DESIGN & BUILD: THE GARDENS AT AMBARVALE HOTEL

Not your average beer garden

The Gardens are the last stage of a four-year renovation project at Ambarvale Hotel which has seen it become a massive drawcard for the local community.

THE AMBARVALE Hotel has been a massive project for hotelier Colin Parras. He first purchased the Campbelltown pub off the Lantern Hotel Group in 2016 for $21.2 million and began renovations that would transform the hotel. In 2019, after the majority of renovation works had been completed on the behemoth south-western Sydney pub, Parras told Australian Hotelier that the works had cost “many millions and there’s probably a few more to go with stage four.”

That last stage was the reworking of the large beer garden space at the back of the pub, which after covid and rain delays has finally been completed. Now known as The Gardens, the pub’s outdoor space is reminiscent of an English country garden, with an approachable Australian twist.

Paul Kelly of Paul Kelly Design has been working alongside Parras on the project over the years, and he says The Gardens not only complete The Ambarvale Hotel, but that they supercede the expectations of what a beer garden should look like.

“It’s brought a new sense of life to the venue because obviously because of covid people love being outside, but it’s a really different experience for a pub. It’s almost like a country pub feel with the beer garden spilling into beautiful walkways, beautiful trees. Where typically a beer garden has some fairy lights, a couple of big tables and umbrellas, this is quite extensive.”

The Gardens still provides something for everyone, but focuses on two major target demographics: the medium-sized functions market, and families.

FUNCTIONS AND FAMILIES

The brief given to Kelly was to build a refined beer garden that would include outdoor function spaces that could cater for larger groups.

“We created these large pavilions that people could rent out for 80-100 people. These large areas that are adjacent to a bar, to kids’ areas, to gardens. So they’re still part of the action and different to a normal function area which is generally internal and closed off. These are the heart of the venue,” explains Kelly.

Families are also catered for at The Gardens with the inclusion of a large playground area with play equipment that is fenced off to keep the little ones safe. The playground is visible from anywhere in The Gardens so that parents can keep an eye on their kids from their table, rather than having to stay by their children’s side while they play. There’s also only one way in and out, to add a layer of safety as well.

There’s a line of sight to the children’s playground from all parts of The Gardens

“It’s very safe, which is paramount. So if kids are playing there, they can’t get out.”

While families and functions are the focus, they are not the only groups catered for within Ambarvale Hotel’s outdoor space. There’s also a large stage with a courtyard in front of it where acts play from Friday to Sunday, with an audio system that is hooked up to the rest of the venue, meaning you can hear the acts from anywhere in the pub. And next to the bar in the undercroft there is seating that is perfect for a couple of cocktails with friends.

NATURAL BEAUTY

The aesthetic for The Gardens is a refined country look, reminiscent of an English garden. The look helps to attract the function market that Parras was after, and fits in well with its surroundings.

“It overlooks lovely rolling hills, and I always thought that would create a great backdrop to do a nice outdoor space,” stated Parras.

The space is filled with timber structures painted white, which looks more refined than natural timber tones.

“We didn’t want to do anything in the natural tones as it would look too rustic, and too raw. We want people to have functions there. We want people to say ‘I want to have my thirtieth birthday there for 100 people’, and they can sit there and it feels like a special experience because of the beautiful structure above, not because it’s an old recycled structure,” states Kelly.

“I think that stuff is sort of done.”

To complement the abundance of white, and to create the garden look, the space is also filled with greenery. A lot of thought was put into the planting of the space, with plants chosen for their robustness, approachability and how they would change throughout the seasons.

“We’ve used things like rosemary and lavender and the gardens smell really fresh and nice, almost like an English garden,” explains Kelly.

The two pavilions can each host functions for up to 100 people

“But the plants were also chosen so that people would acknowledge them. There’s no wild species there that people wouldn’t understand, it’s an approachable concept that people can relate to their own gardens in. They know what the plants are so they can grab them and have a sniff.

“But especially with the kids, the plants had to be very robust, as the kids end up in gardens a lot, so making sure everything we chose was very durable and also mainly evergreen. We didn’t want any perennials or deciduous shrubbery, because the trees are all deciduous so in winter it’s a very different look to spring or summer.”

RAIN, HAIL OR SHINE

Weather is a huge factor in the design of any outdoor space, and it was forefront of mind for The Gardens – particularly as they took six months to construct due to constant rain delays. The outdoor space has a four-metre-high acoustic wall built entirely around it so that The Gardens can trade until midnight, but the post holes for the fence kept filling with water as Sydney experienced an extremely wet winter.

We want people to say ‘I want to have my thirtieth birthday there for 100 people’… and it feels like a special experience.

-Paul Kelly, Paul Kelly Design

The construction process was a reminder that inclement weather conditions would have to be factored in to the new outdoor space, as extreme heat, strong winds and heavy rain become more commonplace.

All the external spaces are closeable and openable as required. They have weather blinds, heating, fans, and misting systems. The pavilions have even been positioned so they can get a cross breeze on a hot day. Catering for the weather has become a massive focus for Kelly of late.

“Depending on the weather conditions, these external pavilions can cater for anything. We did a project at Parramatta Square for a company called Walker, where we created all of these external pods, which were fully catered with every single thing you would need, like really nice lighting, really good quality sound, etc. And we applied a lot of those same techniques here. So for a lot of people it’s not a second choice, it’s their first choice.”

All parts of the The Gardens, including the bar in the undercroft can be closed up in inclement weather

With The Gardens complete, the major renovations of Ambarvale Hotel under Parras’ guidance are finally done. There is so much on offer throughout the pub, and Kelly says The Gardens are an amplification of the level of quality available in the rest of the venue, regardless of what kind of experience you are after.

“The pub already has those markets, and this is the missing link to providing the total solution for the Ambarvale Hotel.”