How many pints must a law student drink at the Corkman, before you can call them a law student?
Future Melbourne Law School (MLS) cohorts will never know, nor perhaps even understand the question.
Yes, my friends, the Corkman is no more (we reported earlier today about the illegal demolition of the pub, which was built in 1857 and is one of Carlton‘s earliest buildings). Any faint, flickering hopes of its resurrection now lie buried under the rubble of 160 Leicester St, pictured above.
From the courtyard, you used to be able to see people working in the law school till late at night. Now, from the law school, you can see the tangled mess of concrete and wires that courtyard has become. A sadder sight by far.
It was something both more, and less, than a standard Irish uni pub. Yes, the beer was bad. Yes, the décor was dubious (at best). Yes, the smoking area was often filled with the stench of garbage.
Yes, the reason why we all went there was because it was ludicrously close to the building in which we spent all of our other waking hours. But that closeness meant that everybody went there. And that everybody went there meant that a community existed.
We all* made great friendships while getting sloshed in the afternoon in that courtyard.
We all drank there to forget the essay due at 9AM the next morning.
We all felt the outrage that the EFTPOS machine was once again “not working” and that the extortionate ATM was the only option.
We all finally talked to one of our law school idols there for the first time, very drunk, and realised they were just a human being as well.
We all huddled around the surprisingly hearty fire, ate the actually pretty good wedges, and scanned the windows as we walked to the tramstop on a Thursday afternoon in the hope of seeing some friendly faces we could grab a beer with.
I once spent four consecutive evenings there, and regretted not a single second.
The Corkman was built in 1857 and was known as The Carlton Inn.
But it’s gone now. Soon to be replaced with an apartment building, I believe. Another thriving community replaced with an artificial one, another dilapidated bar replaced by a sterile monument to gentrification. Will we be the same law school without it? I don’t know.
It was a place of many great memories, and even more conspicuous absences of memories.
So whether it’s at The Last Jar (where the staff and management have now relocated), The Shaw Davey Slum *involuntary shudder*, Turf *more involuntary shudders*, in your own loungeroom clutching a glass of goon, or crouched in the dead of night with some tinnies in the ruins of the wonderful place itself, let’s all pour one out for the Corkman.
* (I say “we all” here loosely, of course – not everyone frequented the Corkman, but I imagine those who didn’t will have stopped reading by now).
A petition calling for an inquiry into the illegal demolition, as well as requesting the resurrection of the deeply-loved heritage-listed pub, can be found here: change.org/p/city-of-melbourne-resurrect-the-corkman-pub
Photo: Facebook.
This story was republished with permission from the officially-unofficial newspaper of the students of the Melbourne Law School, ‘De Minimis‘.
