The Holland Park Hotel

Set within Brisbane’s evolving southern corridor, the Holland Park Hotel occupies a site intrinsically tied to the suburb’s emergence from rural fringe to tram-linked urban precinct. Constructed in the mid-1920s at the terminus of the Logan Road tramline, the hotel formed part of a new commercial nucleus—an anchor for a rapidly expanding community and a social condenser for travellers and locals alike.

C+W’s refurbishment repositions the venue within this continuum, treating the building not as a static heritage artefact, but as a layered framework for contemporary occupation. The project encompassed full architectural and interior design services, documentation and contract administration, delivering a comprehensive renewal of the venue—including an expanded gaming room and bar, and the complete reimagining of the bistro and sports bar.

Central to the design approach was an intentional “uncovering” of the building’s accumulated history. Nowhere is this more evident than in the sports bar, where existing structure and successive layers of finish have been selectively revealed. Rather than restoring to a singular moment in time, the intervention embraces the building’s patina—retaining scars, textures and irregularities to construct an atmosphere that is immediate, tactile and unmistakably authentic. This strategy positions the interior as both archive and stage: a place where memory is materially legible.

In contrast, the bistro and gaming areas adopt a more calibrated refinement, balancing contemporary expectations of comfort and performance with the robust character of the original fabric. New insertions are deliberately legible—clean-lined and precise—set against the heavier grain of the retained structure. This dialogue between old and new allows the building to operate as a cohesive whole while maintaining clarity of intervention.

The result is a venue that re-engages with its historical role as a local meeting place, while offering a renewed spatial identity aligned with contemporary hospitality culture. By working with, rather than against, the building’s inherited fabric, the project reinforces the enduring social significance of the Holland Park Hotel—an architecture shaped as much by time and use as by design.