Darlinghurst: Houses: 40A Caldwell Street Part Two

You may recall how I wrote last month about the proposed dunny lane development in Caldwell Street, whereby a Federal Court Judge has submitted an application to the City of Sydney council to build a house on a tiny 48sqm Darlinghurst block. 

If not, you can read the blog post here.

The development application angered residents of Caldwell Street and nearby Surrey Street, especially the owners of three houses whose properties back on to the proposed four-storey house site. 

Their opposition to the development - and the judge's canny purchase of the land for a token $1 - attracted much attention in the mainstream press, with articles in The Australian newspaper and The Sydney Morning Herald. 

The exhibition period for the development was initially to end on March 3, but the council extended the deadline to March 25. The council received 60 submissions during that period and of those 59 were opposed to the development. There was just one single submission in support. 

According to the council, submissions included residents' concerns about loss of access to properties via the rear laneway and impacts on surrounding residential amenity, including reduced privacy, overshadowing and water run-off.

Submitters also raised concerns about impacts on the heritage value of the dunny laneway and Beare's Stairs (below) as well as inconvenience during the proposed construction period.

City planners will now review all the submissions and present them to the Planning and Development Committee for consideration, which is expected to happen next month.

It will be interesting to see what the committee decides. 

Darlinghurst: Houses: 40A Caldwell Street

I received a message last week from a Darlinghurst resident and reader who was concerned about the ''nasty development planned for the little lane with the beautiful historic sandstone wall that runs behind the terraces at the bottom of Beare's Stairs.'' 

I had seen the development application for 40A Caldwell Street, but had no idea where that address was and assumed it was a development planned for a site with an existing house. I knew nothing about a laneway or an historic sandstone wall, so set out to investigate.

Even if you walk along Surrey Street or use Beare's Stairs regularly, you may never have noticed a large wooden gate tucked away in the eastern corner of this Caldwell Street laneway. I certainly hadn't noticed it. But here it is:

Behind the wooden gate is a landscaped area that backs on to three Surrey Street terraces. It was difficult to see the landscaping, even when I looked over the gate, and under it:

This is the laneway, which was once a ''dunny lane'' that the reader mentioned and you can see the sandstone foundation wall on the right side of the right photograph. The area is about 2.6m wide and runs the length of three terraces at 79, 77 and 75 Surrey Street and has kind of been requisitioned by them to add an extra third of space to their back gardens. So the laneway is actually a private garden now and it is very difficult for anyone who doesn't live in these three terraces (below) to appreciate the sandstone foundation wall. 

The land - just 48m2 of it - is actually a separate Torrens title that dates back to the original 1800s subdivision of this area, now known as the Barcom Conservation Area. Perhaps because of its small size and obscure location, it was never developed. But now, the owners of 40 Caldwell Street (the blue terrace below right) have bought the title and want to develop the space. 

The terrace at 40 Caldwell Street is owned by a company called Specialist Advocates, whose sole directors are Federal Court judge Dennis Cowdroy and his wife, Jennifer. Specialist Advocates purchased the title for 40A Caldwell Street in November last year for a token $1 from grazier John Robison, who had inherited the title. 

There was a well-researched story in Tuesday's The Australian newspaper by Jodie Minus, which details the history of how the grazier came to have the title, which you can read here.

On February 2 architect Stafford Watts submitted a development application to the City of Sydney  council to build a $200,000 four-storey house with three bedrooms for the little site. The house will literally be wedged in to the site, right up against 40 Caldwell Street, which will act as a support wall:

If you look in the above illustration, you can also see how the front of the house will have a 4m high   ''sparrow-pecked'' sandstone ''plinth . . . to complement the sandstone base of No 40 Caldwell Street and provide a suitable backdrop to Beare's Stairs,'' according to the Statement of Environmental Effects submitted to the council. 

By law, there are also no windows on the side facing the backyards of 75, 77 and 79 Surrey Street, so their privacy isn't an issue. The only issue for those three terraces is sunlight and shadow, which is minutely detailed in the SOEE - but I won't bore you with that. And, of course, the loss of some of their garden.

I understand the reader's concerns about the disappearance of the historic sandstone foundation wall, but I frankly did not know about it anyway; it is only accessible and visible to the residents of those three Surrey Street terraces; and finally, there are loads of historic sandstone walls and foundations around Darlinghurst and I doubt the suburb will suffer for the loss of this one. 

Having said that, I really don't think the development application will be approved by the council because it is just seems far too daring and a little bit crazy to want to build a house on this tiny block. Access to the site for builders and scaffolding is also likely to be a major issue and just imagine if a bulldozer or grader or whatever accidentally bumped in to Beare's Stairs and damaged them. The spot would hardly get any sun and would just be a mosquito infested swamp. 

I also think it is a good idea to keep these heritage dunny-lanes as they are a rather peculiar relic of the past. What do you think? 

Interestingly, Mr Robison the grazier also inherited ''dunny lanes'' at 8A Nimrod Street (above left) and 24A Nimrod Street (above right, reclaimed by property owners years ago), which he has so far left unclaimed. 

The Griffin Theatre Company has applied to the NSW Land and Property Management Authority for possession of the title at 8A. The title apparently runs all the way along the backs of houses on Craigend and Caldwell streets, right past the theatre to the kerb. The theatre want the title so they can use the wide footpath area (below - apologies for the grainy night pic) for an alfresco day cafe and night bar. They will add another entrance to the theatre in the wall on the right.

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To view the development application for 40A Caldwell Street, Darlinghurst, visit the council's site here.

The exhibition period closes on Thursday March 3. 

UPDATE: The exhibition period has been extended to March 25.

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While on the topic of heritage, the submission period for the council's proposed redevelopment of Fitzroy Gardens was extended until February 25 - that's tomorrow! Be quick! 

Visit the Save Fitzroy Gardens website, which has an easy one-click-wonder-way to lodge your submission. 

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.

Darlinghurst: Heritage Items: Terraces at 337-345 Liverpool Street

Terraces: 337-345 Liverpool Street

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

I probably would have walked straight by this ramshackle row of terraces if I didn't know they were listed on the Register of the National Estate, as they look like most residential buildings around Darlinghurst.

I assume the reason they are on the prestigious register is because at some point, post 1975, the buildings came under threat from the wrecker's ball - much like Iona did - and therefore the National Trust or other heritage groups campaigned for them to be included.

They are also quite old for the area. Number 337, in the very right of the frame, is a three-storey mid-Victorian sandstone terrace from about 1860. It has ten apartments, one of which was recently listed for sale at $595,000. The real estate agent described the two-bedroom apartment as ''featuring house-like proportions and brimming with historic charm''. Other pluses includes a feature fireplace and Spotted-Gum floors.

Terraces 341-345 were built even earlier in the Victorian Filigree-style and have not been converted into apartments.

Darlinghurst: Heritage Items: Hilton

Hilton

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

Australia's first Hilton is located at 278 Liverpool Street, and in a nice bit of synchronicity, the three-storey mansion, which was built in 1854 by a man who dabbled in painting, is today the premises for art dealer Robin Gibson.

Scotsman John Rae came to Australia in 1839 and initially worked as an accountant for the North British and Australasian Loan and Investment Company.

But Mr Rae was an ambitious and brilliant man and by 1843 he was appointed the first full-time clerk's position with the now City of Sydney Council, pocketing a salary of 300-pounds.

During his time with the council Mr Rae made important contributions to the areas of public health administration and the Sydney Corporation Act.

In 1857, three years after building Hilton, as a home for his wife and six children, Mr Rae took a 250-pounds pay-rise to become secretary to the Railway Commissioners.

He must have excelled in his job because four years later he was appointed under-secretary for public works and commissioner for railways, which came with an 800-pound salary - not bad for those wild colonial days.

In train-spotting circles Mr Rae is best known for creating the first profit and loss accounts of any railway system in the world. These accounts, which were compiled within the railways' annual reports, earned Mr Rae international recognition: when he travelled to Europe in 1879, the Poms presented him with a free railways pass, while the Germans provided him with a special train and staff.

Mr Rae wasn't just a numbers man, he was also a deft hand with a camera and a paintbrush, creating many works viewed from the windows of his mansion, Hilton.

A notable 1877 watercolour by Mr Rae captures cows grazing on the corner of Liverpool and Forbes streets, and was probably taken about the same time as this photo.

Another watercolour shows William Street as a goat track leading up to St Mary's Cathedral, which was originally built in 1821 and destroyed by fire 44 years later. (The cathedral was rebuilt in 1882 by John Young, who also designed Sir Henry Parkes' Annandale mansion, The Abbey. It was rumoured Mr Young stole gargoyles from the church to use on Parkes's building. St Mary's spires were added in 2000.)

There is a fascinating trove of Rae's photographs and watercolours archived online by the State Library of NSW, which include scenes of Newcastle, Wollongong as well as Sydney's first streets and buildings. The archives also contain an excellent photograph of the Victorian Georgian-style, Hilton, in its heyday that you can look at here.

The industrious Mr Rae was also a keen writer and his last published work, in 1898, was a biography of engineer John Whitton, tantalisingly titled, Thirty-Five Years on the NSW Railways.

Two years later, at the age of 87, Mr Rae died and was buried at Waverley Cemetery, in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

I don't know what became of Hilton, or who lived there over the next eight decades, but in 1981 it sold for $240,000 and became home to the Robin Gibson Gallery.

Darlinghurst: Heritage Items: Stoneleigh

Stoneleigh

- Register of the National Estate, NSW Heritage Act

Oh, to live in Stoneleigh,

If only it could be.

Ms Violet Tingle of Stoneleigh,

Sounds so right to me.

I so badly want to live in this mansion at 1A Darley Street, but it hasn't been on the market since 1990 - when it sold for $3.18 million. I wonder how much I would have to pay for the keys 20-years later? It's my dream Darlinghurst pad and I haven't even been inside. I can only imagine what it's like . . . the marble floors, high ceilings and the parties I would host. And how I would have a room each, dedicated to day dresses, evening gowns, high-heeled shoes and feathered head-pieces. And a library, of course. And maybe even a room purely for flower arrangement, with a sink, custom shelves to hold vases and a large bench stocked with scissors and ribbons. And it would be really useful to have a writing room, flooded in sunshine with a desk next to the largest window. I'd also definitely have a little cocktail lounge with big comfortable chairs, an old record player and a well-stocked bar.

But this two-storey Victorian Regency home, with its beautiful colonnades and fine hedge, is not only grand, glamorous and unattainable, it has an interesting history too.

Stoneleigh was built for distinguished solicitor William Barker in 1860 - the same year Abraham Lincoln was elected US President, Anton Chekhov was born and Charles Dickins published the first instalment of Great Expectations.

Mr Barker, a church-going colonist, was born in Ireland in 1815 and came to Australia in 1830, at the wee-age of 15. By the time he was 38, Mr Barker was important enough to be granted 28 parcels of land in Darlinghurst and the surrounding area. Seven years later he built Stoneleigh, on the highest point in the hood.

Mr Barker once ran as the candidate for the seat of East Sydney and lost, not surprisingly in retrospect, to Sir Henry Parkes, the Father of Federation who went on to serve five terms as NSW Premier (and who also had his own mansion, Kenilworth, designed by John Young in distinctive Gothic style on Johnston Street, Annandale, in Sydney's inner west - it sold for a measly $3.35 million in 2007).

Mr Barker was a partner in the firm, Norton, Son and Barker, and was once offered a District Court Judgeship, but declined the position because he preferred private practice. He died suddenly at his home in Bondi in 1879, aged just 64.

I am not certain of when Mr Barker vacated Stoneleigh for Bondi but from 1870, ten years after it was built, the grand home belonged to Richard Jones, founder of the Maitland Mercury newspaper (still published by Fairfax) and a former chairman of the Commonwealth Bank. Jones died inside Stoneleigh on August 25, 1892. Apparently on that day, each year, his ghost appears in the kitchen asking for a cup of tea.

I made that bit up, but it's highly possible.

In 1895 the home moved into the hands of another banking big-wig, Sir J. Russell French, general manager of the Bank of NSW, and he stayed at Stoneleigh for ten years.

From 1907 the building operated as a boarding house and was owned by Henry Tongue. I could find no further details about this boarding house period or the curious Mr Tongue, but in 1912 Stoneleigh was snapped up by the Marist Brothers High School, which occupied the neighbouring building, now known as Alexandra Flats.

When the Marist Brothers sold up in '68, I can only assume that Stoneleigh - which for a brief spell went under the decidedly less romantic name, Greencourt - was resumed as a private residence.

I'm not sure who is living there today - there is often a black Porsche in the driveway - but two rather obscure businesses have their address at Stoneleigh.

The first is called Stoneleigh Gallery and judging by their website, they are a wholesaler of deluxe silk flowers. At one time they were listed with NSW Tourism and appear to have invited travellers in to the property to peruse the gardens and its artfully placed urns - drats that I missed this!

The other business is called Liberon Waxes, which is the name of a cult bees' wax polish for wooden furnishing. Just listen to this guff from a wax website:

''Liberon Beeswax Polish brings back that memory of a time when the pace of life was less hectic and when drying and wood-denaturing aerosol waxes had yet to be invented.''

I guess Stoneleigh evokes the same memories . . . I often sit around, idly day-dreaming about the less hectic pace of life I would have at Stoneleigh, and how I would definitely employ a cleaner, because there was no way I was looking after that big old mansion on my own.

Darlinghurst: Heritage Items: Novar

Novar

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

This Victorian Italianate-style villa at 298 Liverpool Street, on the corner of Darley Street, was built way back in 1880, so is now 130-years-old. And it doesn't look too bad for an old fella.

The NSW Heritage Branch says changes were made to the building in the 1930s, significantly an overlay of ''stripped Classical style'', which I assume means the once decorative facade was pared back, although there are still elements of Victorian decoration along the rim of the roof.

There's also an ugly, white drain-pipe running down the building, which I believe was added in the late 20th or early 21st Century.

I would love to look inside this building, which sold for $1.95 million in 2000, because it's one of the area's few mansion-houses that hasn't been converted into flats.

I have seen a young family coming and going from its Darley Street doorway and while I am slightly jealous of their home, this still isn't one of my favourite Darlinghurst buildings.

Again, it's a privacy issue for me: Novar's windows open right on to the street, so if left open, passers-by could easily stick their heads in.

My friend, Ruby Molteno, said she saw a For Sale sign outside Novar a few weeks ago, but I can find no record of it being listed for sale.

Darlinghurst: Heritage Items: Iona

Iona

- Register of the National Estate, NSW Heritage Act

From St Johns Church I ducked down Tewkesbury Avenue to the imposing gates of Iona, a 30-room mansion, whose actual address is listed as 2 Darley Street.

The 1888 Victorian Italianate pile was bought by filmmakers Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin - of Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge and Australia fame - for a neat $10 million in February, 2006.

I once knew someone who lived in The Hopes apartment building, at 251 Darlinghurst Road, which backs on to Iona. One evening while I was visiting, a very fluffy grey cat arrived at the person's door and was grandly introduced as Baz Luhrmann's Cat. I think the Hopes resident spent about one year befriending the cat just so he could make such introductions to impress his guests.

Back before the cat, in the mid-nineteenth century, the site was home to Iona Cottage, which was first occupied by Elizabeth Grose and later, Robert Carter, who in 1879, extended and improved the small dwelling to become worthy of the title ''gentleman's residence''.

In 1888, the year of Australia's centenary, wealthy businessman and farmer Edward Chisholm purchased the property and was responsible for building the two-storey mansion with verandas, still known today as Iona. He lived with his family at the grand palace until his death ten years later.

Another decade on, in 1908, Iona was purchased by Adela Taylor, wife of former Sydney Mayor Allen Taylor (of Taylor Square fame), and renamed, for reasons unknown to me, Wootten.

Over the next 70-odd years the building changed hands three times and was used throughout as a private hospital with the respective names, Wootten PH, Winchester PH and Hughlings PH.

During this period the building and site also underwent minor alterations and additions, including the construction - in 1935 - of a seven-room nurses' residence, which was demolished in 1984.

In the 1970s and 80s the site fell into the hands of developers who variously wanted to raze the grounds and build three, 60-storey apartment blocks (can you imagine!), or convert the residence into 13 apartments.

The projects failed for a number of reasons, mostly financial, but it was during this time that the National Trust successfully campaigned for Iona to be included on the Register of the National Estate.

Iona is now listed on the State Heritage Register (with a permanent conservation order), the Local Environment Plan and the National Trust register, so no one can mess with it.

Yet most people don't have a chance to see it either.

It would be good if Luhrmann and Martin opened the grounds to the public for one day each year.