Point of clarification - the Unicorn Hotel is not really a hotel. It is a pub.
A public house, defined by Wikipedia as "a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on or off the premises in countries and regions of British influence." Please forgive the slack research.
Quick bit of history. Australian pubs are often referred to as Hotels. Common lore (aka I am too lazy to research this) says that at some point, pubs were compelled to offer accomodation.
There are some famous old hotels in Sydney that have since been demolished to make way for new things. One of note is the "Hotel Australia, which formerly stood on the corner of Castlereagh St and Martin Place (demolished ca. 1970 to make way for the MLC Centre). Its marble bar was dismantled and reinstalled in a basement under the Sydney Hilton Hotel, which was built on the site of the Tattersall's Hotel in the early 1970s". (yup, wikipedia.) My mother used to go to Hotel Austalia - it was a place people from the country would stay when they came to Sydney. My mother's first husband was from the country and she remembers fond fun times there and she speaks with nostalgia of the marble bar that was moved.
Australia never experienced the Prohibition, though there was a movement. So, there was never the speakeasy and nothing remotely like the quintessential "dive bar" which are my favorite in the States. This is not to say that some pubs aren't derelict. But there isn't the mystery or allure. And it is rare to find a place to drink that is small and cozy. They are mainly, well, open to the public.
