Metropolitan Hotel is a heritage-listed hotel at 244 George Street, Sydney, Australia. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

History

The coastal Aboriginal people around Sydney are known as the

Eora The Eora (''Yura'') are an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales. Eora is the name given by the earliest European settlers to a group of Aboriginal people belonging to the clans along the coastal area of what is now known as the Sy ...

. Central Sydney is therefore often referred to as "Eora Country". Within the City of Sydney local government area, the traditional owners are the

Cadigal The Cadigal, also spelled as Gadigal and Caddiegal, are a group of Indigenous people whose traditional lands are located in Gadi, on Eora country, the location of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Gadigal originally inhabited the area that ...

and

Wangal The Wangal people ( Wanegal or Won-gal,) are a clan of the Dharug ( ?) Aboriginal people whose heirs are custodians of the lands and waters of what is now the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, centred around the Municipality of Strathfield, ...

bands of the Eora. European colonisation of the Sydney area began in 1788. Prior to 1834 the site was Crown land, known as a lumber yard, of which the corner was leased by Graham Blaxcell. The site was released for development in 1834 and by 1848, Joseph Fowles in his book 'Sydney in 1848' indicates a substantial three-storey brick terrace of 4 bays which comprised a corner hotel joined by a dispensary, a tailors and a drapers shop. The hotel was named Castle Tavern in the

Post Office Directory Kelly's Directory (or more formally, the Kelly's, Post Office and Harrod & Co Directory) was a trade directory in England that listed all businesses and tradespeople in a particular city or town, as well as a general directory of postal addresses o ...

of 1851. By 1861 the name had changed to La Villa de Bordeaux and the publican was P. Wilson. In 1867 the building was vacant and the first recording of the name Metropolitan Hotel occurred in 1879 and has continued through till the present day. At the turn of the century the building was owned by the United Colonial Land Investment Co. and the hotel run by J. Donaldson. In 1909 the hotel was purchased by

Tooth and Co. Tooth and Co was the major brewer of beer in New South Wales, Australia. The company owned a large brewery on Broadway in Sydney from 1835 until 1985, known as the Kent Brewery. It was historically one of Australia's oldest companies, having be ...

and the hotel and adjoining dispensary were redeveloped with a five-storey building. Half of the dispensary was left intact and formed an extension to the hotel with a bottle shop on the ground floor. It was twice threatened with demolition in the 1980s: first by a consortium that wanted to redevelop a number of adjacent properties, and then by a proposal from developer Warren Anderson to demolish all but the facade for a high-rise office tower. The demolition plans did not proceed following a state government decision in February 1985 to protect a number of buildings on Bridge Street as a historic boulevard.

Description

The Metropolitan Hotel is a four-storey face brick and sandstone building located on a prominent corner of George Street near Wynyard railway station. The building is designed in the

Federation Free Style Federation architecture is the architectural style in Australia that was prevalent from around 1890 to 1915. The name refers to the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, when the Australian colonies collectively became the Commonwealth of Au ...

and features a

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

divided into bays by projecting panels topped with sandstone detailed brick

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

decorated with round

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

s with plaques, and an octagonal corner

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

with a zinc clad roof and oval cutouts. The public bar appears to have been decorated with

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

motifs, some of which have been retained in the latest fitout as a restaurant. The original timber doors have also been retained. The remaining bay of the original dispensary has some significant fabric in the front and side walls. The adjacent terrace has been opened up internally and incorporated into the building on the upper levels.

Significance

The Metropolitan Hotel is significant for replacing a hotel on the same site dated 1851 and as replacing a hotel of the same name dated 1876. The Metropolitan is one of five hotels of this style in the city the others being the Harbour View Hotel, the Bristol Arms, the Lismore and the Ship Inn. The site is significant as part of the Crown grant dated pre 1834, and the hotel continues a long tradition with the hotel trade on the site. The building is significant as a fine and largely intact external example of the style used in a corner hotel, although the interiors have been extensively modified on the lower floors. The building is significant for its strong contribution to the character of the immediate area, and is significance as part of the network of small purpose built hotels providing a social / recreational venue and budget accommodation located within a short distance from

Wynyard Wynyard may refer to: Australia: *Wynyard, Sydney, the district of Sydney CBD around Wynyard railway station, Sydney *Wynyard Park, Sydney *Wynyard, Tasmania *County of Wynyard, in the Murrumbidgee–Tumut region of New South Wales Canada: *Wynya ...

and Martin Place and in the centre of the CBD. It reflects the social character of the area during the early years of the twentieth century and is representative as an example of the evolutionary process of a small corner hotel at the fringes of the city.

Heritage listing

Metropolitan Hotel was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

References

Bibliography

* *

Attribution

* * {{Sydney central business district historical attractions, state=collapsed New South Wales State Heritage Register Pubs in Sydney Articles incorporating text from the New South Wales State Heritage Register George Street, Sydney