Live Blog: Iconic Sydney pub for sale after owner's death

An inner-city institution, which has been under the same ownership for four decades, is up for sale after the death of its cabaret singer owner.  

Surry Hills institution the Hollywood Hotel has been put up for sale, nearly two years after the death of its long-time owner and operator, legendary actress and pioneering publican Doris Goddard. 

It comes after 42-years under the ownership of Goddard, who died at the age of 89 in 2019, with her estate enlisting the help of HTL Property to sell off the old pub affectionately known as ‘The Hollywood’. 

Goddard and her husband Charlie Bishop purchased the art deco building in 1977, moving upstairs and managing it for the next four decades. 

After her birth in Forest Lodge in Sydney’s inner west in 1930, Goddard’s career took her around the world where she appeared in movies such as The Iron Petticoat with Hollywood leading lady Katharine Hepburn in 1956.

The pub’s preserved interior has made it a popular backdrop for television and film – with Erskineville Kings, in which Hugh Jackman made his acting debut, among the silver screen shows filmed in its wood-panelled surrounds. 

Even before that, the hotel had played a part in history – with The Daily Telegraph in 1954 reporting it was one of the first pubs in Sydney in which women could drink. 

HTL Property have marketed the property as a “veritable blank canvas” with a 3am liquor license and 10 poker machines.The firm say any incoming operator “might seek to active a roof top beer garden…with stunning views of the CBD and Surry Hills district available”. 

It’s the latest CBD-fringe hotel to hit the market, coming after the Courthouse Hotel (Darlinghurst), Quarryman’s Hotel (Pyrmont) and The Bells Hotel (Woolloomooloo).

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