Where commuters once bought their newspapers before dashing across the road to catch the train, they may soon be able to play pool or a poker machine in the old Top End Newsagency at Katoomba instead.
Plans by the Carrington Hotel for a $630,000 expansion include extending the Harp and Fiddle Bar on Bathurst Road into the now vacant shop next door which for more than two decades housed the newsagents.
It will accommodate a smoking area, pool tables and gaming machines.
A DA now on exhibition also includes plans to:
Install a diner in the empty building on the other side of the Harp and Fiddle (which had previously been tenanted by an adventure company) and change the configuration upstairs to add green rooms and a lounge area for the Carrington's music venue, the Baroque Room;
Add an upstairs bar to the Harp and Fiddle building;
Create a covered outdoor dining space behind both the Harp and Fiddle and the old newsagency. This will be able to be accessed from the Carrington's forecourt: and
Demolish the existing gazebo in the forecourt, construct a new garden area and reconstruct a new gazebo in the reconfigured outdoor dining/service area. The gazebo will be able to host weddings and other functions and small musical gigs.
Carrington co-owner, Michael Brischetto, said the hotel had bought the old adventure store building with a view to reinvigorating the Bathurst Road strip.
"We always thought Bathurst Road suffered by not having a cafe or a diner during the day ... so we bought the building three years ago with the vision that eventually we would put a diner in there."
In the intervening years, when COVID forced a halt, the plans evolved, said Mr Brischetto.
"We're going to move all our poker machines into that area [the old newsagency] to create a family-friendly pub," which will also get a name change (as yet unknown).
"We're just trying to really clean up Bathurst Road and make it a little more inviting for tourists and residents as well."
The DA is on public exhibition until September 12.