Ten years on, iconic Oxford Street venue reopens as upscale hotel

If you went out on Sydney’s Oxford Street in the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the Grand Pacific Blue Room might have been on your list of must-visit venues.

In a city where drinking options were then dominated by pubs and clubs, the Grand Pacific Blue Room was one of the frontrunners of the small bar scene, paving the way for a pinot, pint or Pimms without the pokies.

The long-gone glam bar/restaurant’s home – a curved 1911 former movie theatre at 1 Oxford Street on the corner of South Dowling Street – had been empty since 2015. But it is set to be a Sydney landmark once more, perhaps even a go-to again, with the opening of 25hours Hotel The Olympia behind its Art Deco facade.

The hotel has been a long time coming – the owners have been working on its construction since 2018 and there have been significant delays.

But with its opening on Thursday, Sydney’s east will at last see an Oxford Street icon spring back to life.

Eclectic and upscale, 25hours is a relatively small but fast-expanding, Europe-based hotel brand that’s partnered with Ennismore, the lifestyle hotel-creating subsidiary of hospitality giant Accor.

The 105-key hotel’s scheme, a collaboration between TZG (whole building), Indyk (interiors) and Woods Bagot (hospitality venues) is set around the building’s picture-theatre past, in particular. The hotel is even named for its cinematic connection, having been the Olympia Theatre in that incarnation. The lobby pays tribute to its history, with a collection of VHS tapes available for guests to play in their rooms.

Inside are room styles titled “Renegade”, for a moody, dramatic aesthetic, and “Dreamer”, with a softer look, the typical categories falling within those decor styles, putting the young and the young at heart who might identify as either of those things firmly in the hotel’s sights.

Christoph Hoffman, founder of 25hours Hotels, says the brand’s ethos of creating singular properties “rooted in their surroundings and full of character, rather than repeating a formula”, makes this pocket of inner Sydney a perfect fit.

“We love places with stories, with quirks, with layers of culture – and Oxford Street has all that in abundance,” he says. “Our hope is that this hotel will feel as natural and open to Sydneysiders as it does to international travellers: a lively home for curious minds, creative spirits and anyone who enjoys the joy of being a little different.”

Certainly the hotel offers Sydneysiders something new. A significant component of the property is its food and beverage outlets, four in total, three on street level. Open to the public, these are the creations of critically acclaimed London-based Studio Paskin.

While the hotel runs the fourth F&B space, Monica, a rooftop affair, the Paskin operations are the Sydney versions of existing London restaurants The Palomar (Spanish and North African) and the wine bar, The Mulwray. The third space is Jacob the Angel, named after the Neal’s Yard coffee shop in Covent Garden.

“We didn’t want to just bring our London restaurants to Sydney, because London’s London and Sydney’s Sydney,” says Layo Paskin, who founded Studio Paskin with his sister Zoe.

“We wanted it to be a translation, with certain elements [from the originals] that we thought would work very well.”

Paskin says the “translation” is in line with the downstairs hotel’s light airiness and its context. “Sydney hospitality culture is very strong,” he says. “Everywhere I go, I think by and large, the service is fantastic, it’s warm, it’s friendly, it’s knowledgeable. Sydney has a certain spirit that comes from its outdoors-connected life, where people have a certain relaxed, open feel.”

Similarly, he says, “the hotel feels quite vibrant. It is light, and it has an aura. And I think in that way, it’s going to make people want to come in.”

See 25hours-hotels.com/sydney