In 1854 Alexander Gray was granted a licence for the ‘Waverley Tea Gardens Hotel’, which was initially planned to be surrounded by gardens, summer houses and a quoits pitch (a traditional lawn game involving the throwing of a metal or rubber ring, over a set distance, to land over a pin in the centre of a patch of clay - closely related to horseshoe pitching). It was a popular weekend spot from day one and was originally a single story building.

Bondi Junction – Previously Named After Our Hotel!
Bondi is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘water breaking over rocks’. Henry Hough was first given a grant of land on the site of Bondi Junction in 1832, where he built a wind-powered flour mill. This was accessed via the track leading off South Head Road (now Oxford Street) - the suburb's main thoroughfare.

Then in 1854, the first hotel in the area (that’s us!) opened. It was named ‘The Waverley Tea Gardens’ and the surrounding area quickly took that name, ‘Tea Gardens’, which stuck for the next 30 years. In May 1881, the land was subdivided. Three streets in this subdivision still exist today - Mill Hill Road, Hope Street and Hough Street. The subdivision of the estate coincided with the opening of the first tramway to the area. Steam trams began operation from Taylor Square in Darlinghurst on March 12, 1881.

With the extension of the tram lines to Bondi Beach, Charing Cross and later in the decade, Bronte, the term Bondi Junction was coined. It referred to the junction of the Bondi and Bronte tram lines at the corner of what is now Oxford Street and Bronte Road. With the subdivision of surrounding suburbs complete by 1930, Bondi Junction quickly grew into a major entertainment and commercial centre and of course, the Tea Gardens Hotel was, and still is the main attraction!