“Osterley” - Fitzroy Gardens - Potts Point

Osterley – 62 Macleay Street – Potts Point – NSW

Built mid-19th century (see date note) · Demolished 1927 · Site became the first stage of Fitzroy Gardens (landscaped 1939)

Osterley was the Macleay Street house whose clearance opened the first slice of today’s Fitzroy Gardens. Demolished in 1927, interim-used for miniature golf and tennis, it was resumed and landscaped in 1939 — originally to be named for Alderman Ernest Tresidder before politics delivered the Fitzroy name. The Paradise Theatre planned for this ground was never built.

At a glance

• Address: 62 Macleay Street, Potts Point (City of Sydney). ADB places the Broadhurst matrimonial house at 72 Macleay Street — reconcile before hardening a single number on a heritage plaque
• Built: City of Sydney park history — 1870s. City heritage assessment narrative — mid-1850s for barrister Edward Broadhurst. Do not invent a compromise year
• Early household: Edward Broadhurst (1810–1883), barrister (“father of the Bar”); wife Harriet Lucy, née Greenhill; marriage 7 May 1853; father-in-law Stephen Greenhill settled a Macleay Street house on them (ADB)
• Later: Daughter Frances Harriet inherits (1884 in heritage assessment); later private occupants include Sir Adrian Knox immediately before 1927 demolition (assessment caption)
• 1927: Minerva Centre Limited purchase reported at £25,000 in heritage assessment; house demolished 1927
• Interim uses: Tom Thumb Miniature Golf (early 1930s); Grimes’ Garage / commercial tennis with kiosk (late 1930s)
• Fate: Landscaped into Fitzroy Gardens 1939 (first stage); name shifted from Tresidder to Fitzroy (ward / Governor FitzRoy)

Site & setting

Part of Alexander Macleay’s 1841 Elizabeth Bay Estate subdivision — the same high Macleay Street band that held Maramanah and Tenilba. Osterley’s demolition created the first public open-space bite; Maramanah (1943 purchase, 1954 demolition) and Tenilba enlarged it.

Timeline

• 1853 – Edward Broadhurst marries Harriet Lucy Greenhill; ADB: Stephen Greenhill settles a house at 72 Macleay Street on them as matrimonial home (England visit 1859 excepted).
• mid-1850s / 1870s – Osterley fabric date: follow either the heritage-assessment mid-1850s Broadhurst association or the CoS “built in the 1870s” park page — both published; not silently merged.
• 1883 – Broadhurst dies (7 April); bronchial retirement from practice (ADB).
• 1884 – Heritage assessment: Frances Harriet inherits and lives on.
• March 1927 – Photographed vacant / immediately prior to demolition; Sir Adrian Knox recently vacated (CoS Archives image 1544 via heritage assessment).
• 1927 – Demolished after Minerva Centre Limited purchase (£25,000 in assessment). Paradise Theatre for Macleay Street never realised; Minerva Theatre proceeds on Orwell Street (1939).
• early 1930s – Tom Thumb Miniature Golf Course on the cleared site.
• late 1930s – Grimes Garage and commercial tennis / kiosk.
• 1939 – Resumed and landscaped as the first stage of what becomes Fitzroy Gardens (Tresidder name dropped).
• 1943–54 – Park enlarged via Maramanah / Tenilba (see Maramanah draft).
• Today – Fitzroy Gardens plaza and fountain precinct.

Architecture & interiors

Rate valuations cited in the heritage assessment describe neighbouring Greenhill/Broadhurst-band Macleay Street houses of the 1860s–70s as brick, three floors, about eight rooms — useful context, not a measured description of Osterley’s final form. The March 1927 photograph (CoS Archives) is the demolition-eve elevation to seek and caption.

People & anecdotes

Edward Broadhurst (ADB) Cambridge rebel who forfeited his degree rather than make a religious declaration; colonial barrister of large practice; duel controversy with Robert Lowe (1844–45); Legislative Council; never a judge despite being talked of as “father of the Bar. Osterley/Macleay Street was the domestic frame for that career.

Sir Adrian Knox — High Court Chief Justice; keen gardener; last private name attached to the house in the 1927 photo caption tradition.

David N. Martin / Minerva Centre — bought for a theatre dream (Paradise) that became a park instead — one of the Cross’s better near-misses.

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 / replace the single live-post image with a properly credited Osterley view if the present file lacks caption.

2. City of Sydney Archives image 1544 — Osterley, March 1927, pre-demolition.

3. ADB / library portraits of Edward Broadhurst.

4. Fitzroy Gardens formation plans and 1939 landscaping.

5. Compare: Maramanah and Tenilba — the three-house park story.

6. Minerva Theatre, Orwell Street — the theatre that was built when Paradise was not.

What stands today

Osterley is gone. Its ground is the original cell of Fitzroy Gardens at 60–64 Macleay Street. Stand by the El Alamein Fountain and read the park as demolished houses.

Sources & further reading

• City of Sydney History of Fitzroy Gardens: https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/histories-local-parks-playgrounds/history-fitzroy-gardens
• City of Sydney Council — Fitzroy Gardens / Macleay Street heritage assessment (2010 agenda attachment PDF; Osterley section)
• ADB — Edward Broadhurst: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/broadhurst-edward-3057
• Dictionary of Sydney — Minerva Theatre / Metro Kings Cross (Paradise never built)
• Existing scrapbook post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2021/03/osterley-fitzroy-gardens-potts-point.html

Related on this blog

• Maramanah – Macleay Street – Potts Point
• Elizabeth Bay House
• Orwell House – Orwell Street
• Kinneil – Potts Point

Historic live gallery

Images retained from the live Blogger post: