Landsdowne Hotel brings live music back to Sydney
Sydney is getting one of its real iconic music hotels back.
The Landsdowne Hotel in Chippendale is reopening in June. The venue has been shut since 2015.
The latest development comes after another proposal seeking to turn the site into a music school last year. That was subsequently withdrawn by the developers.
New owners Jake Smyth and Kenny Graham are creating a a 400-capacity music floor and ground-level pub.
Their plan, they say, is to bring music back to Sydney.
“It’s an amazing live music venue that everyone loved back in the day,” Mr Graham told the Daily Telegraph.
“The whole idea is to give Sydney a room they can see live bands in and reinstate the Lansdowne’s energy.”
And the Landsdowne, it seems, is in good hands.
Mr Smyth and Mr Graham are well into the scene.
They also run Mary’s Newtown and Paddington’s Unicorn Hotel.
They have even set up an Instagram account for the pub declaring The Lansdowne Hotel Back From The Dead.
And now they are racing against the clock, described the revamp and overhaul as the “fastest three-storey pub turnaround we've ever seen”.
The menu will also be different.
The two have declared they won’t be serving “the $7 schnitty” that used to be offered back in the old days.
What they’re talking about instead is a new “improved” food menu.
To get the second-floor music space ready, they’ve had install sound proofing acoustics to reduce potential noise impacts on neighbours.
The venue is also conveniently located right outside Sydney’s lockout zone.
It has a 3am licence Monday to Saturday and midnight on Sunday.
They’re hoping the hotel re-opening will revitalise Sydney’s music scene.
“We’ve seen too many venues close in the past three years,” Smythe told the Daily Telegraph.
“The industry is really behind (the reopening) because they understand the importance of rooms like this.”
by Leon Gettler, April 18th 2017
