Home away from home
Author: Bruce Elder
Date: 13/01/2001
Words: 948
Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Section: Travel
Page: 8
Bruce Elder, a sucker for a comfy pillow and a cooked breakfast, has found his perfect place.
The Hughenden is one of those places you can pass by without even registering its existence. There it sits discreetly hidden by the large trees on Queen Street less than 100 metres from Oxford Street.
It doesn't look like a hotel. It seems more like a cross between a charming Paddington residence and a cafe. There are a number of standard issue metal chairs and tables under the trees and at most times of the day you will see people drinking tea and coffee and watching the world go by.
The entrance is more like entering someone's house. The ambience and atmosphere, even though the hotel is part of the Flag chain of Heritage Hotels, are warm and intimate. This is a hotel which knows exactly how to position itself between 'all mod cons' and 'olde world charm'.
If ever a hotel fulfilled Tim Shaw's immortal steak knives invocation, 'But wait, there's more', this is it. Did you realise, for example, that it is cheaper to park your car at The Hughenden (parking is free) and catch a taxi both ways to the Opera House than it is to park at the Opera House car park?
But there's more. Did you know that, rare among Sydney hotels, The Hughenden actually cooks every guest's hot breakfast? The waiter explains that there are sausages, bacon and tomatoes. 'And how would you like your eggs done?' None of that dreadful half-cold food sweltering under the bright lights of a bain-marie. None of that 'Did I see that appalling child pick that piece of bacon up and put it back?' nonsense that the buffet style invites. All you have to do is get your own cereal, pour a glass of juice, toast as much bread as you want, pour yourself a cup of percolated coffee and wait for the freshly cooked breakfast to arrive.
But there's more. The Hughenden is so perfectly placed that I managed to walk from Paddington's Five Ways, through streets of galleries and boutiques, in about 10 minutes.
The hotel is at the heart of Paddington. You could, effortlessly, go for a run in Centennial Park, walk to the cricket or football, stroll to Fox Studios, wander around the Paddington galleries, trundle down the hill to the good Oxford Street bookshops, and pick and choose your cuisine from the dozens of Oxford Street cafes and restaurants. Of course if you feel lazy there is a moderately priced restaurant, Quaife's, within the hotel which offers entrees for $13 and main courses for about $20.
But there's more. It may be a typical elegant 19th-century Woollahra residence (it was built by Dr Frederick Quaife in 1876) but the rooms (we stayed in a deluxe room for $208) are a sublime mixture of the old and the new. The door through to the bathroom (fitted in beside the old fireplace, I think) may have been narrow but the bathroom was as large as you would expect in any standard room in a city four-star hotel.
The room was charming without being pretentious, which is pretty rare in this neck of suburbia. There were a very useful and large table in the corner, a number of pieces of old, dark furniture, a mosquito net above the bed (it wasn't needed), both air-conditioning and a fan. The bed, a full king-size one with the best hotel pillows I have ever had the good fortune to lay my weary head on, was modern and comfortable.
There are also reading rooms, lounges, plenty of newspapers and greenery outside the windows. It is a hotel designed for those people who don't particularly want to stay in a modern hotel.
But there's more. It would be hard to beat The Hughenden for sheer value for money. At a time when breakfast from those bain-marie abominations is commonly costing between $25 and $30 a person in the larger city hotels (and they will happily hit you $15 to $20 to park your car), this deluxe room plus breakfast plus free parking is unbelievable value. In effect it is charging about $130 for the room.
The Hughenden may not be a five-star hotel but the reasonableness of the rates, the inclusion of both breakfast and parking and the highly individual nature of the hotel make it a very desirable destination. It is, I am told by a friend whose parents regularly stay there, absolutely ideal for country people who want to come to the city to see the cricket.
I have stayed in dozens of hotels around Sydney over the years, and this has become an immediate personal favourite. I'll be staying there again.