“From the lamp to the last table”

The pictures follow the evening, not the floor plan. First comes the lamp on the verandah, then the dining room with its set tables, and then the archway to the long room, where the casino floor waits under its lights. If you have never been, this is roughly the route you'll take.

You'll see the roulette wheel, the blackjack tables and the poker tables as they look on a normal night, with house chips in racks and the felt freshly brushed. Most photographs were taken before the doors opened, so the rooms look quiet. The real thing is noisier and warmer.

There are pictures of the kitchen too: plates ready at the pass, a tray of lamingtons, Lucy checking the roast. Some of the guests are regulars who agreed to be photographed, and we're grateful to them for sitting still.

We don't use flash and we don't stage the dishes. The plates in these pictures are the plates that went out that evening, a little cooler by the time the photographer had finished. The lamps are the lamps you'll sit under, and the felt is the felt you'll lean on.

Nothing here is staged with cash or trophies, because there are none. Where a picture shows chips, they're house chips, and they go back into the racks at the end of the night.

If you spot a face you recognise, say hello when you come in. Colin, Rachel, Claire and Lucy each have a favourite picture on this page, and none of them will tell you which one.