Darlinghurst: History: 1923 Petition

I Take But I Surrender*

I am not ready to concede defeat in my search for the secret tunnels. In fact I am so enjoying the adventures I am having in my quest, and the stories I have discovered along the way, that it will actually be disappointing if this little investigation reaches an end. 

Keeping me inspired are the letters and suggestions from readers about methods of finding the secret tunnels, which have included joining a tunnelling association, alerting the mainstream media to my search and - my favourite - employing ground-penetrating radar to find the tunnels. 

But I'm also kept going by the little stories I have unearthed in the City of Sydney Archives as I wade through ancient files associated with the Marist Brothers College. And the best story yet, has to be the one about the police and the council's investigation in to the naughty boys and the bread crusts.

This 1923 council file includes about a dozen letters of correspondence between the Town Clerk's office, the City Health Officer, council aldermen and the Inspector General of Police regarding a petition from May 1923, by the ''various residents and ratepayers in the vicinity of Darley and Liverpool streets'' in Darlinghurst.

''The Marist Brothers carry on a school for boys at the corner of Liverpool and Darley streets, Darlinghurst,'' a letter attached to the petition reads.

''This school came in to existence about 12 years ago, but now over 400 boys attend the school. The playground is a very small one and the boys have turned Darley Street in to a playground, especially that part from Liverpool Street to Wootton Hospital, which forms a cul de sac.''

''The boys use this playground from 8.30 in the morning till dark, taking complete possession of same playing the particular game then in favour, whether it be football, cricket or other sport, obstructing the traffic generally and partly obstructing those residing in the vicinity.

''The boys throw food, fruit skins etc about the street and footpaths and even in to the passages and ventilators of adjacent properties and act in a boisterous and rude manner causing annoyance to the tenants and lodgers occupying the flats immediately surrounding that particular part of the street including the staff and patients at the hospital.''

The petition of about 50 signatures was instigated by Ellen M Foley, who lived at Novar, 4 Darley Street, with her sister Margaret McNab; Geoffrey and Ada Fox; and C&L Hoad. In fact, part of the joy of discovering the petition was learning who used to live in Darley Street and the surrounds.

Maud Riley lived at the family home, Fairmount, with Gertrude and Sydney Riley and Katie McMaster, who all signed the petition. (Ten years later, in January 1933, a motor mechanic John Snow, 20, was shot in the leg by an unseen gunman as he was about to enter the doorway of Fairmount, where he lived.) The Fairmount Flats were listed for sale in July 1929 and it is noted in the listing that the building was on the corner of Liverpool and Darley streets, so perhaps it was this building:

Fairmount? 363 Liverpool Street

The petition also included people with addresses in Macquarie Street in the Sydney CBD, Darling Point, in the city's east, inner-west Dulwich Hill, as well as shopkeeper E.J McGurgan from 389 Liverpool Street and 364 Victoria Street. 

389 Liverpool Street 

364 Victoria Street (since demolished), right of the Green Park Hotel

A representative from Wootton Private Hospital (now known as Iona) also signed the petition and sent a letter of complaint.

The council was the first to investigate the complaint, and sent an officer of the Health and Sanitary Department to carry out surveillance of the street. 

''The pupils certainly play in this dead end street, but seem well behaved for a body of young boys,'' wrote City Health Officer J.S. Purdy.

''Miss Foley is, I understand, of a very nervous temperament, and I believe is more annoyed by the noises made by the boys than by any food scraps that may be thrown about.''

The residents were not happy with that investigation and continued to bombard the council and various aldermen with long, hand-written letters of complaint. In July 1923, Inspectors J.P. Collins and N.J. Courtney, were sent out to observe the boys. This time, with results!

''A further observation was carried out between 12.30pm and 12.55pm,'' the investigators wrote.

''On this occasion the boys were found to be very noisy and two of the lads were found throwing food-scraps on the footway, which consisted of one small piece of bread crust, and in the other case a piece of cake.''

The culprits were 11-year-old David Burfitt, of Anzac Parade, Kensington, south of Sydney, and 12-year-old Charles Currie, of 31 Johnston Street, Annandale, in the inner-west.

The pair were ''called up and informed that they were breaking one of the City By-Laws'' and were advised in future to ''roll any lunch scraps in paper and place them in the garbage tin on the school's premises.''

Investigators Collins and Courtney told the Town Clerk they could take action on the food-scraps but the noise concerns were outside their jurisdiction and should be referred to the Traffic Branch of the Police Department. 

The following month the matter received ''special attention on the part of the police'' and the noise ''has now been returned to a minimum'', wrote the Inspector General of Police in August, 1923:

It is not clear how the police achieved such a hasty and successful outcome. Neither are there any thank-you notes from Ms Foley within the file. 

Fortunately for young Burfitt and Currie, the cake- and crust-throwers, the council considered a warning to the boys as sufficient punishment.

''On account of their tender years a warning has been given them by the Inspector and this is regarded as sufficient in this instance because if they are proceeded against they would have to be taken before the Children's Court where the Magistrate would probably administer a warning,'' the Town Clerk wrote. 

I thought this was such a funny episode in Darlinghurst history and I am amazed that so much work went in to catching a couple of little boys throwing cake and crusts. I wonder if Burfitt and Currie went on to behave themselves or continued to be naughty. I suspect the latter. 

*

The logo in the photograph above and at the top of this post, was embossed on most of the council's letters. It appears to have been designed in 1842 with the establishment of the Municipal Council of Sydney. It's certainly very different to today's City of Sydney anchor logo.

Which one do you prefer?

Darlinghurst: Apartment Buildings: The Westbury

The Westbury apartment building, at 221-223 Darlinghurst Road was once a private hotel, known as The Imperial, with a colourful bunch of permanent residents, among them, many sailors who worked out of Woolloomooloo.

The six-storey building was built in the early 20th century and in the 1980s mid-1990s was converted in to an apartment building with 65 units. 

Whenever I have been apartment-hunting in Darlinghurst, I have often noticed rentals available in the Westbury but I was warned off even doing an inspection as I was told the studios were tiny. 

But now, after checking out the building last weekend, I am wondering if perhaps I could have handled living in a smaller space if only to have access to the Westbury's excellent rooftop swimming pool.

The not-for-profit Australia's Open Garden Scheme organisation last week launched its 2011 program by inviting people to have a sticky beak at the relatively new $638,000 rooftop garden at The Westbury. 

Entry cost $6 with the funds raised going to charity. 

I couldn't resist, so set off with my horticulturalist friend, Ruby Molteno, to have a snoop around The Westbury. 

The corridors of endless doors are just like those in an old-fashioned hotel with gaudy red carpet and eggplant- and peppermint-coloured two-tone walls.

A lift took us up to level six where we then skipped up a flight of stairs to the rooftop. 

Australia's Open Garden Scheme's primary sponsor is the ABC, which promotes the scheme's various events through their radio stations and website. So the small crowd of 25 or so people looked just like your stereotypical ABC listener: slightly left leaning, opinionated baby-boomers. 

The crowd was there to check out the garden and to also listen to a talk by the roof's landscape architect, Mark Harper (the chap standing in the middle with the brown hat), from Atlantis Design. As usual, with such talks, people like to ask questions, which is fine by me. But one man in the crowd appeared to be fed up with people asking questions during the talk and kept on huffing, ''Can't they wait until the end to ask questions''. 

I could barely hear what Mr Harper was saying anyway, so Ruby and I decided to ditch the talk to go and explore the garden.

The stand-out part of the garden is this swimming pool, which has an infinity edge that looks across to Sydney Harbour with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge clearly visible. To give you an idea on how the design has improved, here is a picture of the old swimming pool:

Looks pretty dinky, and apparently the pool was leaking, causing all sorts of bother. 

The rest of the garden design is in the Clover Moore functionalist-style, with lots of flat, grey granite surfaces, neat, squared-off corners and six varieties of the ground-dwelling plant, Sedum.

There are also three Red Frangipani (Plumeria acutifolia) trees, surrounded by water-tolerant Agave (Foxtail) and Senecio (Chalky Sticks) plants. In order to stop the frangipani trees from blowing over in the wind, they had to have chains tied to their trunks, which have then been screwed in to the bases of the planter boxes. Wind is the biggest problem on roof gardens, which is why most of the plants are so low down on the ground. Even so, Ruby and I thought there was way too much use of Sedum, especially when small shrubs could have probably been used in areas sheltered by the wall (below left): 

Ruby and I both prefer wilder and more natural looking gardens, one of which we happened to spy on the roof of a nearby building:

But another important factor behind Mr Harper's design was to create something that was low-maintenance. Most residents were apparently not interested in watering and weeding the garden, even though I would have put my hand up in a flash. I love the smell of a watered garden at the end of a hot day. 

The  sleek new Westbury roof garden and swimming pool does puts its southern neighbour to shame:

The northern neighbour's roof was even worse, with a curious collection of handbags:

One of the greatest things about The Westbury roof was the views. Oh my goodness it was good to see Darlinghurst from above. The Top of the Town looked like a box for collecting insect specimens:

The Coca-Cola sign in Kings Cross looked like a toy:

But best of all were the good spying opportunities down to Star Car Wash, Victoria Street and St John's Church:

And there's this especially sneaky view of Iona:

*

''The Green Roof'' Facts:

Roof Area: 460sqm

Construction Cost: $510,000 ($1200/sqm)

Project Cost: $638,000 ($1500/sqm)

*

Australia's Open Garden Scheme

www.opengarden.org.au

*

Mark Harper, Landscape Architect

Atlantis Design

02 8507 0288

www.atlantisdesign.com.au

Darlinghurst: Apartment Buildings: Meriden

I rather fancy maps. Not only are they immensely practical, I find them rather pleasing to the eye too. So while sleuthing around the City of Sydney Archives last week, I was delighted to come across an old book of City Building Surveyor's Detail Sheets. 

It was a large compendium of about a dozen A2-sized Sydney city building maps, exquisitely and precisely illustrated. I took photographs of all the maps related to Darlinghurst and when I returned home and enlarged them on my computer, I was excited (yes, I was excited) to discover that the building at 40 Hardie Street, where I used to live, is called Meriden. It's an appropriate name too, for it was a merry den indeed.

I'm not certain of what period the Surveyor's Detail Sheets were made, but I will take a wild guess and say the early 1960s. If you look closely at the above illustration, you can see that the Alexandra Flats is still listed as a ''School'' and the Marist Brothers College closed in 1968 - so that is how I came to my scientific conclusion. And, well, if you see the maps, they've got that 60s vibe about them.

I also found it interesting to see that Iona is listed as Hughlings Private Hospital and my beautiful Stoneleigh was going through its ''Greencourt'' period.

Anyway, as I said, I was excited to learn that 40 Hardie Street, my old favourite home, was called Meriden, and this inspired me to do some online sleuthing at the National Library of Australia's Australian Newspaper archives. 

I firstly came across this old classifieds advertisement (above) from the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, dated January 4, 1930. I found similar advertisements in the Herald from 1929, which were published on April 18, November 2 and December 1. 

Rental of a ''Modern, self-contained bachelor flat, comprising large bed-sitting room, tiled kitchenette and bathroom,'' at 40 Hardie Street cost a mere 30 shillings, and interested persons could apply to flat 12.

Then I hit upon this advertisement from March 21, 1953, which lists the building for sale.

But by far the most thrilling discovery was from the Sydney Morning Herald edition of September 23, 1949. Hidden amongst the classifieds was a list of prize-winners for the newspaper's Name a Foal Competition and among them was a Barbara Martin of 7/40 Hardie Street - the very same apartment I lived in for five years. 

When I lie in bed staring at the ceilings of my apartments, I often wonder who has lived there before me and what festivities, dramas and banal domesticity the ceiling has witnessed. I never wondered so much while living at number seven, because the moulded ceiling had been recently covered up. But now I know. And now I am wondering who Ms Martin was, what she looked like and what she did for a living. Was she a school teacher, nurse or exotic dancer?

Perhaps I'll never know.

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.

Darlinghurst: An Introduction

Located on the eastern edge of the Sydney CBD, Darlinghurst - with a population of just over 10,000 - is bordered by Woolloomooloo, Kings Cross, Paddington and Surry Hills.

William Street, known for its street prostitution, borders the neighbourhood on the north, while Oxford Street, famous for its gay bars and night life, runs along Darlinghurst's southern end. To the east are the posh suburbs of Woollahra, Darling Point and Double Bay.

Linking William and Oxford Streets, running north to south, are Darlinghurst's main streets - Victoria Street and Darlinghurst Road, which are home to cafes, pubs and boutiques.

I have names for all the different parts of the neighbourhood, such as The Ridge, The Flats, and The Lowlands but I won't go into that now, suffice to say that I live on "Darlinghurst Hill", the highest point of the suburb on Royston Street.

Darlinghurst is home to writers, musicians and artists, including actor Hugo Weaving, filmmaking couple Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin (who live in the suburb's historic mansion, Iona), author Peter Robb and novelist Mandy Sayer, whose husband, playwright Louis Nowra, lives across the border in Kings Cross.

The neighbourhood's prominent sites include St John's Anglican Church (the steeple of which I can always see from the window of a plane):

St Vincent's Hospital:

and the Sydney Jewish Museum (which I used to live across the road from).

Another famous landmark is the Harry Seidler-designed, 43-storey Horizon building, which casts a shadow on the neighbourhood and can also be used to pinpoint Darlinghurst by air.

The suburb also hosts a fire station, a Ken Unsworth sculpture (unaffectionately dubbed "Poos on Sticks"; shown in the photograph at the top of the page), as well as the Stables Theatre, Darlinghurst Courthouse and the National Art School.

Darlinghurst does not have a train station (Kings Cross Station is nearby) but is serviced by the rogue 311 Bus (more on that another day).

For a history of Darlinghurst read Larry Writer's fine book, Razor, and for the suburb's Wikipedia entry click here.