Primus Hotel Sydney

City Centre & Haymarket


In the former Water Board building, this slick conversion has magnificent lobby space with red pillars and glorious art deco details. There's space to spare here, with wide corridors and ample, commodious rooms; excellent service is a noteworthy feature. Though the pool itself is tiny, the deck surrounding it is a fabulous spot; the bar here is open to the public.

Rooms are often very good value for Sydney. The lobby restaurant, the Wilmot, is of very decent quality. Free 45-minute heritage tours of the building run at 4.30pm on Saturdays from the concierge's desk.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby City Centre & Haymarket attractions

1. St Andrew’s Cathedral

0.11 MILES

Sporting beautiful stained glass and twin spires inspired by England’s York Minster, squat St Andrew’s Anglican is the oldest cathedral in Australia (1868…

2. Sydney Town Hall

0.15 MILES

Mansard roofs, sandstone turrets, wrought-iron trimmings and over-the-top balustrades: the French Second Empire wedding-cake exterior of the Town Hall …

3. Anzac Memorial

0.18 MILES

This dignified art deco memorial commemorates WWI soldiers of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzacs). The interior dome is studded with 120,000…

4. Great Synagogue

0.2 MILES

The heritage-listed Great Synagogue (1878) is the spiritual home of Sydney’s oldest Jewish congregation, established in 1831. It’s considered the Mother…

5. Hyde Park

0.2 MILES

Formal but much-loved Hyde Park has manicured gardens and a tree-formed tunnel running down its spine, which looks particularly pretty at night,…

6. Queen Victoria Building

0.24 MILES

Unbelievably, this High Victorian Gothic masterpiece (1898) was repeatedly slated for demolition before it was restored in the mid-1980s. Occupying an…

7. State Theatre

0.27 MILES

The ostentatiously ornate State (1929) is Sydney’s most beautiful theatre. Originally built as a movie palace during Hollywood’s heyday, it’s now a…

8. Darling Walk

0.29 MILES

The environmentally conscious Darling Walk development is one of Darling Harbour's newer blocks of restaurants and offices, all wrapped up in a curvy…