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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Kelly Burke

From drab partitions to haute couture host: how a Sydney civic masterpiece was rescued

The front exterior of a grand hotel building
The Lands hotel on Sydney’s Bridge Street has won a 2026 National Trust heritage award. Photograph: Timothy Kaye

It was once a grand old sandstone masterpiece, where returned soldiers would cram into marble corridors to anxiously await lottery draws that could change their lives.

Then the 20th century happened.

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