For over thirty years the Terminus Hotel had stood dilapidated and abandoned on the corner of Harris and John Streets in Pyrmont – shrouded in mystery and a heavy coat of ivy, and the memories of its publicans and customers long faded.

Told with fascinating insight and rich detail, historian and author Shirley Fitzgerald uncovers for the first time the stories, secrets and long-forgotten characters from what was once regarded as the toughest pub in Sydney – and today has been brought back to life and reopened as a heritage gastropub for locals and visitors alike.

First built in 1863, the Terminus evolved from local meeting place to workers pub, through very different liquor laws that allowed children to be served, and finally to its last trading years in the 1970s and 80s, where the clientele comprised of hardened merchant seamen and wharfies, biker gangs and curious punters who were served by topless, tattooed barmaids and entertained by rock bands.

Revealing its changing personality through photographs and interviews, Terminus: The Pub that Sydney Forgot offers a beautiful and captivating social history of Pyrmont through the lens of one pub, now open for the enjoyment of a new generation of patrons to make their own history.