Sydney, New South Wales

The Old Clare Hotel

Name: The Old Clare Hotel
Address: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Price range: From A$230
Rating: 4.2

A brewery boardroom and a corner pub, stitched together into Chippendale's first boutique hotel.

Open · September 2015

The Old Clare Hotel opened in September 2015 in Chippendale, combining the former Clare Hotel pub and a Carlton & United Breweries administration building into a 62-room boutique hotel with three restaurants, a rooftop pool and Jason Atherton's Kensington Street Social.

The essentials

Group: Ode Hotels, owned by Loh Lik Peng (Unlisted Collection)
Opening: September 2015
Rooms & suites: 62 rooms
Segment: Boutique/Lifestyle
Designer: Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects
Entry rate: From A$230

The place

At 1 Kensington Street in Chippendale, on the fringe of the CBD near Central Station and UTS, the hotel anchors the Kensington Street dining strip built around the old Carlton & United Breweries site.

The concept

The Old Clare Hotel joins two heritage buildings — the 1940s Clare Hotel corner pub, designed by architect Sidney Warden, and the former Carlton & United Breweries administration building — connected by a glass-and-steel walkway designed by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects. Opened in September 2015 under Singapore-based hotelier Loh Lik Peng's Unlisted Collection (now trading as Ode Hotels), it turned two disused industrial-era buildings into Chippendale's first hotel, keeping details such as the former CUB boardroom's timber panelling and chandeliers in what is now a suite.

Dining & wellness

Three restaurants run across the property: Automata, Silvereye and Jason Atherton's Kensington Street Social. The Clare Bar plays on the site's pub history, and a rooftop pool with a pool bar looks over Chippendale's rooftops.

Google guest reviews

4.2/5 · 957 reviews

Absolutely canny fault this place. I chose Old Clare because the rooms here are far more spacious than other hotels in the area and CBD. The rooms were also super comfortable, massive beds, amazing pillows, lovely toiletries and beautifully designed. We really appreciated the nespresso machine and pods. The hotel offers an incentive of $10 a day if you don’t utilise housekeeping which we through was a really lovely environmental consideration. We also took advantage of the happy hour wine, which was a $7 a glass steal between 4 and 6. The egg and mushroom breakfast croissants were bloody awesome! Location wise this is great - you’ve got all the Spice Alley options, but it’s still only a 30 min walk all the way to the Opera House. In the 400 hotels we’ve stayed in Old Clare easily makes our top ten. Super stylish. Great stay.
Cee Koops · 5/5

Massive shout out to Conti, Isdrey and Zhomart- the wonderful bar staff at the Old Clare! If you are looking for a chill venue for a catch up with your mates, post work drinks with colleagues or date night, look no further! The Old Clare is my go-to venue, made even more special by the legends behind the bar - not only do they make the best cocktails in town, but they are also some of the kindest and most welcoming humans in the business! In a busy city like Sydney, it's nice to find a local like this one, where you are greeted by warm smiles, yummy drinks and efficient service! 💜
Stef D · 5/5

My room was gorgeous, I stayed in the Abercrombie room which had an incredibly big bathtub, perfect for a tall person. Bed was super comfortable but I wouldn’t recommend sleeping in because the breakfast was actually bite to bite perfect. (I had the Big Clare). I didn’t get the opportunity to try their evening menu but my faith is high. The staff were incredibly patient and friendly, you have access to so many amenities including rentable umbrellas (necessary for my trip) and I found out rentable bikes. Would recommend the stay!
Shan W (Red) · 5/5

Super comfortable and great location! Not the biggest fan of open bathrooms but it was nice having lots of space. Staff are amazing, everyone is so kind, only downsides is no on-site parking, and breakfast can be slow but plenty of other cafes around and so close to the train station. We had an event at the rooftop and the events team made everything super simple, very professional, certainly recommend The Old Clare.
Sally Gordon · 4/5

Dissapointing experience at a place that had potential to be great - multiple failures and strange occurences from check in. The only saving grace was a competent and generous manager who saved the day as much as possible. The lady in the orange jacket, who we had the misfortune of having check us in, kicked off this almost hilarious chain of events. For a start, it somehow took almost 30 mins for her to complete our check in. We tried to be understanding if she was new and learning, but eventually it became ridiculous. She stared and scrolled vacantly at the screen, clearly didn't have correct information, asked my partner to pay even though it was pre-paid, tried to send my partner away without the room key, gave us wrong information about breakfast being served till 1pm. The worst bit is that the check in took so long that another (male) staff member somehow mixed up our room key and gave it to another group next to us. Apart from the lift breaking down for 3 mins with my girlfriend inside, these other guests were checked in way faster and reached the room first. So when we eventually walked up the stairs and buzzed into the room, we weren't thrilled to see this male manager and 4-5 guests setting up the room for something a bit dodgy...so we took the stairs back to reception and got back to the absent/expressionless staff member at the desk. Again, thank god the lovely manager was there. She investigated the mixup, however we had now lost the better decorated Abercrombie room that my girlfriend had booked specifically months before. The manager kindly comped us some free food and drink, which was consolation for getting into our other room after waiting for the other one to be cleaned, by 5pm after arriving basically at 3pm. Two other dissappointing notes....we were told during our glacially slow check in that the rooftop pool was unavailable all night because of a private function. And after getting back to the hotel after dinner, we were gobsmacked that yet more surly and uncaring staff had already shut the Clare bar by 10:40pm. Even though it was a Saturday night and opening hours say 11:30pm on google. So our 2 house drink vouchers that came with the room booking couldn't be used. Again, could have been so much better and a bit sad considering the rooms, food, bath, rooftop pool (eventually open in the sunny morning) and manager were very nice.
Patrick Holman · 2/5

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