A grand old Regency house with a sophisticated glass, marble and sandstone facelift, The Islington Hotel is a very special, small, luxe hotel in Hobart with a long history and a large delightful garden, affording unique and stunning views of Mount Wellington.

Decorated with fine art and furnished with antiques, Islington appeals to those who desire the very best in life. Surrounded by personalised service, presented in an atmosphere of serenity, luxury and tranquility.

The house was built in 1847 and then converted to a B&B in early ‘90s and in need of renovation and upgrading when purchased by its current owners David Meredith and John Goodyear. Its elegance as a Regency house made it deserving of being developed into a luxury property.

The ambience is classic in the original house, contemporary in the new additions linked and coalesced into a whole by a modern glass conservatory.

The interiors were designed by John Goodyear with Robert Morris-Nunn & Associates, now Circa Morris-Nunn, the architects for the project.

There were objections by neighbours who thought that the extensions were too close to the boundary and could overlook them which forced a rethink. The rethink kept the new extensions within the curtilage of the house, as it was when it was first built; the two new suites on the ground floor occupying the site originally occupied by the stables; the conservatory and courtyard the original house yard; and, the mountain viewing pavilion where the barn once stood. Furthermore, this created a ha-ha effect so 4 new bedroom suites could be fitted underneath without disrupting the view from the ground floor bedroom suites, conservatory, courtyard and pavilion.

When the house existed as a B&B there was only one sitting room for guests, all other rooms having been turned into bedrooms. As such, guests were unable to enjoy the ambience of the house. The new plan was to turn most of the ground floor rooms back to public rooms and to build new bedroom suites to replace those lost. Initially the owners were hoping that the new bedrooms would be 50m2 but the restriction referred to above reduced the sizes slightly. In all, 20 months of planning and changes were needed to achieve the final concept.

A good source of marble and stone was found so travertine coloured marble was used to face the interior of the conservatory to add a luxe finish to the steel and glass; translucent white marble led to the design of softly lit oak and translucent white marble shoji screens for the external bathroom walls; Freycinet coloured granite found its way to the bathroom and bedroom entry floors; the entry hall became one of classic white marble tiling; and, on the conservatory floor, bluestone flagstones with black and white marble inlay in a Chateau de Groussay pattern. The original wide plank wooden floors were taken up, stored and re-laid with black caulking between the planks and covered with Aubusson or Oriental rugs.

From their location in the house certain rooms demanded a certain colour scheme, for example, the north eastern sitting room caught the morning sunlight so its colour theme was morning yellow, opposite on the north west it was to be evening rose and for the library a masculine, bookish brown. The owners had always admired the Jim Thompson range of fabrics so that was their starting point, in fact, their only point for textural input. Golden silk was chosen for the morning room and a rose blend with white applique for the rose room, or, in some instances the fabric became the determinate of the room colour; a yellow and blue Regency stripe led to a blue bedroom, green and brown brocade to a green room and so on.

The owners were aware that lighting played a critically important element in design so retained the services of a lighting consultant, who did a marvelous job creating the perfect ambience in each room at different times in the evening.

Special features incorporated into the project include the fact that heat from the conservatory fire is captured at the top of the conservatory and circulated around the ground floor public rooms thus conserving energy.

In the bedrooms, placing the bed, not against a wall, but against a joinery unit in front of the bathroom that creates a sort of walk in robe.

Art works and antique/old furniture were the result of 30 years of collecting by David and John or had been in their respective families for some generations.

“We set out to create something of beauty and bring a new level of luxury to the accommodation market in Hobart and Tasmania, with price and timing as secondary considerations,” commented John Goodyear. “The project was delivered on time and on budget, Islington pioneered and proved there was a demand for luxury accommodation in Hobart and Tasmania and accolades received indicate that we did create a beautiful hotel.”

Over the years Islington has won many awards, both architectural and accommodation, including Winner of “Best City Boutique Hotel, Australia” Gourmet Traveller not once but twice, in 2007 and again in 2013.