Carrington Hotel

Grand Victorian hotel at the heart of Katoomba, restored to its 1880s splendour

The Carrington Hotel is Katoomba's grandest building — a four-storey Victorian pile on the main street with a two-tiered verandah, ornamental ironwork and a sense of confident prosperity that the rest of the town has long since shed. It opened in 1882 as a luxury resort hotel for wealthy Sydney families escaping the summer heat, and was the most fashionable hotel in the mountains for decades.

Today it operates as a hotel and function venue. Non-guests can visit the ground-floor bar and restaurant, where the restored interiors — pressed tin ceilings, parquet floors, an elaborate staircase — give a good idea of what late-Victorian resort life looked like. Worth a look inside even if you're not staying.

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A story
The Carrington opened in 1882, when wealthy Sydney families would take the train up for weeks at a time. At its peak it had a full orchestra, a skating rink and its own farm supplying the kitchen. After decades of slow decline it was placed on the heritage register and eventually restored. The ornate ballroom with its pressed tin ceiling is original.