Margaret Fulton (1924-2019), Australian chef and author of numerous cookbooks from the 1960s, lived in ‘a dear little house’ in Essex Street following her move to Sydney in the 1940s. The house was one of three terraces at 10–14 Essex Street, now combined to form Harts Pub; she was then ‘a single mother… [who] used to drink at Jim Buckley’s Newcastle Hotel’ in the 1950s. The stage production ‘Margaret Fulton Queen of the Dessert’ in 2012, with lyrics by Doug MacLeod, prompted one reviewer to ask: ‘Who knew that diminutive Aussie icon Margaret Fulton lived a bohemian life among hookers and artists in The Rocks in Sydney, and had a penchant for “decorative, elegant and useless men”’? (Herald Sun 22 Nov 2012)
Margaret’s sister Janet and her ‘communist- sympathiser brother-in-law, Bill’, author William Hatfield (1892-1969), introduced her to 'an arty, more radical crowd… She joined an art group, went to Communist Party meetings and mixed with writers, artists and activists.' (Brisbane Times 15 Oct 2009)
Near the foot of Essex Street, close by the Newcastle at 197 George Street, Emanuel Andronicus had opened a coffee roaster in 1904, which operated on the site until the 1970s. It was a time when coffee roasting was uncommon in the city, and Margaret Fulton recalled:
When I lived in The Rocks I would always pass Andronicus Coffee on the way to work. You could actually see the boys roasting in big copper pans and turning the beans. The smell was absolutely marvellous…There was this feeling of camaraderie there because I got my coffee from them every morning and we got to know each other. It was such a joy to start the day. (BeanScene Magazine, June 2013)
