The Great Hall at University House heralds the completion of the 6-year renovation with new colourful uplighting. Photo: Tenele Conway.
The 2020 hailstorm did more than severely damage the roof structure of University House at ANU – campus life also suffered.
The storms forced the closure of the hotel that first opened its doors in 1954, and all associated businesses in the heritage-listed precinct, including Fellows Bar and Boffins Restaurant.
After a six-year restoration project, the hotel is once again accepting guests, and ANU staff are flooding back into the much-missed Fellows Bar, a basement space with a history that reaches back to the late 60s, when it was first converted from a laundry into Cellar Bar.
The Duke of Edinburgh officially opened University House in February 1954. Photo: ANU Archives.
Over the years, the basement bar morphed from the Cellar Bar to Fellows Bar with a 2008 award-winning renovation, and has now evolved again with the hailstorm inspiring the venue to reimagine its interiors. The new design brings the much-loved venue full circle, with sections of the multi-use space reflecting the building’s history.
“Downstairs, Fellows Bar has been upgraded with timber panelling to mirror the upstairs spaces. Polished terrazzo floors, reinstated copper details and revitalised courtyard areas echo the refinement of the House’s earliest years,” the ANU Reporter explained.
The main lounge at Fellows Bar has been restored to reflect the mid-century origins of University House. Photo: Tenele Conway.
Despite the periods of transition, not much has changed when it comes to socialising at Fellows Bar.
A 1977 account from computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra describes his normal working day, including walking over to the Cellar Bar at noon for lunch and beer, and often returning around 5:30 for another beer. Given good weather, a great deal of the beer was drunk under the large plane tree in the Fellows Garden, which Lindsay Pryor designed.
That same ritual under the same tree continues today, with the six-year hiatus proving insufficient to break hard-won habits.
Although Fellows Bar is a common haunt for staff from across campus, particularly the scientists and staff working in the nearby ANU Research School of Physics, it’s open to the public and popping in for a touch of campus life is encouraged.
The curved walkway and adjacent pond lead you down to the basement where you’ll find Fellows Bar. Photo: Tenele Conway.
To get a full sense of the heritage precinct, ignore the signage directing you to enter Fellows Bar from the rear and instead slip through the hotel lobby to take in the beauty of the pond-lined curved walkway that leads down to the basement.
Although the koi that made the pond home before the renovations haven’t yet returned, the main entrance speaks to the iconic, sometimes divisive mid-century architecture the building is famous for.
Fellows Bar straddles an aesthetic that feels part cafeteria, part hotel bar and part academic lounge, with the biggest design changes in the main lounge, where mid-century-style furniture delivers lounge-room-level comfort ideal for conversations about gravitational waves.
The menu at Fellows Bar features affordable Mediterranean-style dishes like this 24-hour slow-roast lamb shoulder. Photo: Martin Conway.
The menu leans into affordable Mediterranean-inspired dining, with a pizza starting at $20, a pork and fennel ragu at $22, and a 12-hour slow-roasted lamb shoulder with crushed potato, labneh, pomegranate, pistachio, herbs and preserved lemon for $30. Lunchtime specials regularly include curries that are as cheap as $15.
The wine list features local labels like Linear, Clonakilla and The Vintner’s Daughter, with glasses starting at $12. The beers on tap also lean local.
Fellows Bar is located at 1 Balmain Crescent, Acton, and is open 7 days a week from 7 am to 8 pm Monday to Friday, and from 7:30 am to 10 am on Saturdays and Sundays.
