Fortune of War

The site of the Fortune of War was originally part of the first hospital, erected in 1788. By 1790 the original tent hospital had been replaced by a portable hospital which came out with the Second Fleet. After the Rum Hospital opened in 1816 in Macquarie Street the buildings on George Street were demolished and the site became an early quarry.

The site of the Fortune of War was formalised in the survey of the township carried out in the early 1830s. In 1841 the allotment was officially granted to the trustees, executrix and executors of the estate of the emancipist Samuel Terry.

Terry arrived in Sydney in 1801 on a seven-year sentence convicted of theft. He was eventually described as the "Botany Bay Rothschild" and at his death in 1838 left a personal estate of £250,000, an annual rental income from his Sydney properties of £10,000 and "land and property which defies assessment". Terry's business interests included brewing and he was occasionally a publican. On the site of the Fortune of War, Terry constructed a terrace of three buildings (today's 139-143 George Street) completed in the mid to late 1820s (the pub currently advertises "since 1828").

The building was constructed as a Public House known as "The Fortune of War". The first recorded licensee of the public house was John Boreham in 1830 for the sale of wines, malt and liquor. Many publicans were former artisans such as stonemasons, like Boreham, a former miller.

The bubonic plague broke out on the waterfront in 1900, prompting the Government to resume the entire Rocks and Millers Point area. Large scale demolitions followed and the area was administered by the Sydney Harbour Trust, then the Maritime Services Board and in 1970 The Rocks was handed to the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority.

The Fortune of War continued to trade until 1920 when Tooth & Co. Ltd. entered into a head-lease with the Sydney Harbour Trust for 45 years. Shortly after this the 19th century building was demolished and the current hotel constructed. Trading began in this new building in 1921. In March 1976 Tooth & Co relinquished their head lease to the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority.