There really isn’t a Prince Patrick. I was reasonably confident of that, even when I spotted the Prince Patrick Hotel this morning travelling on a bus to the Yarra Valley. I sit here now writing this blog post sipping an appropriately named Royal Lager in the Prince Patrick Hotel.
Prince Patrick is in fact Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and until his death in 1942, the last surviving child of Queen Victoria. One of his many middle names was Patrick. Prince Patrick Island in Canada is named after him (probably because there’s 100s of things named Prince Arthur). Arthur was a pretty cool dude for a Royal and crammed plenty into his 92 years, including a stint as the GG of Canada.
There are worse pubs than the Prince Patrick Hotel. They’ve renovated the interior without doing that horrible “Brass and Glass” that was so popular in the late 90s. The outside appears untouched (or they’ve done a magnificent distressed paint job that was favoured by DINKs that descended on Sydney’s Glorious Inner West™ also in the 90s. Very much a gastro pub with a beer list that announces the provenance of a few macros and a couple of crafties. Breheny Bros is a relatively new brewer that is remaking beers using recipes from over 100 years ago.
The Prince Patrick Hotel, 135 Victoria Parade, Collingwood, Vic
back of the ferry 