The Albury Hotel

The Albury Hotel situated at 2a Oxford Street, Paddington, was once the premier gay hotel on Oxford street. In the 1970's it was sold by Tooheys to Lee Ross Jennings on the 13th June 1980 which made it amongst the first independent establishments not to be run or controlled by Abe Saffron and Dawn O’Donnell.

From 1980 it opened as a gay venue and was famous for its drag shows, colourful personalities and boasting a piano bar which was one of the best in Sydney.

The Albury's patron numbers were capped at 160 around the mid-late 1990s but before then, they would regularly cram in 300 or more in at a time. So popular was the venue that the crowd overflowed from the bar onto the footpath and even turned the adjacent pub, The Beauchamp, into a gay establishment.

The original Albury Hotel, which was also situated on the existing site, sat squarely on the boundary of two Councils. A story was reported in a Sydney Morning Herald article on Saturday 3rd 1930 which read:

"A curious anomoly has occured in the re-distribution of the City Council boundaries. In the Fitzroy Ward the alignment runs through the centre of the Albury Hotel, at the corner of Barcom avenue and Oxford Street, opposite West's Pictures. The bar is cut in half - one half being in the Paddington municipality and the other half in the City Council territory.

On the top floor a bedroom is also subdivided into municipalities. It was pointed out yesterday by the Civic Reform pary that the Eastern side of the room is in Paddington and the Western side in the City Council. In other words, when sleeping, the boarder's feet may be in Paddington and his head and shoulders in the city!

The official explanation is that the boundary runs throught the centre of the building in order to conform with an old track which existed in the days of early Sydney. The boarder will probably leave it to the electoral authorities to determine which ward he resides in or he may decide to question himself by tossing up."

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From 1910 to 1914 Oxford Street underwent widening from Liverpool Street to Taylor Square. The proposal was drawn up by the architect John Barlow in 1904 in an effort to ease the increasing traffic congestion along the street at the time.

Allen Taylor, who was elected Lord Mayor in 1905, was the driving force behind the ambitious civic beautification scheme for central Sydney that included slum clearance, road widening and parks.Taylor secured greater powers of Resumption for the Council with the Sydney Corporation (Amendment) Act of 1905. Plans were drawn up in 1907 by the City Surveyor, William Gordon, to widen Oxford Street to 100 feet in five stages from 1910-1914.

The Burdekin Hotel on the corner of Oxford and Liverpool Street was also demolished and rebuilt on the new building alignment around this time. All the buildings on the north side of Oxford street up to Taylor Square were demolished and rebuilt on the new street alignment. Taylor Square was named in honour of Allen Taylor and his efforts to get the street widening project completed.

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By the late 1930's work had begun widening Oxford Street from Taylor Square to Victoria Barracks. In 1939 the old Albury Hotel was demolished and a new hotel was built on the new building alignment.

The imposing two story cylindrical front tower of the new hotel was unique. The inverted cone light diffuser on the top was spectacular. The bar ceilings have intricate plasterwork that formed large oval light recesses which gave a Streamline Modern look. The designer was most likely Sidney Warden judging by the clever use of diffused lighting which he has used on other hotels.

The retained main bar ceiling moulding

There is similar ceiling moulding in the Golden Barley Hotel in Enmore. It also has been retained which is why I suspect that their heritage listing protects them from being removed.

The retained ceiling moulding on the side bar ceiling

The hotel was closed in 2000. It is now a clothing store. Quite a sad outcome for such a pivotal social hub of the eighties and nineties.

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Sources:

• Sydney Heritage Listings
• ANU Open Research Library
• Redbull Podcast Ep 2 - "If These Walls Could Talk"
• Trove SMH listings

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