Bare Guest Room

A guest room on the upper floor of the Terminus Hotel is empty. The furniture has been removed at some point; what remains is a four-square room with timber floorboards, plaster walls peeling near the ceiling, and a single sash window looking onto John Street. The window is intact but covered in dust. The skirting board is dark-stained timber. The light fitting is a brass and ceramic pendant. There are no personal effects, no signs of recent occupation. The room reads as empty. Whatever was here has been gone for a long time.

This is one of the bare upstairs rooms at the Terminus. The visible building is the 1917 Tooth and Co. demolition and rebuild, and the upstairs accommodation was part of compliance with NSW licensing reform of the period. The rooms were used by long-term guests, casual workers, and occasionally the family of the publican across the working life of the pub. After the pub closed in 1983, the rooms were emptied or partially emptied at various points by various people. This room had been vacant for about 33 years when Brett photographed it in 2016. The 2018 restoration refitted the upstairs as guest accommodation again, on similar plans to the original. The room no longer exists in this form.