Hotel Metropole

21/07/2026

Lets help celebrate with them on the 1st of August!

Funny how life works...

Seven years ago, what was supposed to be nothing more than catching up over dinner turned into something much bigger. Two old bandmates got talking, reminiscing about the good old days, and before long the conversation became, "What if we got the band back together?"

From that dinner we practised and had our first new gig at the Redbank Plains Tavern. We put the call out and cashed in every favour we had and we packed out the joint! That was the start of a wild ride we're still hanging onto today.

The best part? All of you legends who've packed out pubs, sung along, danced, shouted for "just one more song," and kept coming back to support us. You are the reason we're still doing what we love.

So now it's time to celebrate seven years the only way we know how—down at the pub with a cold beer, good mates, and plenty of live music.

Come along to our 7 Year Anniversary Gig, at the best beer garden in Ipswich, the magnificent Hotel Metropole and help us raise a glass to seven bloody good years, and let's make a few more memories together. If you were at the very first gig back in 2019 or you've joined the ride more recently we'd love to see you all there 🦈🦈🎶🎶

21/07/2026

Another Jam packed week ;) 😅
The More You Know Trivia Tonight 7pm!
Pool Comp Thursday!
Friday Krazy Kathy's Karaoke in the Bistro! With the Amazing The Jam Factory getting you up & dancing in the Beer Garden! 7pm-11pm
Saturday with Eddie and the Engine Room 🎶! 7pm-11pm
And finishing the week with a Sunday Sesh is JW Longhorn! 1-5pm!

19/07/2026

Sunday's been a bit quiet I can do it myself MORON 🤣🤣

16/07/2026

15/07/2026

Thursday night Pool comp
Friday night 7pm-11pm Krazy Kathy's Karaoke Vintage Vinyl - Retro Party Band Brisbane
Saturday night 7pm-11pm Good Vibes and Straight Up Stand-up Comedy club (Ticketed event)
Sunday afternoon 1pm-5pm Kim Wright Music

13/07/2026

Saturday night 18th july 7.30pm-9.30pm
Get your tickets now

https://facebook.com/events/s/stand-up-comedy-in-ipswich-dar/1041494158553951/

11/07/2026

OPENING LATE TODAY SORRY WON'T BE IN UNTIL AROUND 1130AM

07/07/2026

Weve got the Big Screen ready to go!
Who will win Origin 2026?!

Come watch with us at the Hotel Metropole!

07/07/2026

This week Tues - The More You Know Trivia Fri - Krazy Kathy's Karaoke Richard Waterson Risk Of Pleasure Rhys Jackson!

04/07/2026

More news coming shortly with Gateway Entertainment

04/07/2026

Tonight from 7pm! Emplade

Catch us live on Sat July 4th Hotel Metropole, Ipswich, 7PM-11PM 🎸🙌 Hotel Metropole, Ipswich

03/07/2026

Tonight from 7pm!

Hotel Metropole Back at the Best Beer Garden in Town, This Friday 3rd July, 7pm, See you there, ⚡️⚡️

30/06/2026

This weeks line-up!
Tues 30th - The More You Know Trivia
Thurs 2nd - Pool Comp
Friday 3rd - Krazy Kathy's Karaoke, Livewire Duo Classic Rock 70's 80's 90's New
Sat 4th - Emplade
Sun 5th -

29/06/2026

Youll only find him here at the Metropole!
Meet Chris! One of Our friendly locals, handing out free dance lessons and making everyone feel seen! Get in now before we take advantage and start charging lol...Sorry but not sorry Chris 👌😅

29/06/2026

Flex your brain and have some fun. Some great prizes up for grabs, free to play.

Tuesday's are for fun with friends and family💯, fantastic food🍽 and some brain teasers🔥 with The More You Know Trivia at Hotel Metropole courtesy of Gateway Entertainment .

29/06/2026

Catch us live on Sat July 4th Hotel Metropole, Ipswich, 7PM-11PM 🎸🙌 Hotel Metropole, Ipswich

28/06/2026

Tuesday trivia The More You Know Trivia thanks to Gateway Entertainment

25/06/2026

Have You Heard the Ghost Stories?
Here's some history weve found :)

(Google)
The Metropole is the most haunted hotel in Ipswich. Mystery surrounds the identity of the ghostly spectre that walks the creaky floorboards at night. Not even acclaimed ghost historian Jack Sim has an answer. But now the one hundred and thirty year old riddle is solved and the ghost is unveiled. I told a version of this story on West Bremer Radio.

Only two deaths are known to have occurred at the hotel but only one of them has a reason to be haunting the place.

The Harp of Erin hotel was built on the site of the Metropole perhaps as early as 1847. The first death occurred there on the morning of the 26th of September 1885 when seventy-year-old Margaret Bourke from County Tipperary in Ireland passed away in her bed.

She died from the shock of a fire that had spread through the stables out of the back of the hotel the night before. She was the mother-in-law of the licensee Robert McGrory.

The second death on the site was on the 6th of June 1894 when the hotel’s licensee Alexander Fairley died suddenly from a stroke. His wife and nine children were left alone to recover from a series of disasters that had beset the family.

Alex’s father was a well-known accountant with the Royal Bank of Scotland in Glasgow and his mother was descended from the British peerage. He began his working life as a bank clerk in Glasgow but in 1852 left his life of privilege to go to Australia with an older brother during the gold rush. The brother died not long after arriving and Alex was left to fend for himself.

When Alex’s father passed away in Scotland in 1869, Alex was cruelly denied a huge inheritance. He was the only one of his eight surviving siblings to be left out of the will. Alex was also the only sibling not to have his image recorded in a photograph or an artistic representation. It’s as if all traces of him had to be erased. This must have tormented his soul for the rest of his life.

Shortly after his father’s death, Alex got married and pursued a career first in farming, and then as a publican, to support his growing family of six daughters and three sons.

Alex brought the family to Ipswich in 1886 and took up the license of the Ulster Hotel. The 1890 floods were bad, but the three floods in quick succession in 1893 were disastrous. He surrendered the lease of the Ulster and moved up the road to the Harp of Erin hotel which was seemingly safe on higher ground.

Alex Fairley’s Ulster Hotel flooded in 1893
On St Patrick’s night in 1894, Alex’s cashbox was stolen from his bedroom upstairs at the Harp of Erin, with the equivalent of three-months’ wages inside. The devastation of the floods combined the financial crisis following the loss of the cashbox proved too much. Just ten weeks later, Alex died suddenly from a massive stroke suffered while upstairs in that same bedroom.

Left alone to fight for survival, Alex’s wife Christiana and their daughters continued to run the Harp of Erin, but sadly they ran it into such a dilapidated state that it had to be demolished just over a decade later. Fate smiled briefly on the family however, because once the new Hotel Metropole was erected on the site in 1906, the Fairleys were again in charge. The family remained as licensees and working on the site for twenty years, which is longer than any other family in the one hundred and seventy year hotel history of the location.

Fate again took a turn because three of Alex’s unmarried daughters became overly familiar with the patrons and babies came unexpectedly. This was scandalous in those Edwardian times and Alex’s soul was not allowed to rest.

That’s why Alex Fairley haunts the Metropole today. His ghost is the one that walks the creaky upstairs corridors in a vain attempt to protect his cash box – and his unmarried daughters – from the Ipswich railway men in the bar below.