Furnished Guest Room

A furnished guest room on the upper floor of the Terminus Hotel sits with its fit-out still in place. A single bed with an iron frame stands against one wall, the mattress carrying a folded blanket. A timber bedside table holds a lamp with the shade torn. A chest of drawers occupies the opposite wall, the top drawer slightly open. A timber wardrobe in the corner has its door ajar; the inside is empty. The walls are wallpapered in a faded floral print, the joins separating at the corners. A sash window admits the southern light from the John Street side. Personal effects sit on the surfaces in scattered arrangement.

This was one of the long-term accommodation rooms at the Terminus, used by guests who stayed for weeks or months at a time across the working life of the pub. Sydney pubs of this era ran their upstairs rooms as accommodation, with the publican living in the largest and rooming travellers and itinerant workers in the rest. The visible building is the 1917 Tooth and Co. demolition and rebuild, and the upstairs rooms were part of that accommodation fit-out. The pub closed in 1983 and the rooms emptied or partially emptied across the 33 years of vacancy. This room kept most of its furniture and incidental detail until Brett photographed it in 2016.