Strawberry Hills Hotel restoration
In the 1920s, a new Sydneysider was born. She smoked, she drank and she danced at the Strawberry Hills Hotel, then called the Southern Cross and newly refurbished in Art Deco style – and listened to the ‘new’ jazz.
It is only appropriate that a little of the glamour of that flapper era is retained in the newly restored Strawberry Hills Hotel, which has now re-opened. You can see it in the art deco windows, the twenties style pub tiles and the State Theatre carpet which takes you upstairs to the hotel’s bistro and decked garden.
It’s six million dollar renovation of its nineteenth century premises in Sydney’s Surry Hills is the hotel’s first major restoration since it was redesigned in 1921 by then renowned hotel architect, Sidney Warden. According to the hotel’s general manager, Brenden Lawless, the refurbished hotel is ‘deliberately a classic pub, not a bar with an identity crisis’.
The restoration has transformed one of the inner city’s largest pubs into a mixture of 1920s glamour and modern ease, with a stunning second floor beer garden, an outrageously glitzy ‘original Vegas’ gaming room and an atrium of large glass windows for light and air flow. And the hotel, which has a 24 hour licence, will open its doors with a refreshing attitude, serving gourmet cuisine at bistro prices
What:
Strawberry Hills Hotel
Where:
453 Elizabeth St (on the corner of Devonshire St), Surry Hills NSW
When:
Open now
How:
or
Tags: Strawberry Hills Hotel restoration , sydney pubs