Shell House is an amalgam. It recalls what once was, but also offers something entirely new to Australian hospitality. One venue that carries Sydneysiders up and through four spaces that each offer a different mode of relaxation. As a sequence, Shell House weaves a grand narrative of theatricality and escapism, distilling a storied history and transporting us to a time when people lingered. 

As standalones, each venue finds its own flavour of this timelessness. Nestled under the 400-tonne tower, the Clocktower Bar is an immersive and discoverable space lined in timber joinery to capture the heritage and the grandeur of the 1930’s Art Deco period, and its Italianate architecture. Secluded within the heart of the dining room beyond the clock tower doors is a sophisticated sanctuary designed like a historical bar preserved in time. 

From the outset the Clocktower Bar was always intended to be a discrete, discovered, and immersive experience. The concept was intuitively immediate and unchanged, with only layering of detail completing the design process. Floors walls, ceiling and bar are lined in luxuriously gloss timber. Rich fabrics and marble bar layer the decadence of the room. The 8.5m long bar extends the length of the open kitchen offering both dining and visual access to the action of the kitchen and dispensing bar with the theatre of signature cocktails being concocted and served to the dining room. The backdrop to the bar is a timber lined wall, its extensive spirit range illuminated like jewels in a handcrafted jewelry box. Elevated by the soaring clocktower void above, the bar celebrates the restored machinations and is animated by the projections of artist-in residence Mikey Freedom Shell House is an outstanding example of globally important heritage architecture. 

The only surviving interwar commercial palazzo-style building in Sydney. Standing at 65.5 metres high, Shell house’s façade is also one of the tallest retained heritage facades in the world. This enduring commitment to quality and in turn longevity holds a place in Sydney’s past and presence. It was necessary to provide an interior with equal quality and sense of permanence. This is a fitout designed to be lovingly worn and maintained, not refurbished. The choice of marble floors and quality timber, marble and steel bars that will patina with use allows the venue to age with grace as the great bars and restaurants of Europe. 

The Clocktower Bar contains these nods to the past, but the sensorial spaces create a vivid memory of place that is distinctly here and now drawing visitors back again and again. It’s this melding of history and hospitality that’s allowed Shell House to quickly become the social heart for Sydneysiders and a catalyst for a city coming back to life.