The Hotel Metropole, Sydney, c.1890.

Albumen print photograph, 150 x 200 mm, blind stamp of ‘Kerry & Co. Photo., 308 Geo. St. Sydney Copyright’; mounted recto of a 19th-century album leaf of thick card, with manuscript caption to lower margin: ‘Hotel Metropole, where Murch and I stopped 1st time. Sydney’; in fine condition; verso with another albumen print in similar format, a view of St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney (also by Kerry).

The Hotel Metropole, located at the corner of Bent and Phillip Streets, was one of Sydney’s premier hotels in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. It was designed by architects Sheerin & Hennessy and Twentyman & Askew. This beautifully proportioned Kerry & Co. view of the Metropole, looking northwest from the eastern side of Phillip Street, was probably taken around the time the hotel was officially opened on 14 January 1890.