Cheers to females fronting three of Sydney’s most popular pubs

Three of Sydney’s most popular pubs are run by women, with one explaining why their gender can be a bonus in the male-dominated industry.

In the early 1900s it was illegal for a woman to even be allowed to drink at a pub, let alone run them.

Now in 2025, some of Sydney’s most famous pubs across the city have a female at the helm.

Newtown’s famed The Bank Hotel has 33-year-old Charlie Allan. The Paddington Inn, where chef Matt Moran got his break, is run by Ceire Quinn.

And newly renovated sports bar, Marrickville Tavern, has appointed Annelise Finnigan as licensee.

At 27 years old, she is one of the youngest general managers in the business.

Finnigan, who got her start working as a casual in a pub when she was 18, said then the industry was dominated by males. “There weren’t many female licensees,” she said.

However, moving across to Western Sydney hospitality group Sonnel changed her perception.

Annelise Finnigan, Ceire Quinn and Charlie Allan run three of Sydney’s most popular bars. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Before been given the reigns of the Marrickville Tavern, she cut her teeth at teeth at one of Western Sydney’s biggest pubs, The Crossroads Hotel in Liverpool.

“The biggest challenge for me is my age and gender, however I’ve had so much support from those in higher positions. I’ve never felt discriminated against,” Finnigan said.

“I wouldn’t be in this position if I didn’t feel safe.”

For Allan, running one of Newtown’s biggest hotels as “a queer woman in a male-dominated industry is a really nice feeling”.

Before working with Solotel, Allan said she’d had bosses who made it clear they wouldn’t promote women to management positions because they were deemed not physically strong enough to de-escalate a situation at a pub.

Now, at The Bank, not only is her direct boss a female but she’s also hired a female head of security, believing that at 12.30 on a Sunday morning, women are indeed more likely to de-escalate a situation.

“It’s important to have female representation across the entire (hospitality industry),” Allan said.

These women follow a rich history of women breaking ground in pubs across the state.

In the 1800s, more than 20 per cent of licensees were women, but laws introduced in the 1920s forbid single women to have a licensee.

However that didn’t stop some trailblazers. In 1946, Dorothy Moya Hartigan became the first “unmarried” female hotelier in NSW since 1882.

The famous Doris Goddard, of Hotel Hollywood, was one of the first publicans in the 1960s to let women in the front bar alongside men.

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