Remember This? Hotel Metropole Advertisement (1968)

Remember This? has returned for the annual summer run, where I share material that would not normally be suited to our regular weekly postings and an opportunity to share interesting finds that I encounter.

This week I share a 1968 newspaper advertisement for the Hotel Metropole, which was located on the current site of the Governor Macquarie Tower (facing Young, Bent and Phillip Streets). The hotel traded between 1890 and 1970 when it was demolished for CAGA House, a thirty-storey office tower which itself was demolished in 1992 for the Governor Macquarie Tower.

Rooms were available for as little as $6 per night, but a standard room cost around $12.50 per night. According to the RBA Inflation Calculator, $6 equated to around $78.30 in today's money, which is still cheap by Sydney standards for a hotel room if you were seeking a room on a low budget. For a double or twin room, it was equivalent to around $163 a night. 

Source: Hotel Metropole. 1968. "Hotel Metropole" (Advertisement). The Daily Telegraph, June 4: 5. 

1984: The Conservation of the Plaza Theatre

 

Source: Anon. 1984. "Plaza's face saved". The Sydney Morning Herald, February 2: 16.

For nearly forty years, the the McDonalds Plaza restaurant (as it is known) has been located in the former Plaza Theatre in George Street, directly opposite Event Cinemas. McDonalds bought the building from the Hoyts Theatre organisation in 1981 and spent $2 million dollars converting the former theatre into a retail and commercial office building. The restored building was officially opened by NSW Premier Neville Wran in February 1984. The McDonalds restaurant opened in December 1983 and has traded there to this day. 

The building was also home to Planet Hollywood between 1996 and 2002 when finacial difficulties bought on its closure. The blue globe remains atop the building two decades later.

1973: Hundreds of City Buildings facing the bulldozer

In 1973, some thought Sydney's high-rise boom was not going to abate, and hundreds of old city buildings were facing their hour of doom.

Four decades later, it is interesting to note a number of featured buildings that faced doom, only to be spared the wreckers ball, like Central Baptist Church, ANZ Bank Building and Stawell House. The Regent Theatre survived for another fifteen years before facing the wreckers in 1989. In fact, the ANZ Bank Building and Stawell House are now heritage listed so they will never be pulled down.

City buildings like those in the article were initially saved because of the liquidity crisis that sent city developers to the wall that same year. Some went bust. The boom had also created an oversupply of office space in central Sydney, which meant that city development would crawl slowly for about a decade.  The economic reforms of the Hawke Government (1983-1991) would fuel the next wave of city development. Add the Green Bans and anti-development groups, and more buildings would find themselves saved from the wreckers. 

In 1973, at least a billion dollars was to be spent on new city developments, which is the equivalent of $8 billion in today's money. At the moment, roughly two billion dollars is being spent on building developments in central Sydney, and we think that is a mammoth amount.

Source: "Our Civic Reporter". 1973. "150 City Buildings Face Wreckers: Offices, flats, cinemas and parking planned". The Sydney Morning Herald, June 28: 3.