The Spirits of a Pub

The Imperial at Clifton is open at last! Architect Ben Wollen delivers his verdict.

Many of us in the Northern Illawarra have been waiting with bated breath (or should that be thirst) for the grand opening of the Imperial at Clifton.

Being such a locally iconic building and perched on the cliff side of Lawrence Hargrave Drive, it’s been fascinating to watch the renovation evolve and has held a lot of interest with the local community and beyond. Many of us also watched via the Imperial’s Instagram account which gave us little tidbits into what has been happening behind the scenes of the facade. Like myself, many of us would have got excited when they saw bottles of spirits lined up in the windows behind what we could have only presumed as the new bar, but alas they sat there taunting us suspended on the horizon line of the Tasman Sea whilst we endured long house-bound lockdowns –errgh, I shudder at the thought of home schooling again!

During its renovation, I pestered and pestered and pestered the Imperial’s marketing manager to let me in for a sneak peak on the premise of doing a bit of an architectural piece on the renovation. Well, persistence paid off and with the blessing of Genevieve, editor in chief, off I went to the preview event that was supposed to be on the 24th June – but ended up being in November (thanks Covid).

Truth be told I’ve been writing this article, in my head, ever since work started on the building and when I found out the architects who were behind the renovation. Welsh + Major are a Sydney firm that have behind them some most extraordinary works. One of my favourite past projects of theirs is the renovation of the old police station in the Rocks. They are adept at working with heritage buildings, balancing the preservation and form of the existing fabric whilst inserting contemporary additions that marry the old and the new in what I would describe as a complimentary juxtaposed dance. I bring up the old police station because I get a sense that there were lessons learnt on this project that made its way into the Imperial. Once you’ve had the pleasure of tasting the spirits at the Imperial, I recommend a trip to the Rocks to visit the spirits of the old police station (you just might bump into Beatie Bow!).

I’m not going to pretend that I’m an architectural critic, not a professional one anyway. In a sense, we all pass judgements on the buildings we see and/or inhabit. My fellow local architects will know me as an outspoken critic of some of the buildings around town (refer to articles in the October & November issues last year), but it is something that gets ingrained in us from Architecture School. You see, when you study Architecture at University, your final semester work doesn’t just get judged by your lecturer, it gets judged by visiting architects (aka guest critics, aka ‘critters’) as well as your fellow peers.

For many young budding architects, this is one of the most confronting experiences of their lives. I have seen grown men in the final year of Uni, put to tears by some rather harsh commentary on their design. It doesn’t help that most of the students haven’t slept the night before or sometimes even the week before. Needless to say, it has a long history of which I don’t pretend to be a part of, at least in an academic or professional sense! My disclaimer then, is that this is an opinion piece at best about a much anticipated development in our area that I can safely say is exemplary in so many ways.

Apart from the visible spirits suspended in the windows and perhaps the spirits inhabiting the metaphysical realm, what I love about this new Imperial are the details. It might seem strange to many of you but one of the details that has had me excited for some time is the custom steel capitals atop the balcony posts. I know, a lot of you are going to say, 'What?!?'

Perhaps for you it's the bay windows overlooking the ocean, or the truss bridge like spirit holders behind the bar, or the round oculus introducing the sky deep into the building’s stairwell. Maybe your preference is for the interweaving of the pub’s history into its interior or the murals depicting the same. You might love the older details beautifully renovated like the ceiling roses, arches, fireplaces, timber stairs or decorative plasterwork. If you’re not that fussed on the building at all you might just love being outside in the new landscaping or window seats spotting whales with a tipple or two or three or more. Of all the great things in this building you might ask, why the steel thingy bit on top of the balcony posts?

At this point I could give you some lengthy architectural interpretation of these somewhat innocuous minor elements. I could suggest they represent the Architects response to stitching the new into the old and a contemporary structural response to the traditional iron lacework that would have stood there in the past. But hey, I’m not an architectural critic, so I’m just going to say that I like them and I’ve liked them for a looooong time from a distance and they look just as good upfront  as they do from Lawrence Hargrave Drive at 50km/h. Oh, and whilst I am definitely not a food critic, you have to give the menu a GO!

Now, if we could only get some sunny summer weather…