25hours Hotel The Olympia: The Oxford Street hotel Sydney needed

The brand’s first Australian address, 25hours Hotel Sydney The Olympia is a welcome addition to the Harbour City with bold design, four dining venues and five distinct neighbourhoods on its doorstep

Why stay here

The well-travelled know that when visiting a city, the real gems – and most authentic representation of the destination – are often found not in the town centre or anywhere near its landmarks, but in the neighbourhoods. In Sydney, there are few better bases for getting beneath the city’s surface than 25hours Hotel The Olympia, ingeniously located at the intersection of five distinct eastern suburbs: Paddington, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Kings Cross and Moore Park. Walk straight out the door and find yourself on one of the city’s best shopping strips. Plus, with its position on the main vein that runs from Bondi through to the city, Oxford Street, you can still be at the country’s most famous beach – or harbour – in under 15 minutes.

But beyond its hard-to-beat location, 25hours – newly opened in October 2025 and the brand’s first Australian outpost – is effortlessly cool, giving guests the feeling of being plugged into the city’s pulse. Don’t expect traditional luxury. Do expect good vibes, bold design, tongue-in-cheek branding and a stellar dining offering.

Design

The 109-room hotel occupies the heritage-listed, former West Olympia Theatre – opened in 1911 as a gargantuan 2,500-person picture palace, and said to have been one of Sydney’s first suburban cinemas to install ‘talkies’. It went on to hold various cinematic identities over the decades before becoming restaurant/club The Grand Pacific Blue Room – often remembered as one of Sydney’s more glamorous see-and-be-seen venues of the 1990s and 2000s.

25hours Hotel The Olympia pays homage to these cinematic roots while channelling the old glamour, bohemian spirit and LGBTQIA+ cultural legacy of Oxford Street. It does so through interior whimsy, unique experiences and quirky facilities – and you can bet behind them is a story. Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, Indyk Architects and Woods Bagot collaborated on the hotel’s unique styling, which successfully preserves the building’s heritage features while introducing an unmistakably modern DNA.

The ‘lobby’, if you can really call it that, feels more like a curated communal living room, with a simple check-in counter in front of shelves of VHS tapes (a nod to the Golden Age of film), exposed brick walls lined with photo collages, and mid-century furniture – including a white pod chair straight out of the Space Age. It’s a refreshing departure from the city centre’s polished luxury hotel scene, and reminds me in part of other inner-city treasures The Old Clare and Paramount House Hotel, both of which also tap into the cultural identity of their local neighbourhoods.

In the suite

My 69-square-metre Gigantic Studio is the hotel’s most luxurious room offering, and falls into the ‘Dreamers’ design category (on levels two and four), with a palette of blue and green and a hero wall mural by local artist Kubi Vasak. The sprawling bathroom, though, is the star of the show, so much so that you step right into it upon opening the door. Vibrant teal tiles line the floor and walls, but they’re a mere supporting act to the oversized circular bathtub positioned under a skylight, a perfect viewing spot for sunset. While not a true suite in the traditional sense – there is not a designated living room – there is plenty of room, with a small desk, armchair and a dining area for two.

Arriving on a Friday, I particularly like the view out onto the lush atrium, where I can see people gathering at wine and cocktail bar The Mulwray as the work week comes to an end. The ‘Renegades’ rooms on levels one and three feature moodier palettes, bold artwork and an edgier tone.

Dining

The standout of my stay is an evening split between The Mulwray and flagship open-kitchen restaurant The Palomar – a testament to the prowess of culinary director Mitch Orr, who oversees all four dining venues. Reclined on a leather chesterfield with a view of that landscaped atrium, I sip biodynamic wine at The Mulwray, named after Roman Polanski’s femme fatale, Evelyn Mulwray, from the 1974 neo-noir classic, Chinatown. Dinner at The Palomar is exceptional, and I sample a menu drawing on influences from Southern Europe, North Africa and the Levant, with a focus on cooking over fire.

To start, there’s PiOik Bakery nigella-seed flatbread and market fish crudo with tomato ezme, but it’s the cucumbers with green tahini and crispy chilli that I can’t stop thinking about the next day – even after indulging in a perfectly grilled 600g Coppertree Farm ribeye with burnt chilli salsa. As for the lamington with labneh, mango and rose petals – Australian desserts don’t get much more elegant (or moreish).

The ‘lobby’, if you can really call it that, feels more like a curated communal living room, with a simple check-in counter in front of shelves of VHS tapes (a nod to the Golden Age of film), exposed brick walls lined with photo collages, and mid-century furniture – including a white pod chair straight out of the Space Age.

Like The Palomar (where breakfast is also served), coffee shop Jacob the Angel is positioned on the ground floor with an entrance for the public on Oxford Street, and pours specialty coffee to enjoy with pastries supplied by famed Lune Croissanterie.

It’s a completely different vibe at Monica, the Eastern Suburbs’ new favourite rooftop bar. With views across Paddington and to the city (with a glimpse of the Sydney Harbour Bridge), glamorous 1960s-inspired design (inside is a striking mural I can’t stop admiring), and a DJ booth to keep the energy high, I’m not surprised to be sharing the space with numerous hen parties and 20-somethings enjoying Saturday night pre-drinks – the space is heaving, and rightly so.

Special touches

The most obvious ode to the hotel’s art-house cinema roots comes in the form of a private theatre, The Odeon. While, much to my disappointment, the hotel doesn’t screen films there, the space can be booked for private events. Guests can continue the cinematic theme in-room, too: reserve one of the movies on display in the lobby and an old-fashioned TV with VCR will be delivered for you to enjoy from the comfort of your bed. The hotel also has a fleet of Schindelhauer bikes to hire – leafy Centennial Park is a 15-minute cycle away. For those keen for some retail therapy, the hotel hosts boutiques on the ground floor, including Sorry Thanks I Love You, Kreafunk, Soeder, Samova, Canvasco and Freitag.

Hotel Notes

25HOURS HOTEL THE OLYMPIA
GIGANTIC STUDIO
SIZE 69 square metres
PRICE PER NIGHT From AU$599
WEBSITE 25hours-hotels.com