Once touted as "lavishly appointed" and a "swank tourist hotel", North Wollongong's Normandie Inn is now not much more than a pile of rumble. Subscribe now for unlimited access . Login or signup to continue reading The 1946 hotel - which was not heritage listed - is being knocked down to make way for a five-storey apartment complex of 13 three-bedroom units with two levels of basement car parking.
Before the demolition began, the hotel's interior was required to be photographed according to NSW Heritage Branch standards. The finished recording will be kept in Wollongong Library's local history section. In its heyday, the Normandie - which had become more and more dilapidated in recent years - was the place to be seen.
On November 25, 1950, the Mercury reported on the official opening, saying it would be a red-letter day for gourmets as well as tourists. "Monsieur Sravako Laszlo, the Hungarian chef, spent last night wrestling 12 husky turkeys into the ovens to feed 200 guests expected for the opening," the Mercury reported. Advertisements for the restaurant boasted of "continental cuisine" and the hotel's name regularly appeared in the Mercury 's gossip pages as the place where high-profile out-of-towners went to dine.
Union Bank director Viscount Bridgeman visited the city and lunched at the Normandie in 1951, while underwear manufacturer Julius Kayser Australia chose the venue to show off lingerie fashions for 1952 - the highlight was "nightgowns cut on new continental lines.