Walkabout with Ruth Double Bay (Part Two)

Photos: Ruth Kliman

Source: Woollahra Council

In this Ed 53, I complete my walk around Double Bay.

I continue my walk down Cross St from Double Bay Public School to the Interncontinental Hotel. Originally constructed in 1991 and launched as The RitzCarlton, the Double Bay hotel was acquired by both Sydney developer Piety Group and Melbourne property developer Paul Fridman in Dec 2021 from

Chinese Group Shanghai United. In its heyday, the hotel attracted Princess Diana, Madonna, Bill Clinton and David Bowie and was the scene of INXS frontman Hutchence’s untimely death in 1997, when he was one of the world’s most recognised rock stars as the band sold out stadiums across the globe and sold more than 80 million records.

Championships, now the Australian Open and the International Lawn Tennis Championships, now the Davis Cup.

On NSH Rd stands the 1936 Inter-War Golden Sheaf Hotel, which is heritage-listed. It was bought for $5,327,000 in 1991. This sprawling venue has five bars and transforms into a nightclub on weekends.

I head up to 337 NSH Rd, Edgecliff to Overthorpe, where you will find Sir John Hay’s garden. On this land John Hay fostered a specialist garden supporting a botanical collection of predominately rainforest species, many of them rare. The collection of rainforest plant species has been judged as “arguably second only to the collection in the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens” with palm plantings “easily eclipsing the significant palm grove in Vaucluse House gardens” (State Heritage Office.) Look out for the plaque dedicated to Sir John Hay.