Historic Sydney Mansions, Manors, Villas & Houses : June 2016

Thursday, June 2, 2016

"Boomerang" - Potts Point - New South Wales

"BOOMERANG"

"Swifts" - Darling Point - New South Wales

Swifts (The Swifts) – 68 Darling Point Road – Darling Point – NSW

Late-Victorian castellated Gothic Revival mansion · G.A. Morell c.1876–83 · Standing — private residence (Moran family from 1997) · SHR #00146

No Swifts post on the blog yet — surprising, given the Australian Heritage Council line that this may be “perhaps the grandest house remaining in Sydney.” Beer barons Tooth and Resch, three cardinals, a near-death in the 1980s–90s, then a decade-plus Clive Lucas restoration. This scrapbook follows the State Heritage Register and refuses to invent a garden designer’s signature when the CMP would not.

At a glance

Address: 68 Darling Point Road, Darling Point NSW 2027 (also Thornton Street frontage); Woollahra
Land: Crown grant path via Thomas Barker (1833) → Delamere Estate (Thomas Icely etc.) → Torrens title to Robert Lucas-Tooth December 1875 (SHR / DoS)
Built: Foundations 18 March 1876; first red-brick house then Morell castellated stone rebuild c.1882 (construction span SHR 1876–1883)
Architect: Gustavus Alphonse (G.A.) Morell
Style: Victorian Gothic Revival / Castellated Gothic; sandstone; porte-cochère; crenellated north verandah; U-plan; ballroom larger than Government House’s (Tooth brief — SHR)
Rooms: Officially often cited 42; later press/owner figures 52–56 — soft
Heritage: NSW SHR #00146 (2 Apr 1999); former PCO 19 Apr 1984; National Trust; RNE Place ID 2577
Fate / current use: Standing — private family residence after Moran purchase 1997 and major restoration (AIA Lachlan Macquarie Heritage Award 2012 to Clive Lucas Stapleton & Partners)

Site & setting

Darling Point / Delamere allotments on the southern harbour shore — Gadigal Country. Originally about four acres of landscaped grounds with carriage drive to the porte-cochère, eastern/northern/western garden precincts, terracotta bed edging, Moreton Bay figs and rare trees (including Canary Islands Picconia excelsa noted on SHR). Subdivision trimmed edges; core house-and-garden relationship survived a 1983 heritage inquiry that treated grounds as integral (SHR).

Timeline

1833+ – Barker grant; Delamere Estate history (Icely; later owners; Mitchell mortgage 1869) (SHR / DoS).
Dec 1875 – Robert Lucas-Tooth obtains Torrens title (SHR).
18 Mar 1876 – Foundations laid by Tooth’s daughter; simple two-storey red-brick house echoing Kent “Swifts” family home (SHR).
1880 – Name Swifts in rate assessment (SHR).
c.1882 – Morell rebuilds in stone castellated Gothic “same style as Government House, but not quite so elaborate”; retain original porch → double porte-cochère logic; ballroom larger than Government House; Arts & Crafts interior fashion noted in secondary site histories (SHR).
1889 – Lucas-Tooth family to England; baronetcy 1906; three sons killed in WWI (SHR).
1893–97 – Henry Harris tenant (SHR).
1900 – Sold to brewer Edmund Resch; interior redecoration / services (SHR).
1923–29 – Edmund Resch dies 1923; sons hold title; auction; Edmund Resch Jr buys for £50,000 (Jan 1929) (SHR).
To 1963 – Edmund Jr & Florence at Swifts; minor service alterations (SHR).
1963–64 – Bequest to Roman Catholic Church; title June 1964; subdivision (bungalow lot + mansion lot ~3 acres) (SHR).
1964+ – Ballroom → chapel-of-ease (~200 seats); residence for Cardinals Gilroy, Freeman, Clancy; papal visit stays noted in SHR (Paul VI / John Paul II) (SHR).
Oct 1983 – Demolition covenant expires; Heritage Act inquiry; PCO 1984 (SHR).
1986 – Sold $9 million to Minjar Holdings / Carl Spies era; later debt, eviction, 1992 furniture auction (SHR).
1997 – Moran family purchase; long restoration under Clive Lucas Stapleton & Partners; tornado damage mid-works 1998 (SHR / AA 2012).
2012 – AIA Lachlan Macquarie Heritage Award for restoration (SHR citations).
Today – Private residence; State Heritage listed; occasional public discussion of events use (press — not SHR).

Architecture & interiors

Two-storey sandstone castellated mansion with three-storey tower; east porte-cochère flanked by projecting bays; crenellated sandstone-flagged north verandah; carved window valances and external timber shutters uncommon for the date (SHR). Planning in a U with full upper-class programme: drawing, morning, smoking, dining, study, billiard, ballroom, dressing rooms, silver safe, wine cellar, servants’ quarters; outbuildings dairy, laundry, stables, carriage house, tack room (SHR/Lucas).

Resch-era interiors and the rare Moorish smoking room are conservation highlights; Catholic chapel conversion of the ballroom was later reversed/restored in the Moran works (SHR / award citations). Male/female planning sides retained in restoration narrative (owner interview quoted in press; treat as modern testimony).

People & anecdotes

Robert Lucas-Tooth — Kent Brewery partner, Kameruka pastoralist, MLA, Bank of NSW / CSR director; brief to Morell: build around the old house, stone, Government House style, don’t fret a few hundred pounds, ballroom bigger than the Governor’s (SHR). Edmund Resch (sen. & jun.) — Waverley Brewery castellated industrial twin to this domestic castle. Cardinals Gilroy, Freeman, Clancy — ecclesiastical chapter that saved and then relinquished the house. Doug & Greta Moran / Shane Moran — restoration patrons; Greta’s Cooper/Juniper Hall descent noted in secondary profiles (cross-link Juniper Hall on this blog).

Gardener Alexander Grant (Edinburgh-trained) worked at Yaralla, then Rosemont, then Swifts — a human bridge between this draft and the Concord scrapbook (SHR).

Image gallery guidance

New post — search keys only.

1. East elevation / porte-cochère / tower

2. Ballroom (chapel era vs restored)

3. Moorish smoking room

4. Garden — figs, carriage drive, statuary

5. Cardinal-era / papal visit press photos

6. Pre-restoration dereliction vs 2012 award photography

Gallery

What stands today

Swifts stands as a private State Heritage mansion and garden. No general museum opening. Streetscape glimpses from Darling Point Road / Thornton Street; do not trespass. Pair with Babworth, Greenoaks/Bishopscourt, Lindesay, Retford Hall (lost), and Juniper Hall (Moran conservation story).

Sources & further reading

NSW SHR — Swifts (#00146, DB 5045530): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5045530
Dictionary of Sydney — Delamere Estate (includes Swifts summary): https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/delamere_estate
Clive Lucas, Stapleton & Partners — Swifts Conservation Analysis (1994) cited on SHR
Heritage Council of NSW — ‘Swifts, Darling Point’ (1984) inquiry context
Architecture Australia — Lachlan Macquarie Award write-up (2012) cited on SHR
Wikipedia — Swifts, Darling Point (verify against SHR)

Related on this blog

Juniper Hall – Paddington
Retford Hall – Darling Point
Greenoaks – Darling Point
Lindesay – Darling Point
Yaralla – Concord (Alexander Grant link)

Goderich Lodge – Bayswater Road / Penny’s Lane – Darlinghurst / Kings Cross – NSW

Goderich Lodge – Bayswater Road / Penny’s Lane / Woolcott Street – Darlinghurst / Kings Cross – NSW

Built c.1830–1833 · Architect John Verge · Demolished 1915 · Site later Hampton Court / The Hampton

Behind today’s Coca-Cola sign — near the corner of Bayswater Road and Penny Lane, with the name still clinging to Goderich Lane — stood one of the Woolloomooloo Hill grant villas: Goderich Lodge, designed by John Verge for High Sheriff Thomas Hyacinth Macquoid. Named after Lord Goderich (Frederick John Robinson), Secretary of State for the Colonies. Demolished 1915 for Hampton Court. Welcome to the lodge — not Brougham Lodge at the Victoria Street junction; not surviving Oakleigh next door.

At a glance

Address / site: Woolloomooloo Hill grant near Bayswater Road, Penny’s Lane and Woolcott Street, Darlinghurst / Kings Cross; footprint tradition places the house under later Hampton Court Hotel (Darlinghurst Road west of Oakleigh); laneway Goderich Lane preserves the name (DoS ~−33.8751, 151.2231)
Built: c.1830–1833 (Dictionary of Sydney constructed years); Verge plan approved by Governor Darling January 1831; Macquoid in residence by 1832 (Villas of Potts Point)
Architect: John Verge (DoS; Verge ledger / villa tradition)
Style: two-storey villa with wide verandah and shuttered sash windows (DoS description)
Original owner: High Sheriff Thomas Hyacinth Macquoid (arrived Sydney 1829; died at the house 12 Oct 1841)
Later chapters: auction Dec 1841; tenant Bishop William Grant Broughton (DoS 1842–1852; Villas of Potts Point prefers 1848–1852 — conflict left visible); Surveyor-General Samuel Augustus Perry; 1850s purchase by Frederick Tooth (Tooth’s Brewery); later Captain Charles Smith (died at the lodge June 1897; widow Marjorie to at least 1904)
Fate: demolished 1915; Hampton Court flats then hotel on the site; today apartment conversion The Hampton

Site & setting

Goderich sat on Macquoid’s Woolloomooloo Hill grant — over four acres authorised 1831, with a further grant in 1839 (Villas of Potts Point). The live scrapbook pins the site to the Bayswater / Penny Lane cell behind the Cross sign, and to Goderich Lane behind the old Hampton Court. Keep Oakleigh (Victorian Italianate, still standing nearby, SHR) as a neighbour story, not this post.

Do not merge with Brougham Lodge (Dowling; Victoria Street / Darlinghurst Road junction; Holiday Inn footprint) or with the later Hampton Court hotel chapter beyond site succession.

Timeline

1829 – Thomas Hyacinth Macquoid arrives; appointed High Sheriff of the Supreme Court of NSW (DoS).
1831 – Grant over four acres; Governor Darling approves Verge plan (Jan).
By 1832 – Macquoid living at Goderich Lodge, named for Lord Goderich.
c.1830–1833 – Construction window (DoS).
1840s Depression – Macquoid’s finances collapse (Waniassa / Tuggeranong farming losses in live tradition; drought and colonial financial stress).
12 Oct 1841 – Macquoid dies by suicide at Goderich Lodge (DoS date).
Dec 1841 – Estate auction; succession of tenants and owners begins.
1842/1848–1852 – Bishop William Grant Broughton tenant (DoS starts 1842; Potts Point villa notes prefer 1848–1852). Wife dies at the house 1849.
1850s – Frederick Tooth purchases; later sale to shipping merchant Captain Charles Smith.
June 1897 – Captain Smith dies at the lodge (embolism in live tradition); Marjorie Smith remains to at least 1904.
Subdivision – Original grant cut into multiple properties (1864 Empire auction clippings in live scrapbook).
1915 – Goderich Lodge demolished; Hampton Court (100 flats, later hotel) rises on the site.
Today – The Hampton apartments; Goderich Lane name survives.

Architecture & interiors

Prefer DoS over invented cedar lists: a two-storey villa with wide verandah and shuttered sash windows. Verge attribution is secure in DoS and the Woolloomooloo Hill villa literature (alongside Rockwall, Tusculum, Elizabeth Bay House tradition). No surviving lodge fabric — the live post’s 1910 City Archives view down Penny Lane shows subdivided Victorian terraces, not the lodge itself.

People & anecdotes

Macquoid — Irish-born Sheriff, East India Company Java / India chapter in live tradition — anchors the tragic first decade: overwhelmed summonses office, debt, suicide at the house. Son Thomas Hyam Macquoid later died in the Dunbar wreck at The Gap (1857); body not recovered — memorial anchor tradition at The Gap (live post).

Broughton brings the first Anglican bishopric into the Cross villa belt; Sarah Broughton’s 1849 death at Goderich is the domestic counterpart to Macquarie Street church politics. Tooth and Smith close the merchant century before the 1915 clearance.

Gallery placeholder note

Do not invent historic photo URLs — keep existing live-post images; captions and sequence guidance below for the merge pass.

1. Keep live scrapbook villa / portrait images already on the 2016 post (Macquoid / lodge tradition).

Caption idea: Verge villa for the High Sheriff — before Hampton Court.

2. City of Sydney Archives — 1910 view from Bayswater Road down Penny Lane (already captioned in live post).

Caption idea: Subdivision fabric — lodge further back, gone by 1915.

3. Empire, 29 Oct 1864 — Goderich Estate auction clippings (live scrapbook).

4. Original grant plan — Goderich Lodge & Kellett House (live).

5. SLNSW / “anything left of the Goderich Estate — gone by 1909” sequence (live).

6. Modern The Hampton / Goderich Lane streetscape — “what stands today.”

7. Compare: Brougham Lodge; Oakleigh; Barham; Rosebank

Gallery

Transcription:

In one or more lots to suit purchasers.

GODERICH ESTATE,
DARLINGHURST.
PEREMPTORY SALE.
By order of the Trustees of the Will of the late

Transcription (first image):

PEREMPTORY SALE.
By order of the Trustees of the Will of the late
CHARLES SCOTT, Esq.

MONDAY, 31st October.

RICHARDSON and WRENCH have received instructions from the Trustees of the estate of the late Charles Scott, Esq., to sell by public auction, at the Rooms, Pitt-street,
On MONDAY, 31st October, at 11 o'clock,
That extensive valuable city property,
GODERICH ESTATE, DARLINGHURST,
adjoining "WARATAH," the residence of GEORGE KING, Esq., and opposite the celebrated CRAIGEND and KELLETT estates.
GODERICH LODGE AND GROUNDS.

This MAGNIFICENT and TRULY ELEGANT CITY MANSION is massively and faithfully built of cut stone, in the modern style of architecture, and is surrounded on three sides by a fine wide flagged verandah. The following is a list of the Rooms, which are all completed and finished in the highest style:—

Drawing-room 26 x 17
Dining-room, 26 x 17
Ball room, [?58] x [?22]
Library
Breakfast-rooms
Butler's pantry, china closet
Store room, larder
12 spacious lofty bedrooms
[?3] waterclosets
2 bath-rooms, supplied with hot and cold water
Kitchen, with large valuable range
Laundry, with copper, supplied with hot and cold water
Ironing-room.
The out-offices comprise stables, coach-house, harness room, &c.

Transcription (second image):

GODERICH LODGE is a COMMODIOUS WELL-APPOINTED CITY MANSION, with SPACIOUS LOFTY APARTMENTS, and superior accommodation. The whole of the premises are very substantially built, and in first-class order. The elevation is handsome and bold, and the interior though highly embellished, is tastefully and elegantly finished. The domestic arrangements are very superior; hot and cold water is laid on in the several pantries, kitchens, laundries, bathrooms, &c., and no expense has been spared in rendering the whole, for
COMPLETENESS AND LUXURIOUS CONVENIENCE
a most desirable and
PERFECT MODEL RESIDENCE.

THE GROUNDS contain an area of about ONE ACRE AND A HALF, with a frontage of 427 FEET TO UPPER WILLIAM-STREET, being the
CHOICEST SITE ON THE DARLINGHURST HEIGHTS.
They comprise VERDANT LAWNS, graceful SHRUBBERIES of richly foliaged trees, PARTERRES of rare flowers and plants, BEAUTIFULLY ARRANGED and ARTISTICALLY LAID OUT.

The eastern end of the grounds adjoining "WARATAH," has been subdivided into
TEN SPLENDID BUILDING SITES,
each having about 24 feet frontage to
UPPER WILLIAM-STREET, North and South,
with a depth of about 136 FEET, extending to a lane at the rear.
THESE CHOICE SITES are part of the orchard and vegetable garden attached to the lodge grounds, and are planted with valuable fruit and ornamental trees, and otherwise improved.

[☞] Without comment Richardson and Wrench would direct special attention to this UNEQUALLED CITY PROPERTY, and to the desirable opportunity for advantageous investment, with large prospective advantages.

Transcription:

The instructions from the trustees of the late Mr. Scott are positively to effect a sale, to close the estate, and intending purchasers are respectfully invited to inspect the House and Grounds prior to the sale, for which purpose CARDS TO VIEW may be obtained at the Rooms, where also A PLAN OF THE ESTATE may be inspected.

TITLE, UNQUESTIONABLE.
Terms at sale.

Transcription:

[Hand-drawn survey plan of the grants on Woolloomooloo Hill, showing Goderich Lodge and Perry's house (later Kellett House). Principal legible labels:]

Saml Perry's Grant
3 . 2 . 8
dated Octr 19. 1831

Thomas Macquoid's Grant
4 . 1 . 24
dated Octr 19. 1831
[in red:] The space between [?Peeks] and J C Brown['s] purchase is the [?Bolton] [?Mortgage] and contain 2 . 3 . 33
[house block labelled, in pencil:] Goderich Lodge

Thos Macquoid's Grant — Second portion — 3 . 1 . 27 — dated Sep 23 1839
Thos Macquoid's Grant — Last portion
T L Mitchell's Grant — First Portion — a r p 0 . 0 . 33 — dated June 15 1841
T L Mitchell's Grant — Second Portion — [?] 1 . 23 — dated June 15 1844
Smith and Barker
Mr Thos Barker [adjoining grant, top boundary]
[in red:] Reserved Road · First Sale · J Patten · A Oliver · Brown's [?purchase]
[Road at foot of plan:] Woolloomooloo [?Road]; [pencil:] now Darlinghurst [?Road]
[Right margin, vertical:] [?T.] L. Mitchell Esqr — Grant 19 Oct 1831

[Note, lower left, handwritten, left edge cut off; partly legible:]
The bearings and lengths on this map agree with that … taken by Gov. for making out deeds of grants … They differ a little [from] those taken before that, by the original surveyor of the land. It is customary … has been adopted here to yield to the particulars inserted in the grants … dimensions &c in black ink show the particulars agreeing with the grants … in red show the subdivisions since made for sale, mortgage &c.

[Lot numbers, chain/link dimensions and bearings are not transcribed; many small red and pencil annotations too faint to read.]

Transcription:

S7c 142/1

BY ORDER OF
PERPETUAL TRUSTEE COMPANY LTD.
Executors under the will of the late Chas. Smith

GODERICH ESTATE
DARLINGHURST

Frontages to BAYSWATER ROAD & WOOLCOTT STREET
For Sale by Public Auction on the Ground
SATURDAY 11TH DECEMBER 1909 at 3 p.m.

RAINE & HORNE
Auctioneers 86 Pitt St

[Plan labels:] BAYSWATER ROAD · KELLETT ST · ROAD · "Hotel Mansions" · LANE 20 feet wide · LANE · WILLIAM ST · DARLINGHURST · VICTORIA ST · CRAIGEND ST · TRAM LINE · WOOLCOTT STREET · "Waratah"
[Lots numbered 1–14 fronting Bayswater Road and 15–34 fronting Woolcott Street.]

"TORRENS TITLE"
Solicitors to the Estate: [?Macnamara & Smith], [?Hilson] Chambers, [?Castlereagh] St

TERMS: 25% deposit, and the balance in 6 equal yearly instalments with interest at 4½ per cent per annum. [small print, partly uncertain]

All measurements subject to Deposited Plan.

DOBBIE & KENNY
Licensed Surveyors under R.P. Act, [?Norwich] Chambers, Hunter Street

Transcription:

DARLINGHURST
FRONTAGES TO WOOLCOTT-STREET.
FOR SALE BY PUBLIC AUCTION ON THE GROUND
SATURDAY, 27th MAY, 1911 AT 3 P.M.
BY
RICHARDSON & WRENCH Ltd, Auctioneers, Pitt Street, Sydney,
in conjunction with
KING AND HUMPHERY, Pitt St, Sydney.
TORRENS TITLE

[Pasted newspaper cutting:]
PROPERTY MARKET.
Richardson and Wrench, Ltd., report having sold on the ground on Saturday afternoon 13 out of a total of 20 lots of Connolly's Paddock, Lane Cove-road and West-street, North Sydney, at prices ranging from £10/7/6 to £10/5/ per foot. Total amount of sale, £4062/15/.
The same firm also report having held, in conjunction with King and Humphrey, a successful sale of the Goderich Estate, fronting Woolcott-street, Darlinghurst. In spite of the inclement weather, there was a good attendance and active competition. The whole catalogue of 20 allotments was disposed of at prices ranging from £24 to £20 per foot frontage. Total amount of sales, £8144.
Hugh Duff and Co. report having held a very successful sale of the Abbotsford Estate, Abbotsford, which was sold by public auction on the ground on Saturday, May 27, prices ranging from £1/7/ to £4/5/ per foot. Total sales, £1000/7/5. The attendance was fair, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather.

[Handwritten, blue pencil:] Total Sales £8,144

[Handwritten, ink:] This land was offered @ Auction by Raine & Horne on 11th December 1909
[Handwritten:] See Plan in Cupboard [?Darlinghurst] — D'hurst D. 109

[Plan labels:] STREET · ROAD · KELLETT ST · BAYSWATER ROAD 66' wide · To Watson's Bay · TRAM LINE · WILLIAM ST · From Sydney · DARLINGHURST · VICTORIA · To Sydney · CRAIGEND ST · LANE 20 feet WIDE · Footpath 9 Ft wide · WOOLCOTT STREET
[Lots numbered 1–20 fronting Woolcott Street; frontages and depths and later pencil annotations not transcribed.]

TERMS: 10% Deposit and the Balance in 12 equal Quarterly instalments with Interest at 5% per annum.
All measurements Subject to Deposited Plan.

William Brooks & Co Ltd, Lith, Sydney.
H. E. C. ROBINSON, Litho & Draft, 41 Phillip St, Sydney.
[Library stamp:] D2/72

What stands today

Goderich Lodge is gone. Walk Goderich Lane behind the old Hampton Court footprint; read the Coca-Cola / Bayswater corner as the grant cell, not the surviving villa. The Hampton apartments mark the hotel succession on the lodge site.

Map pin: Goderich Lane / former Hampton Court, Darlinghurst Road–Bayswater Road cell.
Do not merge with Brougham Lodge (Holiday Inn / Victoria Street junction).
Do not confuse with standing Oakleigh (SHR neighbour).

Sources & further reading

Dictionary of Sydney — Goderich Lodge: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/goderich_lodge
Dictionary of Sydney — Macquoid, Thomas Hyacinth: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/person/macquoid_thomas_hyacinth
Potts Point Preservation Society — The Villas of Potts Point (Goderich Lodge chapter)
Wikipedia — John Verge (Woolloomooloo Hill villa list including Goderich Lodge)
Heritage NSW / Oakleigh entry (contextual neighbour note citing Goderich demolition 1915 / Hampton Court / Goderich Lane)
Richardson & Wrench — The Hampton site history (Goderich Lodge succession)
Live scrapbook (Empire 1864 clippings; CoS 1910 Penny Lane; grant plan): https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2016/06/goderich-lodge-darlinghurst-new-south.html
My Darling Darlinghurst — Villas of Darlinghurst tradition (secondary)

Related on this blog

Brougham Lodge – Darlinghurst (neighbour Heights villa — keep separate)
Barham – Darlinghurst
Rosebank – Darlinghurst
Craigend – Darlinghurst
Stoneleigh – Darley Street
Elizabeth Bay House (Verge circle)
Original Villas of Darlinghurst

Brougham Lodge – Darlinghurst Road / Victoria Street – Kings Cross / Darlinghurst – NSW

Brougham Lodge – Darlinghurst Road / Victoria Street junction – Kings Cross / Darlinghurst – NSW

Built 1831 · Original designer unknown; alterations possibly John Verge · Demolished soon after 1882 sale · Site now Holiday Inn Potts Point

At what became the busiest Cross junction — Darlinghurst Road and Victoria Street — Chief Justice Sir James Dowling built Brougham Lodge on his Woolloomooloo Hill grant and named it for his London patron, Lord Henry Brougham. Demolished after an 1882 developer sale; the Holiday Inn Potts Point now marks the villa footprint. Welcome to Dowling’s lodge — not Goderich Lodge behind Bayswater Road; not a surviving terrace on Brougham Street.

At a glance

Address / site: junction of Darlinghurst Road and Victoria Street, Kings Cross / Darlinghurst; Woolloomooloo Hill grant (ADB: seven acres / ~2.8 ha; Villas of Potts Point: over eight acres — conflict left visible); DoS ~−33.8745, 151.2221
Built: 1831 (DoS constructed year); in residence from late February 1831 until Dowling’s death 1844
Architect: Governor-approved plans by an unknown designer (1829); original designer left the colony; possibly John Verge altered / completed the design (Villas of Potts Point; live scrapbook says Verge completed — keep “possibly”)
Style: early colonial Heights villa (painting tradition shows lodge with North Darlinghurst windmills beyond — live scrapbook)
Original owner: Sir James Dowling (1787–1844), puisne judge from 1828, second Chief Justice of NSW from 1837, knighted 1838
Later chapters: tenanted after 1844; used as a boys’ school; sold to developers 1882 for £7,000; demolished soon after for large terraces
Fate: demolished post-1882; Holiday Inn Potts Point on the site; street name Brougham Street (and South Dowling Street for the judge) preserves the memory

Site & setting

Dowling’s grant sat on the Heights ridge at the future Kings Cross crossroads — the same Woolloomooloo Hill villa belt as Goderich, Craigend, Barham and Rosebank. Garling’s c.1835 Darlinghurst Road view (Villas of Potts Point) places Brougham Lodge at far left with the North Darlinghurst mills on the skyline. The live auction posters and windmill painting are the scrapbook’s visual spine.

Keep separate from Goderich Lodge (Macquoid / Verge; Bayswater–Penny Lane / Hampton Court) and from later Brougham Street terraces that only borrow the name.

Timeline

25 Nov 1787 – James Dowling born, London (ADB).
1815 – Called to the Bar; parliamentary reporter background (ADB).
24 Feb 1828 – Arrives Sydney in the Hooghly with wife Maria Sheen and six children; sworn in as puisne judge next day (ADB).
1828–29 – Grant on Woolloomooloo Hill conditioned on a £1,000 house (ADB seven acres); Governor approves residence plans 1829 before grant authorised (Villas of Potts Point).
Sep 1830 – Dowling seeks design alterations after original designer leaves the colony; new architect (possibly Verge) improves plans.
Late Feb 1831 – 1844 – In residence at Brougham Lodge.
1834 – Maria Dowling dies; Sep 1835 remarries Harriet Ritchie (widowed daughter of John Blaxland) (ADB).
Sep 1835 / 1837–38 – Acting then permanent Chief Justice after Forbes; knighted 1838 (ADB).
1840–44 – Overwork and illness; collapses on the bench 27 Jun 1844; dies 27 Sep 1844 aged 56 before planned voyage (ADB).
After 1844 – Tenanted; boys’ school chapter.
1882 – Sold to developers for £7,000; demolished soon after for large terrace houses.
Today – Holiday Inn Potts Point on the villa site.

Architecture & interiors

No measured survey survives in the sources used here. Prefer the scrapbook painting (lodge + windmills) and auction posters over invented room inventories. Architect attribution stays cautious: unknown original designer, with possible Verge completion / alteration — do not state Verge as sole designer without stronger primary proof.

People & anecdotes

ADB supplies the judicial spine: painstaking industry, circuit sittings (Hunter Valley 1829; Norfolk Island 1833), the Burton succession fight, and the family debt letters to Brougham — “without parsimonious economy I cannot keep out of debt.” Lady Dowling’s 1840 note of court until 3 a.m. explains why the Heights villa became a resting-place he barely enjoyed.

Ten children with Maria (four died in infancy); remarriage into the Blaxland connection ties the lodge to Blue Mountains settler kinship without relocating the house. Street names — Brougham and Dowling — are the public memorial after the bricks went.

Gallery placeholder note

Do not invent historic photo URLs — keep existing live-post images; captions and sequence guidance below for the merge pass.

1. Keep live painting — lodge with North Darlinghurst windmills

Caption idea: Brougham Lodge on the Heights ridge — mills on the skyline.

2–3. Live auction poster pair (already on post).

Caption idea: 1882 clearance — £7,000 to developers.

4. Garling Darlinghurst Road c.1835 (Villas of Potts Point / SLNSW tradition).

5. Modern Holiday Inn Potts Point / Victoria–Darlinghurst junction — “what stands today.”

6. Compare: Goderich Lodge; Craigend; Barham; Roslyn Hall

What stands today

Brougham Lodge is gone. Stand at the Darlinghurst Road / Victoria Street junction; the Holiday Inn marks the villa cell. Read Brougham Street as a name echo, not a surviving wing of the lodge.

Map pin: Darlinghurst Road × Victoria Street, Kings Cross.
Do not merge with Goderich Lodge (Hampton / Goderich Lane).
Do not treat later Brougham Street terraces as the 1831 villa.

Sources & further reading

ADB — Dowling, Sir James (1787–1844): https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dowling-sir-james-1989
Dictionary of Sydney — Brougham Lodge: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/brougham_lodge
Potts Point Preservation Society — The Villas of Potts Point (Brougham Lodge chapter)
My Darling Darlinghurst — Villas of Darlinghurst: Brougham Lodge (secondary; live scrapbook source)
Richardson & Wrench — Brougham Street heritage note (site / naming)
Existing scrapbook post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2016/06/brougham-lodge-darlinghurst.html

Related on this blog

Goderich Lodge – Darlinghurst (neighbour Heights villa — keep separate)
Roslyn Hall – Potts Point / Darlinghurst
Craigend – Darlinghurst
Barham – Darlinghurst
Rosebank – Darlinghurst
Original Villas of Darlinghurst
History of Darlinghurst

Historic live gallery

Images retained from the live Blogger post:

Transcription:

22 Splendid Building Sites
BROUGHAM LODGE
VICTORIA STREET
DARLINGHURST
To Be Sold at the Rooms, on
Wednesday 27th July at ½ past 11.
HARDIE & GORMAN

BROUGHAM ST

Transcription:

BROUGHAM ST
[Lots 22–11 fronting Brougham St; lots 1–10 fronting Victoria St]
PRIVATE RIGHT OF WAY — 10 feet wide
Private Right of Way (10 feet wide)
VERANDAH
BROUGHAM LODGE
SMART'S TERRACE
16·6 each · 17·0 each · 22 each

[Locality inset:] Elizabeth Bay · Woolloomooloo Bay · Woolloomooloo · Darlinghurst · Brougham Lodge [other inset street names too small to read]

J. F. MANN
LICENSED SURVEYOR,
Under "Real Property Act."
19 HUNTER STREET, SYDNEY.

MANNING & DOWLING,
Solicitors to the Estate,
105 PITT STREET.

VICTORIA ST
GIBBS, SHALLARD & CO. LITHO.

[Individual lot frontage/depth figures not transcribed.]

Grantham - Granthamville - Potts Point - New South Wales

Grantham (Granthamville; Dangar’s Castle; “The Pepper Pot”) – St Neot Avenue – Potts Point – NSW

Built c.1836–1838 · Rebuilt 1870 · Demolished 1937

At the tip of the Point — on Judge Wylde’s old grant, where St Neot Avenue and Grantham Street now run — stood the house Sydneysiders loved to mock and remember. Felix Caleb Wilson’s Gothic Caleb Castle (1836–38) was nicknamed the Pepper Pot for its turrets and Frying Pan Castle for the ironmonger’s trade. Frederick Parbury called it Granthamville; Henry Dangar’s family made it Dangar’s Castle; Henry Cary Dangar rebuilt it in battlemented Norman dress in 1870 and restored the name Grantham. In January 1937 it sold for demolition for £530. Flat blocks rose on the footprint. The apartment building and the street still say Grantham.

At a glance

Address / site: St Neot Avenue / Grantham Street, Potts Point (flat blocks on former footprint)
Names: Caleb Castle / Caleb’s Castle; Granthamville; Dangar’s Castle; The Pepper Pot; Frying Pan Castle; Grantham (from 1870 rebuild)
Built: c.1836–1838 for Felix Caleb Wilson (unknown architect; Gothic Revival); major rebuild 1870 for Henry Cary Dangar (Norman / battlemented)
Land: remaining ~5 acres of Judge-Advocate John Wylde’s 1822 11-acre grant; Wilson purchase 1836 (not a Darling villa-condition grant — he bought undeveloped land after Darling had left)
Key owners: Wilson; Frederick Parbury; Donald Larnach; Henry Dangar (from 1853); Grace Dangar; Henry Cary Dangar (to 1917); later private owners
Fate: Sold for demolition 15/16 January 1937 (£530); two blocks of three-storey flats built over the site (Villas / SMH)

Site & setting

Derrawunn; early colonial names for the point include Point Campbell and Aboriginal foreshore names recorded in later popular histories. Wylde’s 1822 grant ran from the projecting rock into Port Jackson’s edge. Joseph Hyde Potts bought six-plus acres in 1830 and left his name on the Point; Wilson took the remaining roughly five acres in 1836 and built the first substantial house right on the tip — where St Neot Avenue is today (Villas).

Wilson was not bound by Darling’s villa conditions. He chose Gothic Revival in the spirit of the new Government House across the water — turrets against the refined white Regency parade up the hill. Stone for later building phases was said to have been quarried on the waterfront (SMH 1937). After demolition, Grantham Street and St Neot Avenue (Henry Dangar’s Cornish birthplace) fossilise the estate in the street grid; Embarkation Park and harbour views replace the battlemented silhouette.

Timeline

1822 – Judge-Advocate John Wylde granted 11 acres.
1830 – Wylde sells 6+ acres to Joseph Hyde Potts.
1836 – Felix Caleb Wilson buys remaining ~5 acres (press tradition £405); September tenders for residence (Villas).
c.1836–1838 – Caleb Castle built (DoS construction span); local nicknames Pepper Pot / Frying Pan Castle.
Early 1840s – Frederick Parbury (merchant, wharf proprietor) owns; renames Granthamville.
Later – Donald Larnach pays £5000 for house and 4½ acres (SMH/Sun tradition); subdivides.
1853 – Henry Dangar purchases house section (SMH 1937: £6000; Newcastle Sun 1918: £4000 — figures conflict; do not silently pick one). Becomes known as Dangar’s Castle.
1861 – Henry Dangar dies; widow Grace remains (ADB; will path).
1869 – Grace dies; Henry Cary Dangar inherits Grantham (ADB: mother’s compensation when Cornish St Neot lands proved sold).
1870 – H.C. Dangar rebuilds to his own Norman / battlemented design; renames Grantham; mahogany stair and gallery described in 1918/1937 press.
1917 – H.C. Dangar dies at Potts Point (ADB); succession of later owners.
25 April 1918 – Auction passed in at £15,100 (Newcastle Sun / Sun reports).
16 January 1937 – SMH: mansion sold for demolition and removal for £530; grounds to be subdivided.
1937 – Demolished; two three-storey flat blocks on St Neot Avenue footprint (Villas).
Today – Flats / later apartment buildings including namesake Grantham; streets remain.

Architecture & interiors

First house (Wilson, c.1836–38): Gothic Revival, unknown architect, turreted silhouette deliberately unlike the Regency villas uphill (Villas). 1918 press said Wilson’s initials were carved inside the old tower, and that by then only tower and kitchen quarters survived of the first build inside the later mansion.

Dangar rebuild (1870): Norman-inspired, solid dimension stone, battlemented walls and old-fashioned stone fence; tiled entrance porch; vestibule with fine mahogany staircase and overhead balustraded gallery; drawing and dining rooms opening to verandahs; billiard room and library; by 1937 press count about 22 bedrooms and five bathrooms with cedar fittings throughout (SMH 16 Jan 1937). Flat roof views over harbour and city; lawn tennis court; kitchen garden toward the old quarry (Sun 1918).

People & anecdotes

Felix Caleb Wilson — Hawkesbury settler turned wealthy ironmonger — wanted a statement, not another white Verge box. Sydneysiders obliged with “Pepper Pot” and “Frying Pan Castle.” Frederick Parbury of the wool wharves gave it Granthamville and later turns up at Orwell House after selling. Donald Larnach flipped the acreage. Henry Dangar, surveyor-pastoralist of Neotsfield fame, retired here; his brother William joked the place wanted “½ Dozen Brass Twelve Pounders to make the Castle complete” (ADB). Henry Cary Dangar — Cambridge, Middle Temple, MLA/MLC, AJC, St Paul’s College cloisters donor — gave the house its final Norman dress and its lasting name, and died there in 1917.

The £530 demolition sale of 1937 is the cruel punchline: a Dangar castle knocked down for flat sites for less than a middle cottage. The nickname street-grid — Grantham, St Neot — is the revenge.

Gallery placeholder note

Do not invent historic photo URLs — keep existing live-post images; captions and sequence guidance below for the merge pass.

1. Photographer unknown, [Grantham], c.1880

Search: SLNSW; Villas of Darlinghurst. Caption idea: Dangar’s Castle after the 1870 Norman rebuild.

2. Early harbour panoramas showing turrets on the Point

Search: SLNSW “Potts Point from Mrs Macquarie”; Rockwall 1844 view with Grantham beyond. Caption idea: Pepper Pot on the tip — Grantham from the water.

3. SMH 16 January 1937 “Historic Home Sold for Demolition”

Search: Trove (text already on 2016 post). Caption idea: £530 for a castle — Grantham’s death notice.

4. Sun / Newcastle Sun April 1918 auction features with photo

Search: Trove; keep existing blog scans if credited. Caption idea: Passed in at £15,100 — still a Dangar house in the market.

5. St Neot Avenue / Grantham Street / flats today

Search: street photography; “The Grantham” apartment references. Caption idea: Name on the letterbox — house gone, words remain.

What stands today

Grantham the mansion does not stand. Three-storey flat blocks of the late 1930s (and later apartment buildings) occupy St Neot Avenue over the old footprint; Grantham Street and St Neot Avenue keep the names. Walk the tip of the Point, look back to the harbour the battlements once commanded, and pair with still-standing marine villas Bomera and Jenner and the lost-house posts for Orwell and Springfield.

Sources & further reading

Dictionary of Sydney — Grantham: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/grantham
Dictionary of Sydney — Potts Point: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/place/potts_point
State Library of NSW, Villas of Darlinghurst exhibition catalogue, 2002 — Grantham entry; PDF excerpt: https://pottspointpreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Villas-of-Potts-Point.pdf
ADB — Henry Dangar: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dangar-henry-1954
ADB — Henry Cary Dangar: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dangar-henry-cary-289
Sydney Morning Herald, 16 January 1937, p.18 — “Historic Home Sold for Demolition” (text on live post; search Trove)
The Sun (Sydney), 25 April 1918; Newcastle Sun, 25 April 1918 — auction / history features (text on live post)
Existing scrapbook post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2016/06/grantham-potts-point-new-south-wales.html

Related on this blog

Orwell House – Potts Point (Parbury link)
Rockwall – Potts Point (1844 view pairing)
Boomera – Potts Point
Rosebank – Darlinghurst (Larnach research flag on related posts)

Historic live gallery

Images retained from the canonical live Blogger post:

Transcription:

[Sign on the fence:]
THE Magnificent PROPERTY
"GRANTHAM"
Subdivided into 3 [?Choice] FLAT or RESIDENTIAL SITES [illegible]
• FOR •
PRIVATE SALE
RICHARDSON & WRENCH LTD.
AUCTIONEERS.

[Posters below:] LYRIC · LYRIC — BORIS KARLOFF — NIGHT KEY — FOR VALOUR [smaller print illegible]

Transcription:

HISTORIC HOUSE
Pott's Point Auction

SYDNEY, Thursday.
Grantham, an historic house at Pott's Point, which belonged to the Dangar family for 65 years, was offered at auction to-day, and was passed in at £15,100.

The place originally formed part of a grant of 11 acres in 1822 to John Wylde, judge advocate, who was afterwards knighted. The area started from where Woolloomooloo wharves now stand. Caleb Wilson, ironmonger, built the first house in 1835, but all that remains of it at the present time are tower and kitchen. It was jokingly called "frying pan castle of Woolloomooloo." Wilson paid only £405 for 4½ acres. After his death, Donald Larnach paid £5000 for the house and 4½ acres of land. He subdivided and resold part of it in 1853, to the late Henry Dangar for [?£6000].

Transcription:

HISTORIC HOME
Sold for Demolition.

One of the old homes of Sydney, Grantham, in St. Neot-avenue, Potts Point, is to be demolished. Yesterday, the mansion was offered at auction by Richardson and Wrench, Ltd., for demolition and removal, and was sold for £530.

[Remainder of the article too small to read at this image's resolution — illegible. Full text: Sydney Morning Herald, 16 January 1937, p. 18 (Trove article 17296015).]

Transcription:

HISTORIC HOME IN MARKET
"GRANTHAM" FOR SALE
Grant of Nearly 100 Years Ago

The historic old house at Potts Point, "Grantham," which has belonged to the Dangar family for 65 years, was offered for sale at auction this morning by Messrs. Raine and Horne.

The place has a romantic history, having originally formed part of a grant of 11 acres to Mr. John Wylde (Judge Advocate, who was afterwards knighted) in 1822. As the quaint old title deed describes it, the grant extended "from the projecting rock and to the other side of Port Jackson." This rock has now disappeared, and on the site the Woolloomooloo Bay wharves now stand.

Caleb Wilson, an ironmonger, built the first house on this property in 1835 or thereabouts, the present tower and kitchen quarters being all that remain of the original building. It was jokingly called "Frying Pan Castle of Woolloomooloo," and Wilson's initials are to be found carved on the inside of the old tower. He paid only £405 for 4½ acres. After his death Mr. Donald Larnach paid £5000 for the house and 4½ acres, and he subdivided and resold part of it in 1853 to the late Mr. Henry Dangar for [?£6000].

"After my grandfather's death in 1861," says Mr. Neville Dangar, "his widow occupied it, and she left it by her will to my father, Mr. H. C. Dangar, in 1869. He lived there until his death last year." As soon as Mr. H. C. Dangar got it he rebuilt it to his own design, and he chose the Norman style of architecture.

At present the house is called "Grantham"—although formerly it was named "Granthamville"—and it is to be seen in pictures of old Sydney as the only house on the point. Situated in charming grounds, and surrounded by an old-fashioned high stone wall, the house with its battlemented walls presents a fine picture, reminiscent of an English home. The octagonal tower, with its flagstaff, is a picturesque note, and the view from the flat roof is all-embracing, including the harbor on one side and the city on the other.

A drive enclosing a salvia-bedded lawn leads up to the tiled entrance porch, and inside the vestibule there is a fine wide mahogany staircase with an overhead balustraded gallery. The drawing and dining rooms are on opposite sides of the hall, and lead on to verandahs with verdant lawns beyond. The billiard room and library are in the rear, and upstairs many bedrooms disclose charming views from the windows. Altogether, counting in the servants' hall, there are about 25 rooms.

Out of doors there is a lawn tennis court, and the garden lover can find much to interest him. In the distance is the kitchen garden, where originally most of the stone with which "Grantham" is built was quarried.

[Photo caption:] "Grantham," Potts Point, the historic home of the Dangar family.

Transcription:

CHALLIS ESTATE
POTTS POINT
MACLEAY ST. • CHALLIS AVENUE • VICTORIA ST. • McDONALD ST.
VENDORS — 45 City Residence Sites.
THE AUSTRALIAN MUTUAL INVESTMENT & BUILDING CO. LIMITED
Auction Sale Wednesday October 2nd 1889
AUCTIONEERS — IN THE ROOMS 133 PITT ST.
HARDIE AND GORMAN
in conjunction with
RICHARDSON AND WRENCH LTD.
[On plan corner:] WYLDE ST · [?C. J. Roberts C.M.G.]

Transcription:

TERMS
10 Per Cent Deposit; 15 per cent in 3 months WITHOUT INTEREST.
BALANCE in 3 equal yearly payments
Interest 6 Per Cent.
TITLE
TORRENS ACT.

[Streets:] VICTORIA STREET · CHALLIS AVENUE · McDONALD STREET · MACLEAY STREET · LANE 20 FEET WIDE · Pathway · Omnibus Stand
[Adjoining owners:] Hon. H. C. Dangar M.L.C. (Grantham) · St Vincents Convent · Rockwall – terrace · J. McElhone Esq. · Macleay Heights · [names along Macleay Street, partly legible:] J. T. Neale Esq. · [?W. Clarke] Esq. · [?] Harris Esq. · [?] Ackman Esq. · R. Ely Esq. · E. Meyer Esq. · Hon. [?J. B. Watt] M.L.C. · B. R. Wise Esq.
[Lots numbered 1–45.]
⊙ Represents approximate height above sea level [illegible]

L. A. CURTIS
Licensed Surveyor
12 Victoria Chambers
[Printer's line at foot illegible]

Adelaide Cottage - Darlinghurst - New South Wales

Kellett House (formerly Bona Vista) – Kellett Street / Bayswater Road – Darlinghurst – NSW

Kellett House (formerly Bona Vista / Darlinghurst House) – Kellett Street / Bayswater Road – Darlinghurst / Kings Cross – NSW

Built 1831 for Samuel Augustus Perry · Renamed by Stuart A. Donaldson (first NSW Premier) · Demolished in stages (villa tradition 1877; remnants sold 1937) · Hotel Mansions / Manor site

Where Hotel Mansions later faced Kellett Street and Bayswater Road, a two-storey Woolloomooloo Hill villa once sat on more than three acres. Grant-holder Samuel Augustus Perry built Bona Vista in 1831; Richard “China” Jones briefly renamed it Darlinghurst House; Stuart Alexander Donaldson — first Premier of New South Wales — made it Kellett House and gave the street its name. Subdivision from 1864 and demolition campaigns erased the villa; the corner still carries the street and hotel memory. Welcome to Kellett House — not Goderich Lodge next door on the Heights; not a surviving Cross terrace.

At a glance

Address / site: Woolloomooloo Hill / Darlinghurst grant allotment — later the corner of Kellett Street and Bayswater Road, Darlinghurst / Kings Cross (Hotel Mansions / Manor Apartments footprint)
Built: 1831 (Perry design submitted and approved under Darling’s villa conditions — Villas of Potts Point)
Architect / designer: Perry submitted his own design to the Governor (1831); no separate colonial architect is named in the Villas summary used here
Style: two-storey colonial villa on a 3+ acre landscaped lot (period views and 1937 Reidle “obituary” describe the Heights villa type)
Name trail: Bona Vista (Perry) → Darlinghurst House (Richard “China” Jones, 1834) → Kellett House / Kellett Lodge (Stuart A. Donaldson)
Famous resident: Stuart Alexander Donaldson (1812–1867), first Premier of NSW (1856); later W. F. Buchanan (pastoralist)
Heritage: demolished — street name and Hotel Mansions / Manor site memory; no standing villa fabric
Fate: villa demolished in stages — Villas of Potts Point dates main demolition to 1877 by Buchanan; Joseph Reidle (SMH 30 Nov 1937) still names “Kellett House” among Heights survivors awaiting the pick; remains sold Oct 1937

Site & setting

Perry’s grant sat among Darling’s villa allotments on the ridge above Woolloomooloo — the same Heights country as Goderich Lodge, Roslyn Hall and Springfield. Private avenues and carriage approaches once defined the lot; after 1864 subdivision, Kellett Street and Bayswater Terrace cut the estate. The Hotel Mansions (later remodelled; now Manor Apartments tradition) occupies the corner that advertising and local history still map to the villa site.

Timeline

1829 – Captain Samuel Augustus Perry arrives as Deputy Surveyor-General under T. L. Mitchell (ADB / Villas).
1831 – Perry submits villa design; Bona Vista built on 3+ acre grant.
1834 – Auction sale to Richard “China” Jones MP; renamed Darlinghurst House for Lady Darling.
c.1840s–50s – Stuart A. Donaldson in residence; renames Kellett House; street naming follows.
1851 – Donaldson–Mitchell duel tradition (last known official duel in NSW — secondary colour; keep brief).
1856 – Donaldson becomes first Premier of NSW.
From 1864 – Kellett Estate subdivision; Buchanan ownership chapter.
1877 – Villas of Potts Point: Buchanan demolishes the villa; Hotel Mansions and street fabric follow on part of the land.
Late 1800s–1918 – Hotel Mansions built / remodelled (local hotel histories).
30 Nov 1937 – Joseph Reidle, “Ghosts in Crinolines,” SMH — lists Kellett House among Heights houses still facing demolition; remains sold October 1937.
Today – Manor Apartments / Hotel Mansions corner; villa gone; street name survives.

Architecture & interiors

No measured drawing survives in the sources used for this draft. Prefer period description over invention: a two-storey freestanding villa in landscaped grounds under Darling’s villa conditions, later reduced by terrace and hotel fabric. Live-post plan images (Goderich Lodge & Kellett House; Kellett Estate 1879) are the scrapbook evidence — keep them. Do not invent a Verge attribution; Perry’s own design submission is the documented path in Villas of Potts Point.

People & anecdotes

Samuel Augustus Perry — soldier-surveyor, Mitchell’s deputy, constant clash with his superior (ADB / Heights lore). Short tenure at Bona Vista.

Richard “China” Jones — merchant-banker MP; Darlinghurst House naming ties the villa to Lady Elizabeth Darling.

Stuart A. Donaldson — first Premier; Kellett naming; New England pastoral and Legislative career (ADB). W. F. Buchanan — wealthy squatter who subdivided and demolished.

Joseph Reidle’s 1937 SMH piece is why the live scrapbook still feels urgent: Roslyn Hall and Orwell House already ruins; Kellett, Springfield and Larbert Lodge next. That newspaper spine belongs in the Sources list, not as a full reprint.

Gallery placeholder note

Do not invent historic photo URLs — keep existing live-post images (~12); captions and sequence guidance below for the merge pass.

1–12. Keep the live scrapbook set — Perry portrait colour; villa/estate plans; Hotel Mansions / street views; Reidle-era context already on the post.

Caption ideas: Bona Vista to Kellett — three names, one Heights lot. / Estate plan — Goderich Lodge neighbour. / 1937 — Reidle’s “ghosts in crinolines.”

Compare: Goderich Lodge; Brougham Lodge; Springfield Lodge; Larbert Lodge; Roslyn Hall.

What stands today

The villa is gone. Stand at Kellett Street and Bayswater Road and read the Hotel Mansions / Manor corner as the site memory; the street name is the clearest surviving text. Pair with Goderich Lodge and Brougham Lodge (Heights demolished pair) and the enriched Springfield / Larbert posts.

Map pin: Kellett St × Bayswater Rd, Darlinghurst / Kings Cross.
Do not claim standing villa fabric behind the hotel façade without a fabric study.
Note demolition-date conflict (1877 vs 1937 remnants) openly.

Sources & further reading

Potts Point Preservation / SLNSW — Villas of Potts Point (Kellett House entry): https://pottspointpreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Villas-of-Potts-Point.pdf
Joseph Reidle, “Ghosts in Crinolines,” Sydney Morning Herald, 30 Nov 1937 (Trove)
ADB — Donaldson, Sir Stuart Alexander: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/donaldson-sir-stuart-alexander-1988
ADB — Perry, Samuel Augustus (Deputy Surveyor-General trail)
My Darling Darlinghurst — Villas of Darlinghurst: Kellett House (secondary synthesis)
Existing scrapbook post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2016/06/kelley-house-darlinghurst-new-south.html

Related on this blog

Historic live gallery

Images retained from the live Blogger post:

Transcription:

Ghosts
IN CRINOLINES
WHEN KING'S CROSS WAS DOTTED WITH STATELY HOMES.
People Then Slept in Four-Posters.

A GREAT effort is required to imagine that King's Cross—the present throbbing centre of Sydney's night life—was once sparsely dotted with stately homes, where demure ladies drove leisurely through private avenues of trees in their carriages.

Those were the days when land was owned by the acre. To-day, despite stout resistance to the demolishers' picks, century-old homes are being knocked down so that the task of converting King's Cross into a swarming, human ant-hill may proceed unimpeded.

ROSLYN HALL and Orwell House are already man-made ruins, and a similar fate awaits Kellett House, Springfield, and Larbert Lodge. But before modern mammoth structures completely annihilate even the memory of their long lives, these last survivors of a bygone age merit at least a brief obituary.

Once the most imposing of them all, Roslyn Hall is now a lamentable spectacle. Its floors have been ripped out and the back and front pulled down.

Stripped of its former majesty it now confronts, over wrought-iron gates, a huge, nearly completed, ultra-modern seven-storey block of flats across the road.

Destruction and construction have kept pace, so that the final brick of the new edifice, which dwarfs everything else nearby, will be laid at almost the same moment as the last stone from the ancient dwelling is carted away.

Gilded dados and wallpapers of a chaste design are exposed to curiosity, while a few surviving trees and shrubs huddle together in the northern end of the grounds, sighing mournfully for other days.

Governor Darling's Grant.
ROSLYN HALL, or what is left of it, is a relic of the spacious times of King's Cross and Elizabeth Bay when Governor Darling made grants with a lavish hand. That to Thomas Barker, on November 28, 1833, was an area of five acres one rood, and on it he built Roslyn Hall.

An iron lattice gate opened on to Darlinghurst Road, opposite Springfield House. It was the entrance to land which sloped down to the south-east, taking in the present Roslyn Street and Roslyn Gardens.

A similar gate, on the site now occupied by St. Canice's Church, led out to Bayswater Road. On the north, Barncleuth (now Kinnell) and Elizabeth Bay Road marked the boundary of the domain.

Transcription:

Beautiful Spiral Staircase.
A LARGE, well-built, two-storey stone mansion, Roslyn Hall was flanked on two sides by high verandahs supported by massive stone columns. Among the amenities not usual in those days were a beautiful spiral staircase leading to the upper storey, and sunken baths level with the floors in most of the bedrooms.

Houses in the district were few and far apart, and because of its imposing architectural and elevated position, Roslyn Hall had a grandeur equalled only by that of its neighbour, Elizabeth Bay House.

Fashionable Garden Parties.
FOR many years Roslyn Hall was one of the gayest houses in Sydney. Its high halls echoed to the laughter of dancing throngs, and birds in the widespread grounds became accustomed to the light-hearted chatter at fashionable garden parties.

After the original owner, Thomas Barker, the house saw a succession of occupants, including Mrs. Wm. Lawson and her two daughters, a Mr. Chauvel, and the Hon. Wm. Macleay.

For the last quarter of a century, however, Echo had little to answer except the footsteps of a lonely woman, Mrs. Parry Long, who died there a few years ago after her daughter had predeceased her.

Now the grey old stone is being carted away to make room for the foundations of a resplendent block of flats.

Darlinghurst's Origin.
SOLD last month, Kellett House, standing in the street which bears its name, is another historic home in the same locality.

It was built on part of the grant, dated October 19, 1831, to Captain S. A. Perry, Deputy Surveyor-General. He resided there until 1836.

In that year, Richard ("China") Jones sold his house at the corner of Pitt and Hunter Streets for £9000, and moved into Perry's place, which was then called "Bona Vista."

In 1817 Jones had established himself in business as an importer of merchandise from China and India—especially of Bengal rum. His office was also the first in Australia to undertake marine insurance.

Because of her friendship with Lady Darling, Mrs. Jones renamed the house "Darlinghurst," but her husband's financial position was severely shaken by the trade depression of 1843, and the home passed into the possession of Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson, the first Premier under responsible government, who changed the name to Kellett House.

He lived there for some years, and subsequently the property was acquired by W. F. Buchanan. He pulled down part of the house and built the terrace (still there) which used to be known as Bayswater Terrace.

Hidden from Macleay Street by a two-storey terrace, Orwell House, at various times the home of distinguished men, is being demolished to provide the site for a new theatre.

It originally stood on 11 acres 37 perches, granted on October 19, 1831, to Mr. Justice John Stephens, first Pusine [sic] Judge of the colony after the charter of justice. Among subsequent occupants were James Raymond (then Postmaster-General), Colonel H. C. Wilson, Mr. Justice Milford, and in 1848 Sir W. Manning.

Up to a few days ago the original house was still standing, but hemmed in by buildings in Darlinghurst Road and Hughes Street, to both of which the grounds extended, even in comparatively recent times.

(Continued on page 18.)

Transcription:

(Top.) Only the lines of its architecture indicate Kinnell's old age.

(Above.) Larbert, seen across its spacious garden, which will soon be covered with flat buildings like the one in the distance.

Transcription:

(Left.) Ruins of Roslyn Hall and the towering modern edifice opposite.

Transcription:

Orwell House is falling rapidly under the demolishers' picks.

Larbert provides an 1837 background for two 1937 tennis girls (MISSES MONA ZEPPEL and LOIS GREEN).

Transcription:

Ghosts in Crinoline.
OLD STABLES ON MACLEAY STREET.
(Continued from page 13.)

ONLY a gunshot away, and also doomed to destruction, is Larbert Lodge, a quaint house which might have been modelled on Hawthorne's "House of the Seven Gables."

Old stables are almost flush with Macleay Street, and the remains of its grounds extend to Greenknowe Flats. It is enclosed by high walls designed to shield its privacy, but, ironically enough, surrounding flats are so high that probably no dwelling in Sydney is so exposed to the gaze of strangers.

Larbert Lodge was built by the Hon. Campbell Drummond Riddell (Colonial Treasurer from 1831 to 1854, and Acting Colonial Secretary in 1855 and 1856) on one of the first blocks of the Macleay grant made available. It was subsequently acquired by Captain Lamb, who was followed by a succession of private owners.

This property, which has a frontage of [?190]ft to Macleay Street and 234ft to Greenknowe Avenue, was recently sold and subdivided into eight allotments on which flats will be erected.

Springfield House, another sacrifice to progress, was built on a grant dated October 19, 1831, by Alexander Baxter, second Attorney-General under the charter.

All Were Neighbours.
ALL the homes mentioned were neighbouring properties, but during the course of the years block after block of their land was disposed of and built on to house a rapidly growing population.

Their few remaining contemporaries in the immediate locality are easily enumerated.

On the original Macleay grant, David Jones built Cheverells and Kinnell (formerly Barncleuth). He sold Cheverells to Captain Deloitte, who included it in his marriage settlement.

After several renovations, both houses are in good condition, and are used as guest houses.

It may seem strange that residences like these were built so close to the city, but the district was by no means easily accessible. Vehicular traffic had to take a round-about route along Hyde Park up to the part of Old South Head Road, now called Oxford Street, to the gaol, and from there across to Darlinghurst Hill.

A trip to the city was therefore long enough to be a minor event in a woman's week, and sufficiently slow for prolonged meditation or conversation as the carriage described almost a semi-circle.

Only a track for pedestrians existed on the site of William Street until 1845, when Sir Thomas Mitchell, Surveyor-General, surveyed the extension which halved the distance to the city.

—Joseph Reidle.

Transcription:

[Hand-drawn survey plan of the grants on Woolloomooloo Hill, showing Goderich Lodge and Perry's house (later Kellett House). Principal legible labels:]

Saml Perry's Grant
3 . 2 . 8
dated Octr 19. 1831

[Lot numbers, chain/link dimensions and bearings are not transcribed; many small red and pencil annotations too faint to read.]

Transcription:

S7c 139/1

THE
KELLET ESTATE
For Sale by Messrs Richardson & Wrench
[handwritten:] 16 Feb 1864
[?See further particulars on Large Plan]

[Streets:] DARLINGHURST ROAD · KELLET STREET · UPPER WILLIAM STREET NORTH · PRINCES ROAD · LANE · KELLET LANE
[Building/owner labels too small to read; bottom left: [?J. H. Moore]]
[Surveyor's credit, bottom right:] [?F. H. Reuss], Architect & Surveyor, [illegible] Pitt St, Sydney

[Lot numbers (1–56) not transcribed; small print largely illegible at this resolution.]