Ezra Bix has a soft spot for the Windsor. Which is how come he knows the Hotel Windsor has immense architectural and historical significance. That it’s Australia’s only surviving ‘grand’ 19th century city hotel. That the Australia Constitution was drafted there in 1898. For much of its 20th Century life, this five star hotel has been one of the most luxurious and popular hotels in the country.

It has played host to the Queen’s father, King George the sixth, Sir Robert Menzies, Dame Nellie Melba, Lord Laurence Olivier and his wife Vivienne Leigh, Sir Donald Bradman and the Australian cricket team, Rudolph Nuyreyev, Muhammed Ali,
Sir Anthony Hopkins, Meryl Streep, Gregory Peck, Katherine Hepburn, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Sir Robert Helpmann, Basil Rathbone, Lauren Bacall – all have made their entrance in the stately entrance hall.

Controversial renovations are scheduled to start in 2011. It’s up to you whose press you believe.

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This poem is a part of The Long Story.