It was just that kind of place, said former staff members as they gathered to watch the Canning Highway venue being demolished to make way for a residential development.
‘It was a great dysfunctional family,’ Trish Watson said of the staff and customers.
‘You’d know what time people would come in every day, it was just like Cheers.’
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READ NOWDevelopers have ambitious plans for the site ” a six-storey mixed-use development called Richmond Quarter.
Commerical and residential properties and a boutique hotel with a roof-top wine bar and outdoor cinema will stand on the site of the old-fashioned watering hole.
Former manager Greg Pearce said the locals had a real sense of ownership of the place.
‘A lot of the customers were trades people and got involved in repairs that needed doing on the venue. They didn’t mind helping out,’ he said.
‘That’s why they felt part of the place.’
‘All the locals had their own spots,’ Tracey Cleak-Baylis said.
‘If a stranger came in and sat in their chair they’d be there waiting for them to move.’
Staff agreed the place was the one of the last suburban social hubs of its kind.
‘There’s really no more of those real ‘country’ pubs in the city,’ said Ms Watson.
The staff who spoke to the Gazette said they’d pop back to the Royal George when the bulldozers arrived, to say a final farewell.
‘I’m still sure I lost my wedding ring in that building,’ said former staffer Dave Phillips.