Darlinghurst: Heritage Items: Terraces at 204-218 Liverpool Street

Terraces: 204-218 Liverpool Street

- Register of the National Estate, City of Sydney Council Heritage List

This neat set of nine mid-Victorian Gothic terraces, originally with six rooms, were built between 1860-70. Each terrace has two floors and a basement, so you could house grandma downstairs. There seem to be loads of this style of building in neighbouring Surry Hills, but not so many in old Darlinghurst. Some of them have been rendered, while others just have freckled, ugly brown brick.

In real estate jargon, these terraces are ''tightly held'', and last appeared on the market in 1997, when number 216 sold for $207,000 (no doubt, a ''renovator's delight''), while in the same year number 212 went for $688,000.

As an aside, Australian motorcycle-racer Wayne Gardner owns an apartment in the dark-grey building next door, at 220 Liverpool Street. But you probably didn't need to know that.