Josh Niland’s first hotel opens this month

  • Josh and Julie Niland are opening 14 boutique hotel rooms above acclaimed seafood restaurant, Saint Peter.
  • Saint Peter will be handling a full breakfast menu for hotel guests only.
  • This is the acclaimed chefs first foray in the hotel industry.
  • READ MORE: Most romantic restaurants in Sydney

Last year, Josh Niland took a big step for his highly acclaimed Saint Peter by shutting up shop to the original restaurant and moving up the road, to the Grand National Hotel.

It’s only been a few months for proprietors Josh and Julie Niland, who have had a re-shuffle to get this business in place. First, the Nilands closed both Fish Butchery in Paddington and Charcoal Fish is Rose Bay, then shuttered St Leonard’s ambitious Peterman. But feedback so far has cited a reinvigorated Saint Peter, currently one of the only restaurants in Australia boasting three Chef Hats from the Australian Good Food Guide.

In just a few weeks, The Grand National Hotel by Saint Peter (as the former pub is now called, to avoid any confusion) will open 14 individually designed rooms to further turn that side of Paddington into a bit of a hotbed for boutique accommodation. The Paddington end of the long and windy Oxford Street strip already hosts the acclaimed Oxford House and will welcome the Accor’s 25Hours brand later this year with a 109-room lifestyle hotel.

How much is a night at The Grand National Hotel?

Room details for the new Grand National Hotel in Sydney
Rooms at The Grand National Hotel by Saint Peter start from $600 per night (photo supplied).

Accommodation at The Grand National will be pricey with rates starting at $600 per night, inclusive of a non-alcoholic mini-bar and breakfast. The morning meal, mind you, should be pretty special. Saint Peter currently sits as the best seafood restaurant in the world, so it’s hard to imagine this being anything but one of the best hotel breakfasts in Sydney. Think spanner crab omelette for starters, with a full a la carte menu revealed closer to opening.

“When approaching the heritage of the building, we paid as much attention to detail to the design and furnishing as we did with the restaurant,” offered Julie Niland.

“This is our first venture into being hoteliers, and we knew that we wanted to apply the same level of care to the rooms so that they weren’t just an addition to Saint Peter but a destination in their own right.”

What will the hotel look like?

A bed at The Grand National Hotel by Saint Peter in Sydney, Australia
The Grand National Hotel will feature plush king size beds with dramatic carpets and wallpaper (photo supplied).

The Nilands engaged Studio Aquilo for the hotel’s interiors, restoring several original features, such as marble fireplaces and vintage tiling, while also splashing each room with colours to reflect the Australian landscape. With bespoke velvet headboards topping king-size beds, maximalist carpets and intricate wallpapers, on paper it sounds the brief of Kit Kemp’s latest hotel.

In further aligning Saint Peter with the rooms above it, candles are made from fish fat and ceramics are cobbled together from fish bones.

Nearby Olsen Gallery has come onboard to curate an art collection for the hotel, featuring a mix of paintings and prints from up-and-coming Australian artists as well as monochromatic sketches by Ken Done.

Reservations for the hotel is now open and The Grand National will begin welcoming guests from January 31, 2025.

The Grand National Hotel is one of two high-profile hotel openings to help kickstart 2025. While last year was all about the big, ambitious revival of Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, in the next few weeks we’ll be getting both the Saint Peter hotel and The Eve Hotel, which is TFE’s exciting new design-forward property headlining new Redfern-Surry Hills precinct Wunderlich Lane, which has already been given a great start with Olympus Dining and Island Radio.


The Grand National Hotel by Saint Peter

Address: 161 Underwood St, Paddington NSW 2021
Contact: (02) 9167 3703
Restaurant Opening Hours: Monday – Wednesday (5pm – 11pm); Thursday – Sunday (12pm – 11pm)
Room Starts At: $600
Rooms: 109

saintpeter.com.au


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