Remember This? The Changing City Photo Feature (1971)

Below are two photos that were published in a photo feature The Changing City, in The Daily Telegraph on 13 May 1971. The photos focus on the demolition of homes for the Eastern Suburbs Railway Line. The second photo also features highrise development taking place in the area, with the Kingsgate Hotel rising in the background. Note that Kings Cross, Darlinghurst and Woolloomooloo at the time were being subject to rezoning for highrise development, and proposals for highrise buildings had also been lodged, which were set to transform the area. However, with a few exceptions, the highrise developments did not proceed, and the area was allowed to retain its current densities and streetscapes. 

1971: Kingsgate Hotel Opens

This week, I share with you an advertisement for the former Kingsgate Hotel at Kings Cross which opened as a "motor inn" in 1971.

You might remember my entry from some time ago where I mentioned an alternate scheme from 1969. A globe was proposed in place of an antenna and the complex would have included a three-screen cinema complex.

The Kingsgate just before conversion to apartments in 2003.
Photo by the Author.

It did trade for a number of years as a Hyatt Hotel then in its final years was the Millennium Hotel. In 2003, it was converted into the Zenith Apartment Tower. It was one of many well known Kings Cross Hotels that closed in that time following the 2000 Olympic Games and subsequent "oversupply" of hotel rooms.

Zenith Apartment Tower (2009)
The photo was taken by the Author.

 The only thing that hasn't changed is the Coke sign, still reigning supreme.

NEVER BUILT SYDNEY: Alternative scheme for the Kingsgate Hotel, Kings Cross (1969)

I was quite surprised when I came across this design for the Kingsgate Hotel at Kings Cross (Now Zenith Apartments). Instead of having an antenna atop the building, what appears to be a globe tops it off like that atop the Daily Planet Building in Superman. Personally, Kings Cross might have ended up with another icon alongside the Coke sign at its podium. I'm surprised that the Daily Telegraph didn't make the effort to comment on it.

I'm not sure at this stage why they took it off, but my bet is cost cutting???

Source: Anonymous. 1969. "Kings Cross Skyscraper". The Daily Telegraph, August 26:14.