Top, middle, and bottom

Pubs, that is. Lots of country towns have a top and a bottom pub, and often a middle one too. Here are Ulverstone's.

Top pub is these days called The Lighthouse, and they've put a (plastic?) lighthouse tower thing on the roof. I had a nice meal here, and asked the barmaid to remind me what the place used to be known as. "Stones", she said. That's right! How could I forget my Ulverstone pubs?

Just down the road is the grand old Furners pub. It looks pretty well unchanged, on the outside at least. I had an even better meal there.

The disappointment is the bottom pub, the River Arms. In the late 70s  and early 80s this one was looking very smart and cosy, and hired some very good cooks to became the gastro pub of choice for hip young Ulverstonians like me. And shortly after then, its bottom bar gained national fame for its 'Bottoms Bar', with its display of (sometimes tasteful) photography featuring the relevant anatomical part.

None of this now though. It's been renovated again recently, and most of it seems to have become a reception centre. Meals were being served in the upper section, but I found the ambience less than inviting.


Ulverstone's main drag is still dominated by the Shrine of Remembrance clock tower, at the very top end of town. It's a bit hard to love this thing, but here's an interesting account of it from the Burnie Advocate on the occasion of its 60th anniversary, in 2014:
http://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/2179023/clocks-life-and-chimes/