Darlinghurst: Heritage Items: G.A. Zink and Sons

G.A. Zink and Sons

- Register of the National Estate, NSW Heritage Act

Since the olden days, when I was a fashion manufacturing student at East Sydney Technical College, I have adored G.A. Zink and Sons - the finest tailors of gentleman's suits in Sydney. One of my fellow students, a female, shared my passion and even considered having a men's suit tailored just for her, by Mr  Zink and his boys.

The building, at 56 Oxford Street, also features one of the finest decorative, early 20th century facades in the district because Mr Zink, being such a success, was able to afford the best. Still to this day, the shop has excellent retro-window displays featuring art deco font and flowing reams of woollen fabrics, tailored suits and business shirts.

Such is its magnificence, a permanent conservation order was placed on the building in 1987.

Gustav A. Zink migrated to Australia in the mid 1880s and opened the doors to his first Sydney bespoke tailoring business, G.A. Zink and Sons, in 1895.
The shop was originally housed at 112 Oxford Street, but in 1911, after the City of Sydney council's road-widening project was complete, they offered 50-year leases for nine ''splendid business sites'' on Oxford Street and Mr Zink purchased the lease for number 56.
Mr Zink employed architect John Dunstan to design the four-storey building that 99 years later continues to stand, and which is still leased from the council.

After a decade in business, Mr Zink's son Frank managed the shop throughout the 1920s and 30s and built a strong clientele, from butchers to High Court judges.

The shop was so busy that in 1925, two mezzanine levels were added to accommodate fitting rooms, a cutting room and storage - all built with the finest materials and skills known to mankind.

At the height of the depression, in 1937, Mr Zink employed Sidgreaves Shopfitters to build an extravagant art deco shopfront, which later featured in many glossy magazines of the day.

By the 1940s, queues of up to 30 people would be outside G.A. Zink and Sons's fashionable door, as dozens of staff worked away inside, sizing, cutting and sewing.

Gustav's grandson, Thomas, who lived on the top floor of the building, took over the suit-making scissors in the 1950s and was the last Zink to be involved in the business.

In the late 1950s the business was sold to Bill Jones, whose son, Robert, joined him in the shop the following decade.

Today, G.A. Zink and Sons is run by Robert Jones, who works alongside his own son, Daniel, and you can see a picture of them on their website.

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: 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: Heritage Items: St John's Church

St John's Anglican Church

- Register of the National Estate, NSW Heritage Act

From Beare's Stairs I skipped to the grounds of St John's Anglican Church, whose front doors open at 120 Darlinghurst Road, and whose pulpit backs on to Victoria Street, with a driveway running alongside, creating one of my favourite short-cuts in the neighbourhood.

In the warmer months the church gardens are filled with flowering, fragrant plants, such as Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, a purple and white flower with a heady scent that fills the air in and around the church. Every Sunday, the sounds of the church bells ring out across the neighbourhood.

St John's was commissioned by the wealthy and god-fearing citizens of 19th Century Darlinghurst on one of the highest points in the neighbourhood. The foundation stone for the Gothic-style building was laid in 1856, and the church opened for services two years later. But the Goold and Hilling-designed church wasn't good enough for one wealthy benefactor who declared it ''unsightly from the road and a discredit to the parish''.

In 1871 architect Edmund Blacket was recruited to fix things up and in doing so, made the church his own. Blacket added the distinctive Gothic Revival spire and tower, finally giving the building some character, and which today still dominate the church and the surrounding neighbourhood.

About four or five years ago there was a campaign to Save St John's by members of the Darlinghurst Residents Action Group (DRAG), when a development application was lodged to build a high-rise apartment block on the neighbouring low-rise Star Car Wash site. The development would have cast a shadow over the architecturally-significant St John's and encroached upon its breathing space in the landscape. But the people's passion won over the developer's dosh, and Star Car Wash, which offers another handy shortcut between streets, is still there today.

Darlinghurst: Heritage Items: Beare's Stairs

Beare's Stairs

- Register of the National Estate

The Register of the National Estate was established in 1975 and is a list of about 13,000 items across the country that are culturally, aesthetically and historically important. Darlinghurst is home to 24 of those items and one of those is Beare's Stairs, which links Caldwell and Surry streets.

The Register was frozen in 2007 and will be dissolved in 2012, with the listed items then falling under relevant state, territory and local government heritage registers.

Thirteen of the 24 items in Darlinghurst have already been listed under the NSW Heritage Act, while the remainder - and some additional 295 items - are listed with the City of Sydney Council (both lists can be found if you search here).

The listing essentially means that if developers or individuals purchase one of the properties, heritage recommendations are attached to any development application for the site. In some instances that means walls, ceilings, cornices, joinery, fireplaces, doors and windows should not be altered or removed, but conserved or restored to their former glory, to preserve the heritage for future generations.

The City of Sydney Council list of 319 items appears comprehensive and includes dozens of terraces, apartment blocks and commercial buildings, but I was still surprised at the number of places that weren't included, such as my former home, 40 Hardie Street, and my present residence on Royston Street.

Items on the council list include the Ballina flats, at 5 Darley Street, the gorgeous Mont Clair apartment building, at 347 Liverpool Street, and the Rushcutters Bay Stormwater Channel No 84, which runs through Rushcutters Bay Park and is listed as partly being in Darlinghurst.

One day I will hunt down that section of the stormwater channel and the other 318 items on the list, but for my first adventure I decided to seek out the shorter list of 24 buildings and structures on the Register of the National Estate.

I originally began this exercise as one post but after a while I realised I was supposed to be writing a blog post, not Shantaram, or some other epic. So I have divided my ramble through the National Estate Register in Darlinghurst into 24 posts, one for each item, and I will post them over coming days and weeks.

After I have tackled those two dozen posts, random heritage items listed under the NSW Heritage Act and the City of Sydney council will appear.

Because it was close to home, I began my walk at Beare's Stairs, which for some reason has not made it on to either the state or local government registers. In fact I could find little reference to Beare's Stairs anywhere online, but I have to assume they were named after the same Beare of Beare Park (in nearby Elizabeth Bay).

Beare's Stairs fall within the Barcom Avenue Heritage Conservation Area, of which I have devoted an entire post to here, with information taken directly from the valuable NSW Heritage Branch website.

My heritage item posts should not be relied upon as a comprehensive history or for architectural detail; I have merely plucked out the pearls that I found interesting. I found a wealth of information from a range of websites, which I acknowledge here:

Sources: NSW Heritage Branch, Dictionary of Sydney, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Library of Australia - Archive of Australian Newspapers, State Library of NSW, Wikipedia, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, NSW Public Schools, Government Schools of NSW from 1848,

NSW Department of Health.