Chippendale ranked as Sydney’s coolest neighbourhood – seventh coolest in the whole world, actually – and at least some of the credit for that can be granted to The Old Clare. The Old Clare is a boutique hotel with bars and restaurants on Kensington Street, the area that’s the beating heart of Chippendale. The Old Clare was here first, then the eateries down the laneway – as well as Spice Alley and the plant-covered Central Park Mall – grew around it.
Back in the day, when I was a student across the road at UTS, The Old Clare was my go-to pub. I enjoyed countless nights in this drinking hole clad in pale yellow Art Deco-slash-Aussie-pub tiles (the tiles are still here), having formative experiences and reading messages scribbled onto the back of the dunny door.
Since then I’ve grown up and so has the good old Clare. In 2015, the building was converted into a classy yet welcoming bar (thankfully they retained a lot of original features), a pool bar on the rooftop, and really good hotel rooms in between. It's recently become part of a new boutique hotel group called Ode Hotels, which also includes the Harbour Rocks Hotel in The Rocks, and The Inchcolm in Spring Hill, Brisbane.
The Old Clare rooms are some of the most beautiful hotel rooms in Sydney, I find, when I step into an Abercrombie Room, my staycation home for the next two nights. While I know the rooms will be sophisticated and cool, the scale shocks me. As a former brewery, the ceilings are unthinkably high. The room is big enough that I could settle in forever – it’s a large open-plan space with a lounge area; a huge bed; a deep, luxurious bath that sits between the bedroom and the two-person shower; a sitting area; and floor-to-ceiling curtains that only add to the room’s scale and drama. Then there’s a big set of old brewery fridges along one wall, which they’ve turned into a marble-topped feature for all the mod-cons: a huge flat-screen TV, mini bar, coffee machine, Bluetooth record player and sound system.
There are nods to the brewery’s heritage everywhere, and thoughtful, creative, unexpected decor – adjustable mood lighting, a thoughtful array of books, gorgeous timber flooring and trims, and a double sink in the bathroom. As you walk through the hotel’s corridors, there are framed photos of the brewery being gutted to give it new life.
It all results in a vibe that is nostalgic, creative and romantic. Book in here if you like feeling inspired by the space you’re in, or if you are having a lovebird’s getaway.
In all honesty, I could quite happily live here at The Old Clare, going up and down between the room, to TOCH Bar where they serve a delicious a la carte breakfast, the Clare bar with its Art Deco touches and great food, the rooftop pool bar, and Longshore (the Clare’s more upmarket restaurant). When you want to spread your wings a little further, Kensington Street, busy Broadway, Central Park Mall and all the other gems of Australia’s coolest neighbourhood are all just outside the front door.
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