Palisade Hotel is a heritage-listed pub and hotel located at 35–37 Bettington Street, in the inner city Sydney suburb of Millers Point of New South Wales, Australia, adjacent to Barangaroo Reserve. Administratively, the hotel is in the City of Sydney local government area. It was designed by H. D. Walsh and built in 1915–16. It is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
Millers Point and the adjacent Walsh Bay have been a residential and dockyard area since the mid 19th century. The current Palisade Hotel was built on the site of an earlier hotel of the same name. In the 1870s the site was owned by James Parle. The first rate for the hotel was paid in 1880 and it is assumed that it was built close to that time. The rate book described the hotel as a three-storey brick and stone building with an iron roof and twelve rooms. This hotel was kept by Henry Taylor until 1911.
The early years of the twentieth century following Federation were characterised by a new confidence and nationalism. After the bubonic plague crisis around the turn of the century the population of Millers Point grew again and the demand for watering holes was such that the Sydney Harbour Trust had to build replacement hotels to cater to the port workers and local community. The new Palisade Hotel was one of four that were built by the Trust, the others being Dumbarton Castle, the Big House (now the Sussex Hotel) and the Harbour View Hotel.
The construction of the Palisade Hotel commenced on 6 April 1915 and was completed in May 1916 at a total cost of just over 3000 pounds. The hotel was described as consisting of five storeys built of stone, brick and cement, with steel and timber framing. It contained a large bar, two parlours on the ground floor, two sitting rooms and dining room on the first floor, 15 bedrooms, kitchen, laundry, bathrooms, lavatories, pantries and a large flat roof for drying purposes. There was also a fire escape complete with landing at each floor.
The 1916 plans of the hotel indicates a long U shaped bar on the ground floor with a canopy facing the main entrance. The public bar was at the front, and behind this was a private bar on one side and a jug and bottle department on the other. Two parlours towards the rear of the ground floor accessed from a separate private entrance way were provided. A hall divided these parlours from the public bar area. The parlours were heated with open fires. In the basement were toilets, bottle store and the cellar with a floor hatch to provide access to the bar serving area.
A report on the hotel in 1949 provides an indication as to the use of the hotel. Few changes were made from the original layout. The first floor was residential with two bedrooms a dining room, kitchenette and lounge. On the second floor were six bedrooms, one being used as a sitting room, toilet, bathroom, and linen room. On the fourth floor was the kitchen, breakfast room, staff room, kitchen servery and ladies toilet. In all there were twelve single and one double bedroom, with five single and one double room used by the licensee and staff.
From the 1920s the head lease for the hotel was owned by Tooth and Co. who sub let it to various licensees. From 1936, when the role of the Sydney Harbour Trust was taken over by the newly formed Maritime Service Board, title to the hotel was issued to the MSB, however Tooths continued to lease it until 1950 when the lease was tendered and Tooths did not apply. At that time the licensee, P. K. Armstrong, obtained the lease. In February 1987 title passed from the MSB into private ownership, then in 1994, Palisade Properties Pty Ltd obtained title.
It was closed for renovations in 2008 and was closed for seven years. The renovations added a rooftop bar, a new main bar and boutique accommodation. In May 2015, Palisade Properties sold the renovated building to British entrepreneur Richard Sapsford in May 2015 for $17.7 million. It reopened in August 2015, with "Henry Deane", the rooftop bar, opening that November.
Description
The hotel is located at 35 Bettington Street and is built to the boundaries of the land. It abuts Bettington Street to the north, the junction of Argyle Place and Dalgety Road to the east, and the Munn Street Reserve to the south.
The hotel is a seven-storey masonry building, including basement, five storeys of rooms and a roof-top enclosed bar and terrace. The building has stone and brickwork base courses, load bearing brickwork with stone detailing above, and timber and steel floor and roof framing.