One of the most popular pubs in Darlinghurst, which has become a particularly important venue for Sydney’s LGBTQIA community in recent years, will soon be shutting its doors. After serving locals for decades, the venue has been sold by its current owners, the Solotel hospitality group, to the neighbouring St Vincent’s Hospital, so that it can be redeveloped into an outreach centre for “hospital-related patient care, training and research endeavours”.
The new hospital facilities to be housed in the ex-hotel will include community mental and urban health services and the St Vincent’s Curran Foundation Arts for Health Program, as well as a studio for St V’s TV and offices for the hospital's innovation and improvement hub. No date has yet been released for the Green Park’s final day operating as a hospo venue, although a Solotel spokesperson said that the pub would get “the send-off it deserves with our guests over the coming weeks.”
While it will no longer be welcoming punters for a pint, St Vincent’s health network chief executive Anthony M Schembri said that the building’s Federation-era architecture and heritage will be preserved in the development, "to acknowledge its historical legacy".
Solotel CEO Justine Baker shared her thanks to the many patrons who have frequented the pub over the years. “The support we’ve received over the years from our much-loved guests, the Darlinghurst community and the Green Park family has meant the world to us. To each and every one of you, we say thank you for making the Greeny all that it is.”