Everyone was dressed to the nines, looking like they had just stepped out of the pages of The Great Gatsby. And indeed as all the passengers streamed off the train at Medlow Bath towards the hotel, it was easy to imagine this being a scene replayed from nearly years ago.
The hotel runs daily history tours throughout the grounds that offer insights into its story, its architecture and design, as well as the interesting personality of the eccentric founder. The hotel strikes a balance between old-world charm and modern service and amenities. The Roaring 20s Festival is held annually every February. Head to the Hydro Majestic website for more information. Email address:. Photo courtesy of Escarpment Group Photo courtesy of Escarpment Group A hotel that catered to only the rich and privileged, the Hydro Majestic at this time was exactly the one of my imagination.
Heritage Valley View Room The Hydro Majestic of today is far less scandalous and more family friendly, though it still retains the grandeur and charm of its past. The state-of-the-art hydropathic clinic offered water-cures and other rigorous treatments for a wide range of ailments, overseen by Dr Baur, a German therapist hired from a leading Swiss spa. By , Foy had accepted hydropathy's lack of appeal, not helped by the fact that the local spring had dried up and the spa water, imported in copper tanks from Baden-Baden, tasted dreadful.
A keen yachtsman, [14] Foy deftly changed tack. Rebranded as the Hydro Majestic, his exclusive luxury hotel was marketed from to the wealthy and fashionable for its opulence, fine food, entertainments and diverse recreational activities. In 'How I Saw The Bush' supposedly written by an unidentified British tourist, the hotel is extolled as 'Monte Carlo, whirled across twelve thousand miles of sea…with a slice of the Louvre and the Tuilleries sic thrown in.
Foy was adept at exploiting publicity. In Foy entertained officers and crew of the visiting US fleet and did so again in He enjoyed dressing up — as Napoleon, for example, at a 'plain and fancy dress ball' in March Foy entertained members of his own social circle such as actor and later JC Williamson's managing director, Hugh Ward, and the hotel itself attracted its share of high society and celebrity guests. In the Rajah of Pudukkotai courted Melbourne socialite Molly Fink, the beginning of their scandalous inter-racial marriage.
Australia's first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, died of heart failure while a guest in During his global lecture tour on Spiritualism in , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stayed with his family, praising Medlow Bath as a 'little earthly paradise' and the hotel as 'an Arabian Nights palace'. Other famous names have entered the trove of stories around the hotel.
They include German armaments heiress Bertha Krupp who supposedly donated a grand piano and Dame Nellie Melba who performed in the casino. While these stories are difficult to substantiate from archival sources, they survive as legends of the hotel's glamorous past.
On Foy's travels abroad he collected crowd-pleasing curiosities, none more so than the 'Medlow Mermaid'. Advertised in the local paper in , the seven foot long 'mermaid' and eight and half foot 'merman', reportedly purchased in Libya, could be viewed for the price of a shilling. With plans to live abroad, Foy decided in to lease the Hydro Majestic to his commercial rival James Joynton-Smith, owner of the Carrington and Imperial hotels.
For extended periods, Joynton-Smith closed the Hydro for maintenance and renovations. On 18 August a catastrophic fire broke out and destroyed the Belgravia hotel, the Belgravia Wing and the art gallery with its entire collection.
Smith's lease was not renewed and Foy returned to rebuild and manage the hotel, reinventing it as a family resort for a less exclusive market. Post-war, the Blue Mountains became a favoured destination for honeymooners and the Hydro was no exception. Interior designer Peter Reeve jumped at the chance to tackle the enormous job of refurbishing a hotel that has been an icon to generations of romantic couples since Sydney entrepreneur Mark Foy created it as an exclusive health resort years ago.
After six years of renovation, he has taken the hotel at Medlow Bath back to its earliest days, the Edwardian era of Along its vibrant magenta walls dotted with Chinese art and bold Arnold Zimmerman paintings of warriors slaying lions, are a bar, tables and plenty of seats.
This is Edwardian. The world was tired of being black after Queen Victoria. The most breathtaking room is the Winter Garden, the old Megalong room, where people on Sunday drives in the s stopped for afternoon teas.
Then it was drab and tired, now it is a spacious delight, filled with gold chairs and a valley view to die for. The Casino, a name given to the space and not a gambling hall, is the new entrance. Its centrepiece is a massive dome with a striking black light fixture and a replica of an unusual green couch that was once in the building. The Majestic Ballroom is more toned down than some of the other areas.
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