Last drinks for the Hollywood pub, once run by Sydney's grand raconteur
Sydney’s iconic art deco Hollywood Hotel is on the market for the first time in 42 years by the estate of the former owner, who was famously one of only a handful of female publicans.
The late Doris Goddard was a notable actress and cabaret singer, who was also one of the most active and fierce protesters against Sydney’s lockout laws when introduced. She passed away in July 2019 at 89, just nine months shy of the controversial CBD lockout laws being lifted.
Ms Goddard, who quit the lights of Hollywood to come back home to Australia, bought the four-storey property for $175,000 for in 1977. No price was disclosed for the freehold and the business, but similar properties have sold for up to $10 million.
The larger-than-life publican was born in Forest Lodge in 1930 and travelled the world as a cabaret singer and actress. When she ran the pub, she would often sit on the bar serenading patrons with her ukulele.
With its distinctive art deco facade, the hotel known affectionately as “the Hollywood” sits on the corner of Foster Street in Sydney’s Surry Hills – in the heart of the bustling restaurant precinct that is also home to Chin Chin, Nomad and Poly.
Current manager Mark Symons, who is involved in the sale process, told the Herald in 2019 that Ms Goddard would be remembered as a “great raconteur” who was also “the ultimate actress”.
HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe, Sam Handy and Blake Edwards have been appointed by the estate of Doris Goddard to handle the sale process, which will offer business and mixed-use development upside opportunities.
Mr Jolliffe said the business offers a blank canvas for an incoming operator, with a 3am liquor licence with 10 gaming machines, plus a manager’s residence on the first floor, which has previously traded with a bar and kitchen, as well as nine accommodation rooms on the second floor.
“The Hotel Hollywood is a very rare city fringe hotel exhibiting all the key fundamentals astute purchasers are seeking: late-trading approvals and compelling upside levers within a dynamic precinct,” HTL Property’s NSW director Sam Handy said.
“Underscored by strong history and the inherently iconic nature of this property, we consequently expect intense interest from a number of competing buyer profiles, including hoteliers, restaurateurs, investors and developers alike.”
The listing follows the sale of the Green Park Hotel in nearby Darlinghurst, which Bruce Solomon’s Solotel empire sold to St Vincent’s Hospital for a rumoured $8 million in December last year.
HTL Property says demand is high for CBD fringe pubs, having advised on the sale of Courthouse Hotel at Darlinghurst, the Quarryman’s Hotel at Pyrmont and The Bells Hotel, Woolloomooloo.
