BY KENJI SATO
The Alexandria Hotel has announced that it will be pouring its last drinks on December 20th and then it will close its doors for good.
The hotel manager, Harry McAsey, made the announcement last week after numerous applications to renew the hotel’s lease were rejected by the building’s new owners.
“It’s terribly sad,” Mr McAsey told City Hub. “Over the years we built up a community of people who have become really attached to this place, and now we’re being forced to close.”
The traditional Australia hotel has been the subject of a long running community campaign to stop developer plans to demolish the building in favour of new apartments.
It has received support from locals as well as politicians including Tanya Plibersek, Clover Moore and Jenny Leong.
McAsey told City Hub that he started leasing the hotel 14 years ago, back when it was an abandoned, derelict building.
“Nobody else wanted it. The place was completely abandoned and the windows were blacked up. We worked so hard to get the hotel back on its feet, and I’m very sad to see it close again.”
“On the last day we’re going to come together, have a few drinks, and remember the good old times,” he said.
The building’s owners have not released their plans for the building’s future, but Mr McAsey told City Hub that he hoped that the building would reopen as another hotel or pub.
“I’m still hoping that one day, someone will open up a hotel in the spirit of the old one. All we can do is hope. It’s out of my hands now. But I’m still optimistic about the future,” he said.
The hotel’s new owners will be required to preserve the current building, and any change of use from a hotel will need the approval of the City of Sydney Council, thanks to a Heritage Interim Order issued in October.
The order will protect the hotel building from demolition until the end of July next year, and during that time it will be assessed for heritage value.
The hotel’s heritage listing has received the backing of Sydney Mayor Clover Moore, who said that hotel had deep “historical, aesthetic and social significance”.
“Historic buildings like this one maintain links to Sydney’s past, and continue to play an important role in Sydney’s streetscapes, character and communities,” Clr Moore said.
“This 1935 hotel is one of the oldest running pubs in Alexandria and its presence is highly valued by the local neighbourhood – both architecturally and socially – and I’ve been impressed by the strong community support for its conservation.”
The heritage interim order was issued after a community campaign group, “Save the Alexandria Hotel”, sent hundreds of written objections to City of Sydney councillors.
Alex Robinson, one of the campaign heads, told City Hub that it’s “not all bad news” for the embattled hotel.
“It is sad to hear that the hotel will be closing down. But we mustn’t forget about all the hard work we’ve done. The application to demolish the hotel was rejected, and now it looks as though the building get heritage listed sometime next year,” Mr Robinson said.
To qualify for heritage listing, a building needs to meet at least one of the seven criteria set out by the NSW Heritage Council.
An independent heritage assessment report commissioned by the City of Sydney found that the Alexandria Hotel met at least four of these criteria.
Additionally, the Sydney City Council Transport, Heritage and Planning committee found that “the level of community response to the proposed demolition has demonstrated the hotel satisfies a fifth criterion for its social significance, in terms of the community esteem in which it is held.”
The heritage assessment report found that the hotel had historical significance, being “a fine representative example of an interwar era suburban hotel.”
“The Alexandria Hotel […] has sufficient heritage significance to warrant retention and listing as a local heritage item,” the report concluded.
The Save the Alexandria Hotel Facebook page has gathered over 2000 likes, and Mr Robinson said that he was “moved” by the amount of community support the campaign had received.
“Hours after posting the news about the hotel closing down, we received dozens of comments from people who were devastated to hear that their social hub was going to be shut down,” he said.
“I’m worried that the building will close and remain abandoned, gathering dust for months. We currently don’t know what the owners have in mind for the building, but we hope that it will reopen as a hotel or pub soon.”
