those desolate cliffs, no cheering picturesqueness in that frowning shore. I saw Port Arthur for the first time beneath a leaden and sullen sky; and as we sailed inwards past the ruins of Point Puer, and beheld barring our passage to the prison the low grey hummocks of the Island of the Dead, I felt that there was a grim propriety in the melancholy of nature.
He continues:
I know that I thought to myself that I should go mad were I condemned to such a life, and that I caught one of the men looking at me with a broad grin as I thought it. I know that there seemed to me to hang over the whole place a sort of horrible gloom, as though the sunlight had been withdrawn from it, and that I should have been ashamed to have suddenly met some high-minded friend, inasmuch as it seemed that in coming down to stare at these chained and degraded beings, we had all been guilty of an unmanly curiosity.
There were still some 574 inmates — convicts, invalids and insane at Port Arthur. Looking through the records Clarke asked to see one of them, transported for poaching when he was thirteen:
The warder drew aside a peep-hole in the barred door, and I saw a grizzled, gaunt and half-naked old man coiled in a corner. The peculiar wild-beast smell which belongs to some forms of furious madness exhaled from the cell. The gibbering animal within turned, and his malignant eyes met mine. ‘Take care,’ said the gaoler; ‘he has a habit of sticking his finger through the peep-hole to try and poke someone’s eye out!’ I drew back, and a nail-bitten hairy finger, like the toe of an ape, was thrust with rapid and simian neatness through the aperture. ‘That is how he amuses himself,’ said the good warder, forcing-to the iron slot; ‘he’d best be dead, I’m thinking.’21
The experience was a horrifying one; the library researches Clarke made through the published records were no less so. He concludes the third and final ‘Port Arthur’ piece:
In out-of-the-way corners, in shepherds’ huts or roadside taverns, one meets ‘old hands’ who relate terrible and true histories. In the folio reports of the House of Commons can be read statements which make one turn sick with disgust, and flush hot with indignation. Officialdom, with its crew of parasites and lickspittles, may try to palliate the enormities committed in the years gone by; may revile, with such powers of abuse as are given to it the writers who record the facts which it blushes for; but the sad grim truth remains. For half a century the law allowed the vagabonds and criminals of England to be subjected to a lingering torment, to a hideous debasement, to a monstrous system of punishment futile for good and horribly powerful for evil; and it is with feelings of the most profound delight that we record the abolition of the last memorial of an error fraught with so much misery.22
The first part of Clarke’s series of articles on the convict records, ‘Old Stories Retold’, later to be collected as Old Tales of a Young Country, appeared in The Australasian on 19 February, 1870. The forthcoming serial His Natural Life had been advertised in the Australian Journal in January and the first instalment appeared in the March issue. The publisher A. H. Massina recalled:
Now Clarke was going to write that story in twelve monthly sections. At first he wrote enough for two months, then enough for one month, and got down to very little. In fact we had once to put it in pica type, instead of brevier to swell out the size of that month’s contribution. But on one occasion he had nothing ready and we had to go to press with an apology to our readers. Finally we had to lock him in a room to get his matter written.23
And so His Natural Life came into being, ultimately running for twenty-seven episodes instead of the twelve originally agreed upon. The ‘Old Stories Retold’ series appeared simultaneously, all but two of them appearing in The Australasian between February and October 1870, some in multiple parts over two or three weeks, and the last, ‘An Australian Crusoe’ in three parts in June 1871. His Natural Life concluded a year later in June 1872.From Marcus Clarke: Novelist, Journalist and Bohemian, by Michael Wilding, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2021, pp 106-36.
Incorporating 'Marcus Clarke's Old Tales of a Young Country', Southerly, vol. 33 (1973) 394-408. Source: https://www.academia.edu/94741487/Michael_Wilding_Marcus_Clarke_Novelist_Journalist_and_Bohemian
Marcus Clarke at the Old Bell Hotel
In January 1920, the Old Bell Hotel in Elizabeth St. Hobart closed its doors for the last time. This notice repeated the story that Marcus Clarke had written parts of his famous novel For The Term of His Natural Life (1874) while imbibing in the parlour.
TRANSCRIPT
HOBART HOTELS CLOSEDSource: HOBART HOTELS CLOSED. (1920, January 2). Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA : 1910 - 1924), p. 4. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article106495811.
HAUNT OF MARCUS CLARKE
Eight hotels delicensed recently by the Hobart Licensing Court closed their doors last night. One is the Old Bell, where Marcus Clarke is supposed to have written a portion of his famous novel, "For the Term of His Natural Life."
By November 1921, plans were in place to demolish the hotel and in its place erect a two storey building renamed Old Bell Chambers housing a suite of shops and offices and a motor garage at rear, according to this report:
TRANSCRIPT
THE "OLD BELL" INN.Source: THE "OLD BELL" INN. (1921, November 4). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved October 23, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23473314
The demolition of another of the oldest public-houses in Hobart, known as the Old Bell Inn from the very early days of Hobart Town (as the city used to be called until comparatively recent years) is in progress, to make wav for new business premises, which will be styled "Old Bell Chambers". The most historic, and probably most interesting, reminiscence associated with the old building is the fact that Marcus Clarke is believed to have written his famous story, "For the Term of His Natural Life," in the main parlour of the inn. Though doubt is often cast on the possibility of this being actually true, owing to the author's reputedly short sojourn in Australia, it is more than probable that the original notes on which his narrative was framed at leisure were penned in the inn parlour on his return from a visit to the penal settlement at Eaglehawk Neck and Port Arthur. The site has a frontage on Elizabeth Street of 50 feet, widening to 70 feet at a depth of about 150 feet. The ground floor of the front portion will be occupied by shops, with suites of offices on the first floor, approached by a stair-way leading direct from Elizabeth-street, and isolated from the shops by means of a reinforced concrete wall. The rear portion of the site will be occupied by a spacious motor garage, accessible by a right-of-way from Elizabeth-street The tender of Mr. A P McElwee has been accepted for the erection of the building, which will be carried out from the design prepared bv the architect, Mr R W Koch, who will supervise the construction.
As it seems that photographer Thomas Nevin was partial to a drink, inebriation being the chief reason he was dismissed by the Police Committee from his position of Town Hall keeper in December 1880, the Old Bell Hotel would have been one of his preferred watering holes in the 1860s-1870s. The closest, however, was the Royal Standard Hotel located right next door to his studio, situated at 142 Elizabeth St on the corner of Patrick St, owned and operated by James Spence from 1862 to 1874.
Thomas J. Nevin was still alive in 1920 (d. 1923) when the hotel, known as the Old Bell, was delicensed, so he may have contributed to this story that Marcus Clarke drank there while writing his famous novel, published in instalments from 1870 after a visit to the derelict prison at Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula. Marcus Clarke was a heavy drinker, a sufferer of dyspepsia and a disordered liver, dying at just 35 years old (1846-1881), whereas Thomas Nevin (1842-1923) was a Wesleyan who not only proved immune to the illnesses which beset his other family members on the voyage out on the Fairlie (1852), he lived to the distinguished age of 81 yrs, his beard still red and his eyes still clear. according to his grand children Eva and Hilda - children of his youngest son Albert and wife Emily Nevin - who were five and three yr olds, born 1917 and 1919 respectively, and who were still alive when this weblog went online in 2003.
Views of the Old Bell Hotel
The Old Bell Hotel (or Inn) was located at 132 Elizabeth Street, in one photograph, a streetscape ca. 1890, and at 146 Elizabeth St. in another photograph of the facade. In either case, it was just three doors from Thomas Nevin's studio, The City Photographic Establishment, his glass house and residence at 138-140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart, and on the same side of the street. Thomas Nevin acquired the business and premises from Alfred Bock in 1865, operating with the business name Nevin & Smith until 1868 with Robert Smith's departure for NSW and continued as a commercial photographer at the same premises until late 1875 when he was appointed to the civil service at the Hobart Town Hall with residency.
T. Nevin's studio at 140 Elizabeth St.
When Thomas Nevin took these two stereographs of his studio and shop front at 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart, shown at extreme right of the frame, the Old Bell Hotel would have been located at 132 Elizabeth St, just at the crest as the street dipped towards the River Derwent and visible at the distant perspectival centre in each frame. According to Alfred Bock's advertisement for an apprentice in 1863, the address of the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. was "Three doors from Patrick-street, Hobart Town ..." .
Source: The Mercury, 7 July 1863.
The City Photographic Establishment at 140 Elizabeth St "Three doors from Patrick-street"
Alfred Bock’s new gallery was actually a glass house.
A view of Thomas Nevin's studio and shop, extreme right of frame, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart
Stereograph by T. J. Nevin ca. 1867-70 of the City Photographic Establishment
The dark building next door at 138 Elizabeth St, Nevin's residence, was leased from A. E. Biggs
T. Nevin impress on lower centre of mount.
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.12
Another view of Thomas Nevin's studio and shop, extreme right of frame, at 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart
The dark building next door at 138 Elizabeth St, Nevin's residence, was leased from A. E. Biggs
Stereograph by T. J. Nevin ca. 1867-1870 of the City Photographic Establishment, three doors from Patrick St.
TMAG Ref: Q1994-56-33 Verso blank
If the story about the Old Bell is factual, propinquity alone would have brought Thomas J. Nevin and Marcus Clarke together, and to their mutual satisfaction, given the journalistic background of John Nevin snr, Thomas' father, and Thomas Nevin's involvement with photographing the prisoner and ex-prisoner population. Another ready source of information would have been Thomas' younger brother Constable John Nevin stationed at the Cascades Prison for Males and at the Hobart Gaol, one street away from the Old Bell Hotel.
The Old Bell Hotel in Elizabeth St.
This photograph (below) dating from the 1890s distinctly shows The Old Bell Hotel on the right hand side of Elizabeth Street if looking towards the wharves, with the address as No.132 Elizabeth St.
Title: Photograph - Elizabeth Street looking south (Brisbane Street) - Bridges Bros and The Bell Hotel at number 132
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: NS1013-1-820
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
But this photograph shows the Old Bell at 146 Elizabeth St, Hobart:
Source: TAHO Ref:PH40-1-93c
Title: Photograph - "Old Bell Hotel", Hobart - interior of bar [n.d.]
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: PH40-1-94
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
When the photograph (below, top left) was taken of three boys standing outside the Old Bell Hotel, the authors of this article published in the Mercury Supplement series Cheers! on Hobart's hotels in 2005 stated that the hotel's address by then was 146 to 150 Elizabeth St. Hobart.
The Old Bell Hotel at what is now 146-150 Elizabeth t. Hobart
J. V. Peck licensee; the property at Nos 136-140 in his wife's name Catherine Peck by 1886
Source: Mercury Supplement Cheers, Friday August 26, 2005
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2019 Private Collection
The Serial and Novel
A press report by Marcus Clarke 2 August 1873:
TRANSCRIPT
When at Hobart Town I had asked an official of position to allow me to see the records, and – in consideration of the Peacock – he was obliging enough to do so. There I found set down, in various handwritings, the history of some strange lives… and glancing down the list, spotted with red ink for floggings, like a well printed prayer-book …
Source: Marcus Clarke, THE SKETCHER. (1873, August 2). The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 – 1946), p. 5. Retrieved September 21, 2014, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137581230
THE LAST HOPE. Book III, Chapter XIII (page 290)
Image taken from Marcus Clarke, For the Term of his Natural Life
WL Crowther Library,
State Library of Tasmania
Source: Colonialism and its Aftermath
Marcus Clarke's Preface to His Natural Life
First Published: 1870.
Source: University of Sydney Australian Digital Collections
PREFACE
The convict of fiction has been hitherto shown only at the beginning or at the end of his career. Either his exile has been the mysterious end to his misdeeds, or he has appeared upon the scene to claim interest by reason of an equally unintelligible love of crime acquired during his experience in a penal settlement.
Charles Reade has drawn the interior of a house of correction in England, and Victor Hugo has shown how a French convict fares after the fulfilment of his sentence. But no writer — so far as I am aware — has attempted to depict the dismal condition of a felon during his term of transportation.
I have endeavoured in “His Natural Life” to set forth the working and results of an English system of transportation carefully considered and carried out under official supervision; and to illustrate in the manner best calculated, as I think, to attract general attention, the inexpediency of again allowing offenders against the law to be herded together in places remote from the wholesome influence of public opinion, and to be submitted to a discipline which must necessarily depend for its just administration upon the personal character and temper of their gaolers.
Some of the events narrated are doubtless tragic and terrible; but I hold it needful to my purpose to record them, for they are events which have actually occurred, and which, if the blunders which produce them be repeated, must infallibly occur again. It is true that the British Government have ceased to deport the criminals of England, but the method of punishment, of which that deportation was a part, is still in existence. Port Blair is a Port Arthur filled with Indian-men instead of Englishmen; and, within the last year, France has established, at New Caledonia, a penal settlement which will, in the natural course of things, repeat in its annals the history of Macquarie Harbour and of Norfolk Island.
M.C.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Watch The Movie (1929)
Watch the full version here at YouTube -