Pier One Hotel is part of Sydney's maritime history

Pier One Hotel

Autograph Collection Marriott Hotel

11 Hickson Rd

Walsh Bay

Sydney

There aren’t many hotels in Sydney where you expect to see a three masted, square rigged ship moored onside your window but that’s what you get at Pier One where the vessels leave from the adjacent wharf at Walsh Bay. That’s just one of the intriguing aspects of the hotel.

Then there is the car, the only 1936 stretch Cadillac in existence. It can be hired by the hour or day and features room for up to eight people in the spacious leather-seated rear cabin which has a central ornate table with a champagne bucket and glasses

Walsh Bay was originally used by whalers and later as a centre of the maritime industry as well as a ferry terminal for North Shore ferries. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the area was developed with the large wharf buildings that are there today. Pier One was originally built as a passenger terminal before being converted to a hotel.

Vestiges of its earlier life can be seen in the ground floor hard wood decking while the upper rooms have the original beams. A couple of the room have large outside decks formed from the base of the original cranes.

The hotel which nestles in the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge has been operating in its present form since the early 1990’s but has had a few upgrades and recently became part of the Marriot chain.

There is a constant reminder of the hotels maritime past with all types of vessels streaming past – ferries, charter boats, launches, gin palaces, fishing boats, tankers, cruise ships, commercial vessels and even the occasional brave kayaker.

On the side away from Walsh Bay some of the rooms have views of the city’s two most iconic building. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. If you choose to stay in the Harbour View Suite you get to have the 180-degree view of the upper harbour and Luna Park as well as the bridge and the opera house.

The hotel is a short distance from the Rocks and Circular Quay and also only two minutes from the Sydney Theatre Company which is about to open the play Charles III which imagines Charles ascending to the throne.

Breakfast can be taken inside or outside on the boardwalk which runs along the wharf outside the hotel. The area is a public walkway so you get the occasional jogger, dog walker or fishermen with their rods off to do a spot of fishing.

This area also serves as the hotel’s restaurant, The Gantry, a clever mixture of refined and laid-back. Being outside one gets all the distance sounds of the passing boats, the water slapping under the pier but there is no restaurant noise.

The small but perfectly designed menu offers some real taste treats including a mashed potato which was divine. Silky smooth combined with a hazelnut butter as well as peppered with hazelnuts.

As befitting its location, the starters were oysters, king prawns and South Australian mussels. The mains are little art works making use of native, botanical and homemade ingredients to create surprising flavours. The beef comes with pickled greens, black garlic and seaweed while the lamb has olives and anchovy along with green tomatoes. The fish dish is cobia which has a thick white flesh and comes with sea urchin and ink looking like a black and white sculpture.

https://www.pieronesydneyharbour.com.au/

http://www.thegantry.com.au/restaurant/