The Shellharbour Workers Club took over the then-dilapidated venue in 2015 and has overseen five years of careful and considerate refurbishments that have helped reinstate and reuse original elements of the interior.
Clinton Imperial According to Michael Heslin
It all started way back in the 1900s with a sizeable mining community looking for a drinking hole…from there an iconic venue was born, known for its clifftop location and dynamic history.
For decades, the Imperial Hotel was an important part of the coastal township of Clifton, both for the local mining and rail community, as well as for visitors to the region until it closed its doors in the early 2000s.
Sitting idle for almost 20 years, the venue was reinvented as The Imperial at Clifton in 2021 – a bespoke hospitality venue encompassing a restaurant, café and events space.
Embracing the historic roots, the venue brings to light the story of not only the iconic building, but also the town of Clifton. There are heritage features and historical interpretations everywhere you look – climb the original timber staircase, take a seat on the reinstated front terrace, cosy up to one of five original fireplaces and immerse yourself in the next chapter of this iconic venue.
An Iconic Venue Steeped In History …
The Imperial at Clifton.
The next chapter.
We were invited to a ‘meet and greet’ at Clifton’s former Imperial Hotel on the NSW South Coast in 2015 to hear about plans for its restoration and transformation into an eatery and function centre. Almost six years later those plans are nearing completion.
There was a good turn-out, with old faces and identities sharing stories, enjoying a few drinks (good to see the bar back in working order), and finger food, as well as a bit of musical entertainment, bringing to life the deserted and dusty corridors of the grand old lady.
The pub is undergoing restoration work after new owners, Shellharbour Workers Club bought the premsies from the WIN Television Corporation in 2015.
The Workers Club, while not relicensing the Imperial as a pub, have restored and re-opened the historic building into an eatery and function centre.
The pub’s license was ‘frozen’ by owners WIN Television (and later sold) when the closure of the Lawrence Hargrave Drive, after a landslide in July 2003, forced it to shut shop.
The popular tourists’ road remained closed to traffic for over two and a half years while the NSW Government built the $40 million Sea Cliff Bridge to bypass the land slide prone thoroughfare between Clifton and Coalcliff.
The road closure caused a dramatic loss in business, forcing publican Cornelia Ignjatovic to call last drinks at the historic watering hole on November 23, 2003.
Clinton’s lost pub the Imperial
A Formerly Derelict, Grand Old Pub on a Clifftop South of Sydney Has Been Beautifully Refurbished