Melbourne hotel’s offer of old-world luxury trumps inner-city edge
There’s something very appealing about a hotel in the Garden City that’s more garden and less city. Are the days of enduring inner city grunge over for visitors to the southern capital?
The city of Melbourne has had some rough press this year. In the opinion of this (admittedly biased) Sydneysider, reasons to holiday there can now be whittled down to sport, the NGV, or for the unicorns out there, both. In which case do I have a tip for you!
Once upon a time when in Melbourne I always stayed in St Kilda. Later I became drawn to the city centre, when tumbling out of the hotel into a laneway for (admittedly great) coffee became all the rage. These days, though, there seems to be a bit too much rage in the middle of town. And even so I had not countenanced a stay outside the free tram zone until this year. I had recently written of my ardent devotion for a suite I visited at London’s One Aldwych hotel. Not long after, I was invited to visit a Melbourne establishment with some posh suites of its own. Is this to be my lot in life? Summoned to exquisite hotel rooms to dispense judgement? If so, then as Maria and the Captain intoned in one of the lesser-appreciated Sound of Music love songs, “Somewhere in my youth (or childhood), I must have done something good”.
With the artsy Rising Festival on in the background and armed with recommendations for a couple of new restaurants to sample (OK, yes, the superb food is also a very good reason to go to Melbourne), I headed down for a wintry weekend stay at The Royce on St Kilda Rd, two tram stops from the NGV and one more from the heart of town.
Perhaps it’s my age, or the feel of a potential political fin de siècle, but there’s something very appealing about a hotel in the Garden City that’s more garden and less city. The Royce, on the very edge of the Botanic Gardens, is a former Rolls-Royce showroom built in 1928 that a motorcar superfan converted into a boutique hotel. There’s a sister property, The Lyall, at South Yarra which reopened in April after a refurbishment. The Royce, which completed an upgrade of its own in September, leans into its pedigree with gleaming chrome, plush furnishings and the kind of service you usually only experience when buying an actual Rolls. (I’m told staff begin polishing the chrome at 4.30am every day. So Downton Abbey!)
My suite was in fact two rooms – the top-tier Royce Suite plus a King Balcony room combine to make a 79sqm apartment with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a balcony and a separate wraparound terrace looking out onto Hogwarts and its oval (actually this is the 167-year-old Melbourne Grammar).
There’s a feeling of space and sky from the room I don’t usually equate with visits to what was once the most locked-down city in the world. It would be the perfect place to kick back in warmer months with a sundowner in hand, listening to the ting of the trams and soaking up the buzz of the tennis or the Grand Prix (Albert Park is a ten-minute cab ride away).
The place oozes deco charm, from the indigo carpet to the bespoke tiered chandeliers; we admire the painted Chinoiserie wallpaper designed locally and made in London, the cavernous bath and upscale touches like Molton Brown toiletries and Dyson hairdryers. Honorary mention goes to breakfast in the conservatory for the homemade crumpet with butter and preserves.
After forgettable stays at big-chain hotels in Collins St, something independently owned with Gilded Age manners came as a tremendous relief.
If like me you’re a little tired of edgy, hipster Melbourne, this is an example of the city’s timeless, genteel side. It made this Sydneysider think, Maybe we could even visit twice a year?
Checklist
Stay: The Royce Hotel is at 379 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne; roycehotel.com.au.
Do: NGV Summer: Gallery director Tony Ellwood is on a mission to one-up himself with every exhibition as artisanal props, soundscapes and lighting turn them into a form of promenade theatre. Recent highlights have included the immersive Pharaoh and French Impressionism. This year’s blockbuster showcasing the work of fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo is no less spectacular.
Rising Festival: the annual winter program can be hit and miss but Gideon Obarzanek always brings colour to the seasonal grey; look out for the gems like this year’s Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf interactive fun featuring Miranda July.
Eat: I meant it about breakfast at The Royce. Locals meet up in the stylish conservatory for a special occasion Champagne Full English or the buttermilk pancakes with rose citrus ricotta. Walk it off afterwards with a stroll around the Botanic Gardens.
For dinner, there’s Marmelo, one of the chief reasons to venture back into the city. Ross Lusted’s playful Portuguese-inspired menu has landed him in this year’s La Liste compendium of the world’s best restaurants; among the highlights is an olive oil cheesecake my companion sums up perfectly as face-meltingly good. But first tuck into a crab nata and, I say with no trace of hyperbole, the best martini in town. On another night we discovered Reed House tucked away in the Manse next to the Uniting Church on Lonsdale St.
Its delightfully irreverent nod to British classics includes a ramen Scotch egg and potatoes served as they all should be, with chicken salt and malt vinegar mayo. The cocktails are serious business. I ordered The Pickle Back (Espolon Blanco tequila, kumquat and pickle brine) because I like that sort of thing.
And: There’s plenty of buzz around Southbank’s Hannah St Hotel opening this month. It will be prime position for the city’s $1.7 billion arts precinct transformation and the reopening in October next year of the much-missed State Theatre.
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