The Alexandria Hotel and what could have been
In June last year a development application was submitted to demolish the Alexandria Hotel, an old pub in inner-Sydney, and replace it with a new apartment block. Hundreds of people in the local community opposed the loss of this historic building and over a quarter of those people used PlanningAlerts [PDF] to have their say.
Yesterday a commenter passed on a letter from the City of Sydney. In it the council conveyed what appears to be the final word on this development – that the applicant has discontinued their appeals against the application being refused. So it looks like this old building has been saved. Not only that but the council is proposing for the building to be heritage listed soon.
We send PlanningAlerts (over 30 million of them so far!) so that people can find out and have their say about what happens with their built environment. So while we’re impartial when it comes to specific developments, we can’t help but smile at the poetic justice of an old pub being saved. After all, an old pub being demolished out of the blue is what sparked Richard Pope to create the original UK version of PlanningAlerts.
It also goes to show that your comments on PlanningAlerts, each of which is sent to council as an official submission, can and do make a difference to your local area. From saving a whole historic pub, to encouraging and supporting local businesses, or providing super-local knowledge to gently suggest improvements to an application.
Thanks for making a difference.
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12 Comments
Thanks for your fantastic work.
That is such great news! Thank you
Great to see such a tangible result of open data.
Great post and I am going to do a tweet right now
“Hundreds of people in the local community opposed the loss of this historic building”…
As a long term Alexandria resident I could not see many names of residents living within 200 metres of this dilapidated run down pub in the list of objectors ?
The majority of dissenters were outsiders who made stupid emotional comments with no facts. The cost of maintaining and renovating ‘heritage’ listed buildings is stupidly expensive and makes any commercial investment decision perilous.
This building will now lay derelict and become more run down as no one will touch it due to it’s age and crazy maintenance costs ! The windows are boarded up, the bill posters have started the graffiti will be next and the vandals will follow.
You Saved it alright – one more ugly eyesore for years to come and all at ratepayers expense.
Well, Geoff, let’s knock down all the old buildings. Bloody waste of money. Clear the city of them. We’ve got better things to do with the money – building submarines, buying lots and lots of bombs, all the stuff we really need. Who cares what our cities look like. We have no respect for them. How old is your house by the way? Perhaps we knock it down as well? Save you the repair bill.
Thank YOU Planning Alerts for edging planning to being a more inclusive, fun (and democratic) process
Glad to see that something can be saved from the greed of developers.
Thank you for keeping this channel open. zit is a very efficient way of quickly gathering community input into planning issues, not just applications, but comments on more comprehensive changes.
Apart from other things, the NSW government’s rush to pressured development has resulted in a crop of high rise buildings which change the character of some suburbs, but also allowed the acceptance of residential buildings of very ugly design.
In some cases, these buildings simply look as if they have been ‘plonked’ here in Australia with designs copied from elsewhere.
Five blocks of units recently completed in Burns Bay Road, Lane Cove are very ‘ORDINARY’ with a gaolist appearance. We have good reason to expect big social and traffic problems in our neighbourhood when they are occupied.
Values will be down too. Some people selling up.
Pleased to see that it can helped on the heritage when sufficient people are linked up through email.
Thank you for the organisation.
Awesome that it has been ‘saved’. I wish the same could happen with the hotel in Hurlstone Park which has stood for almost 100 years and is about to be demolished to make way for a new development
That’s great, especially seeing what they wanted to replace it with. Like we need another block of units with a hipster cafe beneath it. Well done to all, hopefully it’s a start to the end of the boring nanny state this city is becoming.
Thank you to all the people and especially Planning Alerts who helped save this beautiful old pub!!It’s so sad to lose beautiful old buildings so that greedy developers can make heaps of money!!