Art Deco Drinking

This image from the Museum’s collection shows the public bar at the Rozelle Hotel in about 1938. The hotel was designed by Sidney Warden the most prolific of the several architects who designed hotels for Tooth & Co in New South Wales.

Curator, Charles Pickett notes:

In 1933 Tooth & Co general manager Tom Watson wrote, ‘Hotels are our best medium for advertising and prestige’. During the following decade, Tooth & Co continued to renovate or demolish and rebuild most of the hotels in New South Wales. Tooth & Co architects were encouraged to be stylistically enterprising, so that new hotels would be ‘good advertisements’ for the company, and would stand out in any city or suburban street.

The bar shows the classic streamlined curve of the Art Deco movement which sought to eliminate clutter and reflect the modern aerodynamic designs employed in aircraft and cars. On a less aesthetic level, the bar was designed to accommodate as many stand-up drinkers as possible. From 1916 to 1955 hotels in Australia had to close at six o’clock leading to binge drinking usually called the six o’clock swill.

Post by Lynne McNairn

Photography, Phil Ward Studios Pty Ltd, Rozelle, c 1938 (2007/61/1-3/124)
No known copyright restrictions.

Tags: architecture, art deco, hotels, Rozelle, Sidney Warden, Tooth & Co

The Powerhouse Museum's Photo of the Day blog features a new image each day, chosen from the Powerhouse Photo Library.

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