Jane Lanyon was born in 1920 in Balfour Street, Chippendale. Growing up poor in Depression-era Chippendale, Jane would busk out front of the Glengarry Hotel (on Lawson Street, Redfern) for spare change. I love this story of her singing for ha’pennies because I can imagine it so vividly, perhaps because I often drink at the Glengarry myself. In fact, we’ve nicknamed it the ‘People’s Pub’ – but I’m not quite sure why… I think because it has an amazing old table in the centre of the front bar that fits a lot of people! You can definitely imagine members of the Unemployed Workers Union sitting around that table and talking politics in the ’30s.
Nowadays we might say that we were ‘born’ in a particular suburb, but we really mean it as the place where we grew up. But Jane Lanyon was literally born in Balfour Street – in the front room of one of three two-story terraces between Queen and Henrietta Streets. Seeing as Balfour Street is just around the corner I took a little walk to see if the house Jane describes in the interview is still standing – and it is! Jane was born in the middle terrace.
This is great!
BTW, we call it the People’s Pub, because that’s what it says on the outside wall! (And on the coasters, I think…)
Makes sense! Thanks for checking out the blog. xx