Built in 1914-5 and designed by Ernest Lindsay Thompson, the Kings Cross Hotel, is a local landmark opposite the new Coke sign.
Ernest Thompson (1870-1935) was a Sydney Council Alderman for 27 years, as they were called before being known as Councillors. He was a prolific designer for over 40 years and lived in Burwood. He designed many hotels including the Hurlstone Park Hotel, the Sir John Young Hotel, George Street, CBD, large warehouses in Surry Hills, the 1926 Manly Baths and the upper bell tower of St Paul’s Anglican Church, Burwood, among many other commissions.

The current KX Hotel forms a phalanx of hotels on the same site which was once included the Five Roads Hotel (since 1867) and later the Victoria Hotel (built 1890).

The name of the first hotel, the Five Roads Hotel, referred to the cross-over of the five-way intersection on the facing corner. This busy intersection was known at the time as Five Ways but was often confused with Five Ways in Paddington.
It was then named Queen’s Cross after Queen Victoria, who had reigned for 64 years from 1837 to 1901.

When she died in 1901 it was renamed King’s Cross after the newly-crowned King Edward VII.
A growing band of modern apostrophists would like to see the apostrophe reinstated to the place name, King’s Cross, since its removal in 2002 by a dictate from the The Australian Government Style ManuaI.

The second Hotel on the same site, the Victoria Hotel, was built in 1890 but then demolished to widen William Street in 1911.

Within three years the new King’s Cross Hotel, the current four-level hotel, was erected. It was originally owned by Tooheys Brewery Ltd and was built in the “Federation Free Classical Style”, a mixture of styles predominantly made up of Federation design elements popular at the time of Australia’s Federation into a Commonwealth of Colonies in 1901. It includes features such as pressed metal ceilings, wooden-framed leadlight windows and classical-style, Ionic, scroll-topped columns. The original lift carriage, a rare modern feature of its period, remains.

It is a landmark building on a key corner on William and Victoria Streets that marks one of the pillars of the Kings Cross gateway.
Major interior alterations occurred between 1979 and 2008 but the building can still be read as a majestic shrine to Australian drinking and eating culture.

Its roof-top terrace and level two Bakehouse Theatre have expanded its activities and attraction to younger locals as has its involvement with the NSW government’s 2017 VIVID festival of light, music and ideas.

Kings Cross Hotel
Cnr William and Victoria Streets, Kings Cross
Phone 9331 9900
Hours: Mon-Sun 12 noon to 1am

By Andrew Woodhouse, Director, Heritage Solutions

Image: The Kings Cross Hotel, four levels of entertainment, theatre, and food and drink.