Aldgate - Culture and History

Aldgate was named by Richard Dixon Hawkins, a licensed victualler, who established the Aldgate Pump Hotel and named it after an area in London. The word 'aldgate' simply is a corruption of 'old gate'.

Hawkins was not new to the hotel business in the Adelaide Hills. He had previously owned the Crafers Inn. Noting the traffic over the hills, and particularly the possibilities which existed at the point where the old Mount Barker Road crossed the Echunga Road, Hawkins built the Aldgate Pump, built the pump and water trough, and watched as more than 60,000 people a year passed his front door - many of them stopping for a drink. The hotel became quite famous. At one point it was described as 'one of the best decorated of its kind in the Colony' with 'magnificent chandeliers'.

By 1870 there was a small settlement around the pump (the one opposite the pub is not the original one). Richard Hawkins had a established a smithy on the opposite corner to the pub. Eventually Hawkins sold the pub in 1875 and moved to Echunga where he died two years later.

The arrival of the railway in 1883 saw the hotel's wayside importance decline.

Today Aldgate is a small and attractive centre in the hills.