North Facade

The north facade of the Terminus Hotel runs along John Street, two storeys of red brick under a parapet. By the time of this photograph, ivy has climbed across most of the wall in a dense uniform cover, the vine reaching the upper windows and turning over the parapet onto the roof. Where the brick shows through the foliage, the joints are darkened by decades of Sydney harbour weather. Cast-iron lacework runs along the first-floor balcony, partly buried by the ivy. The downpipes are original cast-iron, painted black. Sash windows along the upper floor are set into the brickwork at regular intervals, their frames painted in the institutional dark green of the pub's working years.

The corner has held a licence since 1841, but the building visible here is the 1917 Tooth and Co. demolition and rebuild, undertaken in response to NSW licensing reform that required hotels to provide accommodation and limited trading to 10am-6pm six days a week. The pub closed in 1983 and stood vacant for 33 years. The ivy grew across the wall through that gap and became the building's most recognised exterior feature. The 2018 restoration kept the ivy in place across most of the eastern and northern facades.