How does a city go from “gateway” to destination in its own right? Just ask Newcastle, NSW.
While still known as the gateway to the famed wineries of the Hunter Valley, the former mining centre has built on its natural coastal assets and its historic architecture to establish itself as an excellent getaway in its own right.
And 91 kilometres south of Newcastle, and only an hour north of Sydney, Gosford has been best known as a “gateway” to the beaches of the NSW Central Coast.
The city is making a run of its own to reach “destination” status with a $375 million mixed-use development, The Archibald, home to a new Voco hotel.
Voco is a lifestyle family of hotels that’s part of the InterContinental Hotel Group. Its identity is built around properties being “charming”, relaxed and – like most hotel brands, especially the “lifestyle” ones – connected to the community in which they are built via design, location and amenity. Since launching in 2018, Voco has more than 100 member hotels, of which the Gosford property is the fifth in Australia. Sister properties include Voco Melbourne and Gold Coast.
That’s not the only news for The Archibald, which overlooks Brisbane Water, the picturesque estuary on which Gosford is set. In March this year, developers ALAND won the Best Mixed-Use Development in the Asia-Pacific award at the International Property Awards handed out at London’s Savoy hotel.
It beat 2400 entries from 125 countries and was judged best across criteria that include design, quality, service, innovation, originality and sustainability.
Named after Archibald Acheson, the second Earl of Gosford (the one in Oxfordshire, England, that is), the Archibald Precinct includes 323 residential apartments, five hospitality venues, and that 130-room Voco Gosford.
Set to open at the start of summer, Voco Gosford’s piece de resistance is Astra, a level-28 rooftop bar and high-end Japanese diner.
Most rooms have private balconies, there is a podium-level pool with swim-up bar, and, including the rooftop, six distinctive dining and bar outlets. Archies, a kind of pub on ground level housing Ironbark kitchen, serves pub classics and fire-grill dishes. Then there’s the Italian kitchen, Paolo’s.
Bookings for the hotel and restaurants open from November 12. The official launch of Voco Gosford and The Archibald Precinct is on December 1.
Meanwhile, the hotel boom in Sydney continues with the opening of another “connected-to-community” brand, Caption by Hyatt Central Sydney in Haymarket. The 174-room hotel has a bright and cheery design, thanks to a partnership with Sydney artist Chris Yee, whose illustrations adorn the hotel’s lobby and communal spaces. Works by Melbourne-based creative Samy Baby and Japanese-Australian artist Hiromi Tango also feature. Yee’s and Baby’s imaginings are on the walls of rooms.
Described as “the heart of the hotel”, Talk Shop does quadruple time as a cafe, bar, co-working space, and venue where there will be poetry nights, live music and even Mahjong sessions. This 200-year-old game of Chinese origin is trending hard with younger generations. (For certain sectors of older generations, it’s never been out of style.)
The hotel is easily accessed from the light rail and Central Station and is moments from the Capitol Theatre and the eateries of Chinatown.
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Julietta Jameson is a freelance travel writer who would rather be in Rome, but her hometown Melbourne is a happy compromise.Connect via email.