Rockwall – Rockwall Crescent – Potts Point – NSW

Rockwall – Rockwall Crescent – Potts Point – NSW

Built 1831–1837 · Architect John Verge · Standing — private residence (SHR #00020)

On Woolloomooloo Hill the parade of white Regency villas was meant to prove Sydney had a gentry. Most of that skyline fell to flats and hotels. Rockwall is one of the stubborn few that still stand: John Verge’s sandstone villa begun for water-engineer John Busby, finished for grazier-merchant Hamilton Collins Sempill, later a girls’ college, a nurses’ club, a hotel annexe — and, after a careful 1990s conservation, a private house again in a quiet cul-de-sac that still carries its name. Welcome to Rockwall — not Rockwell (the live URL typo); not a demolished Heights grant villa.

At a glance

• Address / site: Rockwall Crescent, Potts Point NSW 2011 — NSW State Heritage Register primary address 5 Rockwall Crescent; blog and much common usage also cite 7 (keep both); ~−33.8699, 151.2246
• Built: 1831–1837
• Architect: John Verge (plans 1830 for Busby; altered and completed for Sempill from 1835)
• Style: Colonial Regency villa — sandstone / stuccoed brick; five bays; encircling ground-floor verandah with Doric-columned porches east and west; later Italianate verandah treatments (LEP note on SHR)
• Original grantee / clients: John Busby (mineral surveyor & civil engineer Busby’s Bore); completed for Hamilton Collins Sempill
• Heritage: NSW SHR #00020 (gazetted 2 Apr 1999); Permanent Conservation Order 14 Dec 1979; Register of the National Estate; National Trust
• Fate: standing — restored mid-1990s with Mirvac Landmark development; privately owned house

Site & setting

The Aboriginal name recorded for Potts Point is Derrawunn. In the late 1820s the rocky ridge inland from the point was still Eastern / Woolloomooloo Hill. Governor Ralph Darling’s villa grants (from 1828) required one approved house per allotment, set in gardens, generally facing the town.

Busby received a grant of more than eight acres in 1828. The gardens once ran toward Macleay Street. A c.1840 painting of “Sempill House” (SLNSW) shows a carriage loop, shrubberies and Norfolk Island pines. Subdivision from the late 1830s onward ate those acres; Rockwall Crescent and neighbouring streets tell the story in their names. Today the house sits on about 1,349 m² of level land (SMH Domain report cited on SHR), hemmed by apartment towers to the east and south-east. The spacious setting is gone; the Verge villa is not.

Timeline

• 1828 – Busby granted 8+ acres on Woolloomooloo Hill.
• 1830 – Verge plans house and cottage; Governor approves house plans (SHR / Villas of Darlinghurst).
• 1831–c.1835 – Work begins (Verge ledger; SHR).
• Early 1830s Busby in financial difficulty; forced to sell (SHR).
• Jan 1835 – Sempill purchases; Verge alters plans and superintends completion, including stabling.
• 1836–37 – Thomas Urmson Ryder; Verge ledger records verandahs, garden house, completion works; 14 Dec 1837 auction — Arthur Little purchases; daughter occupies until 1872.
• c.1873–1884 – Belmore College (girls’ school).
• 1904–1913 – Ailanthus College for Girls.
• c.1914 – Dr Herbert Russell Nolan purchases; elaborate Hardy Wilson / Neave & Berry proposal c.1919–20 not acted on (SHR).
• 1925–1957 – Nurses’ Club Ltd ownership; documented alterations 1921–36.
• 1957 – Rockwall Private Hotel conversion; major renovations (new foyer; windows/doors replaced; cedar joinery and fireplaces removed en masse).
• 1960s – Associated with Chevron / Landmark hotel complex; virtually derelict by later decades.
• 14 Dec 1979 – Permanent Conservation Order; National Trust classification.
• 1995 – Conservation restoration by Howard Tanner & Associates for Mirvac (Landmark Parkroyal / later Rockwall Apartments).
• 2 Apr 1999 – Entered NSW SHR #00020.
• Today – Privately owned residence.

Architecture & interiors

Prefer the statutory description. Rockwall is a two-storey Colonial Regency villa designed to be seen in the round — four façades matter (Tanner CMP policies summarised on SHR). Construction is sandstone block / stuccoed brick of five bays, with an encircling ground-floor verandah broken by Doric-columned porches on the east and west. Cedar fittings and joinery were original throughout; much was stripped in the 1957 hotel works and later recovered or reinterpreted in the 1990s conservation.

The oval geometric hall and staircase are often compared (SHR) to Elizabeth Bay House on a smaller scale — Verge’s signature planning in little. Entertaining rooms include sitting and dining rooms with marble fireplaces (as described in later sales copy reproduced on SHR). A lower sandstone service range holds kitchen, servants’ rooms, bathroom and wine cellar. SHR physical-description talk of a “dungeon and rumoured underground passage is rumour only do not treat as proven fabric history.

People & anecdotes

John Busby (1765–1857) — mineral surveyor and civil engineer behind Busbys Bore, the tunnel that gave crowded Sydney a fresh supply when the Tank Stream failed (ADB). Rockwall was meant to be his town villa; money troubles forced the sale before Verge’s house was complete.

Hamilton Collins Sempill, grazier and merchant, is the man in the c.1840 “Sempill House” view. In 1839 he sold five acres of the old Busby grant to Sir Maurice O’Connell — the Tarmons chapter on this blog.

Schoolmistresses of Belmore and Ailanthus, the Nurses’ Club, and the hotel years are less glamorous and just as telling — the fate of many Potts Point villas that survived the flat boom only by changing use. The 1990s Mirvac/Tanner conservation is why you can still read Verge in the façades today.

Gallery placeholder note

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

1–3. Keep the three live scrapbook photographs (house / grounds / historic views already on the 2021 post).

4. Artist unknown, Sempill House [Rockwall], c.1840 — SLNSW; Villas of Darlinghurst. Caption idea: Carriage loop and Norfolk pines — Rockwall when the garden still breathed.

5. 1844 Potts Point villa parade view (Rockwall in foreground; Grantham beyond) — SLNSW / Villas.

6. Compare: Tusculum; Elizabeth Bay House; Tarmons / Sempill grant chapter.

What stands today

Rockwall stands as a private residence — not a house museum. Walk Rockwall Crescent and read the villa from the footpath: Regency massing, verandahs, reduced garden, apartment towers pressing close.

• Map pin: Rockwall Crescent, Potts Point (SHR #00020 — 5 / commonly 7).
• Pair with Tusculum (Verge; AIA NSW HQ) and Elizabeth Bay House (Verge for Macleay).
• Do not invent tunnel lore as fact.

Sources & further reading

• Heritage NSW Rockwall (SHR #00020 / database 5045248): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5045248
• ADB — Busby, John: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/busby-john-1859
• ADB Verge, John: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/verge-john-2757
• State Library of NSW, Villas of Darlinghurst exhibition catalogue, 2002 (Rockwall entry); Potts Point Preservation excerpt PDF
• Howard Tanner & Associates and Paul Ashton, Rockwall House Conservation Plan, 1988 (cited extensively on SHR)
• Existing scrapbook post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2021/07/rockwall-7-rockwell-crescent-potts.html

Related on this blog

• Tusculum – Potts Point
• Elizabeth Bay House
• Grantham – Potts Point
• John Verge – Colonial Architect
• Goderich Lodge – Darlinghurst

Historic live gallery

Images retained from the live Blogger post:

Toxteth Park - Glebe - New South Wales

Toxteth Park (Toxteth House) – Glebe – NSW

(Now within St Scholastica’s College / Sisters of the Good Samaritan)

Colonial Georgian villa by John Verge for George Allen · Soft build 1829 / 1831 · Italianate reworking by G.A. Mansfield for Sir George Wigram Allen c.1880–83 · Standing — school / congregational centre · Local heritage

George Allen — first solicitor trained in the colony — raised a country house on ninety-six Glebe acres and named it for a Wigram family seat in England. His son piled on a third storey, tower and ballroom. Central Station’s appetite for Pitt Street land pushed the Sisters of the Good Samaritan to Glebe in 1901; they brought their school gates with them. The Verge bones still sit inside the college.

At a glance

• Address / campus: Avenue Road / Glebe Point locality — St Scholastica’s College, Glebe NSW 2037 (Toxteth House within grounds)
• Built: 1829 (live / Wikipedia) or 1831 (Heritage NSW / Glebe Society) — John Verge for George Allen
• Name: Toxteth Park / Toxteth House — tribute to Sir Robert Wigram’s English Toxteth Park (Heritage NSW)
• Estate: originally c.39 ha / 96 acres Glebe land (live / Glebe Society)
• Major alterations: 1880–83 (sources vary 1880 / 1881–83) — George Allen Mansfield for Sir George Wigram Allen — third storey, tower, ballroom
• Sale to Church: 1901 — Sisters of the Good Samaritan; St Scholastica’s relocates from resumed Pitt Street site
• Later: Romanesque chapel 1920s; Wychwood (1915) now music house (Glebe Society)
• Heritage: NSW Heritage Database — St Scholastica’s College including buildings/interiors/fencing/grounds (ID 2427706); Toxteth Lodge interior item also catalogued; local significance framing
• Fate: Standing — college + Good Samaritan Congregational Centre; archives on site; tours by arrangement

Site & setting

Glebe / Blackwattle–Rozelle corridor — Cadigal and Wangal Country (Heritage NSW Aboriginal history note). Allen’s Toxteth Estate once held orchard, elaborate gardens and a private cricket ground; subsidiary houses Tranby and Emslee (live spelling; also Emslie) still stand in Mansfield Street (Wikipedia panoramic caption tradition). Wesleyan chapel 1847 (demolished 1903 for new church — Wikipedia). Subdivisions from the early 1880s onward carved villas from the park; the mansion headland became the college campus.

Timeline

• 1800 – George Allen born London.
• 1812–16 – Stepfather Thomas Collicott transported; family follows 1816.
• 1822 – Allen practising solicitor — first colony-trained solicitor (ADB / live).
• 1823 – Marries Jane Bowden.
• 1829 / 1831 – Commissions John Verge for Toxteth House on Glebe acres.
• 1844–45 – Allen Mayor of Sydney; horticultural exhibitor 1845 (SMH / Wikipedia).
• 1847 – Wesleyan Chapel on estate.
• 1877 – George Allen dies at Toxteth; George Wigram Allen inherits.
• 1881–83 – Mansfield tower / third storey / ballroom; family moves in after works.
• 1885 – Sir George Wigram Allen dies; Lady Allen remains to c.1900.
• 1880s–90s – Major Toxteth Estate subdivisions.
• 1901 – Sold to Sisters of the Good Samaritan; St Scholastica’s relocates; Pitt Street gates reused on Avenue Road.
• 1920s – Romanesque chapel added.
• Today – Working girls’ college; Toxteth House as Good Samaritan Congregational Centre / archives; limited heritage tours by arrangement (Glebe Society visit reports).

Architecture & interiors

Original Verge: rectangular two-storey Georgian with single-storey wings; stone-flagged verandah on two sides (Wikipedia). Mansfield Italianate reworking: third storey, tower, ballroom — the skyline the scrapbook recognises. Surviving early detail reported on Glebe Society tour: original dining-room ceiling, floor tiles, wallpaper/paint fragments, sash-and-pulley windows. Flag adaptive school reuse rather than claiming untouched 1830s interiors throughout.

People & anecdotes

George Allen (1800–1877) — colony-trained solicitor; Wesleyan; Mayor; MLC; horticulturist. Sir George Wigram Allen (1824–1885) — solicitor, Speaker, KCMG; the man who monumentalised the house. Sisters of the Good Samaritan — Benedictine congregation; school continuity from 1878 Pitt Street through Central Station resumption to Glebe. Max Solling / Glebe Society — modern interpreters of estate and house.

Image gallery guidance

Live post is text-heavy with few or no embeds — search and caption:

1. Verge-era / pre-Mansfield Toxteth (c.1875 panorama tradition — Tranby & Emslee visible).

2. Post-Mansfield tower elevation.

3. Interior library / chapel historic photos (Wikipedia / archives).

4. Pitt Street school gates, then and now on Avenue Road.

5. St Scholastica’s campus context / chapel.

6. Good Samaritan Archives reading-room if permissioned.

What stands today

Toxteth Park stands inside St Scholastica’s College. It is an operating school and congregational centre, not a ticketed MHNSW house museum. Small-group historical tours by arrangement (confirm with College / Sisters at publish). Pair with surviving estate satellites Tranby and Emslee on Mansfield Street.

Sources & further reading

• Heritage NSW — St Scholastica’s College including buildings… (ID 2427706): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=2427706
• The Glebe Society — Toxteth Park (St Scholastica’s College): https://glebesociety.org.au/buildings/toxteth-park-st-scholasticas-college/
• Glebe Society visit report: https://glebesociety.org.au/a-visit-to-toxteth-park/
• ADB — Allen, George (1800–1877); Allen, Sir George Wigram (1824–1885)
• Wikipedia — Toxteth Park, Glebe (portal; verify against Heritage NSW / ADB)
• Live post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2021/07/toxteth-park-glebe-new-south-wales.html
• Find & Connect — Good Samaritan Archives (Toxteth House)

Related on this blog

• Other John Verge houses — search labels (Tusculum, etc.)
• Glebe / Blackwattle estate posts
• Adaptive convent / school mansions

John Verge - Colonial Architect - New South Wales

 

John Verge

Born - 1782 - Christchurch - Hampshire - England
Died - 9th July 1861 (Aged 78-79) - Austral - Eden - Near Macleay River
Spouses
1.Catherine Nee Bowle (Married - 1804-1828)
2. Mary Nee Alford (Married 1858)
Children
George Phillip Verge (to Bowle)
Austral Verge (to Alford)
DESIGN - GREEK REVIVAL - VICTORIAN REGENCY
- Many generations of Verge family had been Bricklayers & Stonemasons, Married Catherine Bowles Aged 22 in London. 
- His marriage failed & in 1828 he migrated to Sydney
- His first land grant was in 1829, on The Williams River South Of Dungog, New South Wales called Lyndhurst Vale
- His second land grant was in 1838, on the Macleay River Named Austral Eden

- Builders were in high demand. He was patronised by many, prominant Businessmen & Colonists
- In 1858 he married 50 Year Old Mary Alford
- He was buried as Anglican in St Thomas Burial Ground At Port Macquarie





Some Of The Residences And Buildings He Was Responsible For 
- Toxteth Park Estate - Glebe
"Barham" - Darlinghurst
St Scholasticas - 1829
Goderich Lodge (1830-1832)
Tusculum (1830 - 1835)
Auburn Cottage - 1832
Rockwall (1831 - 1837)
Denham Court (1832 - 1833)
Hereford House (1832-1834)
Lyndhurst (1833)
Tempe House (1833 - 1836)
St Mary The Virgin Anglican Church (1833 - 1838)
Rose Bay Lodge (1834)
Elizabeth Bay House (1835 - 1839)
Enmore House (1835)
Forest Lodge Villa (1836)
Lyons Terrace - Liverpool Street - 1837
Orwell House - Potts Point
Springfield - Potts Point
Bedervale Homestead - Near Braidwood - 1842
Camden Park Estate
Salisbury Court

Main Projects 
Camden Park - Menangle (1835)

Camden House was completed 1 Year after John Macarthur died. The style is Palladian Style with Central 2 Storey block, one Storey wings and extensions at each side. The facade is giving a Colonial Elegancy Sense Of Looking
- White Stucco Walls
- Stone Porch
- Window Trimming That Results in visual Excellency 

Denham Court - Ingleburn - (1832)

Originally one storey, but from 1832 - 1833, Captain Richard Brooks, added 2 storey wings with two flanking bow fronted one storey room. This Court is Regency influenced With

- Trim Lines

- Stucco Walls

- Denham Courts Ceiling is 14 Feet High with a Geometrical stair Along The West Wall Of The House

The Vineyard - Rydlemere

Built for John Macarthur's Son William Macarthur. Later it became Subiaco Convent. designed for Hannibal Macarthur. 

John Verge Also did additions to Earlier Buildings 
1833 - Additions to Elizabeth Farm 
1832 -1833 - Vestries added to Francis Greenways St James Church

Famous Old Homes That Are Still Remembered - Newcastle Sun Saturday 30th December 1939

 

Famous Old Homes That Are Still Remembered. 

Newcastle Sun (NSW : 1918 - 1954), Saturday 30 December 1939, page 6

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KING'S CROSS IN EARLY DAYS
MOVE FOR ''WEST END' AT POTTS POINT Famous Old Homes That Are Still Remembered
By WALTER E. BETHEL
Old-time speculators in real estate must have had much food for thought when contemplating probable extensions of settlement in & around Sydney as a city. Which way would development manifest itself?
Shops & residences for a long time continued to jostle each other & the demarcation of the two was a long drawn-out process. A move to create a 'West End' in the vicinities of Potts Point & Darling Point was noticeable as earlv as 1830.
Darlinghurst, which was once known as Henrietta Town— rolled so as one of Mrs. Macquarie's Christian names —was also included as part of this delectable area. Ail extremely well-to-do class was fast making its appearance in Sydney & the 1850's saw a highly prosperous population that had built themselves commodious homes mostly in the areas referred to. Henrietta Town may be described as comprising the whole of Woolloomooloo Bay & what ls known as Darlinghurst, & the story of how this locality became an exclusive residential area made all the more Interesting now that the' towering flats & restaurants & picture shows, boarding-houses & shops galore, known as King's Cross, represent the obliterating factors of a new age. 

To those of us whose memories carry back to 70 years ago, the metamorphosis is striking evidence of a progress somewhat bewildering. My own recollection may be said to date from observations commencing from 1870. as X was born in Darlinghurst in 1863. Woolloomooloo was then well on its way to become the closely packed area that its nearness to the city made inevitable. There was a time when it was very sordid growth, with aumerous little public-houses in Woolloomooloo-street & the adjacent corners. Sir Thomas Livingston Mitchell was responsible for constructing Willlam St, as a more direct way Into town, than that which was represented by the Old South Head-road. Many will remember his fine house, 'Craigend' built in 1830, Upper William St Sth (late woolcott-street). A large stone windmill shared this hill with 'Craigend.' The mill remained a landmark long after it had ceased to function as a mill. 'Craigend' had many tenants, the remotest of which after Sir Thomas Mitchell, being W. G. J. Rogers, solicitor & Mr. Henry Prince, warehouseman (Prince, Ogg & Co.). As settlement crowded around, it became a hospital & then a boarding-house, before it made its exit to make room for the terraces that shot up everywhere. 'Elizabeth Bay House' was another striking landmark, & still exists to gaze contemptuously down at the latter-day tenements that arc crowded round It. Sir Ralph Darling, in 1828 granted Alexander Macleay 54 acres. This took In all Elizabeth Bay & the western frontage of Rushcutters Bay. About 11 acres near the Point itself was granted to Judge Advocate John Wylde on November 1, 1822, & six acres & a half of this was conveyed to Mr. J. H. Potts, an officer of the Bank of New South Wales. From this ownership the famous Point got the name it bears to-day

Boomerah, the palatial home of the McQuades in early ? - (lays.
Dangar's Castle — as it originally was — when it was flippantly called the 'Pepper Box.' ?
Wylde-street, of course, being colled after the Judge Advocate. This area was sold in varying portions, & many fine houses were erected. Most of these were in keeping with the exclusive character of the Point. 'Bomerah,' the home of the McQuades, graced the extreme point & stands to-day shorn of much of its original splendor. An old resident named Caleb Wilson built a house on the Wylde estate, which was irreverently styled the Pepper Pot. Passing to Mr. P. Parbury, it was called 'Granthamville.' Mr. Henry Dangar then bought the property, & his son. Mr. H. C. Dangar, almost entirely rebuilt it, still preserving its castellated aspect. Dangar's Castle it was always called, & to-day it Is still so referred to by older folk. 'Clarens' was one of the homes of Sir James Martin. As far back as 1847 it was owned bv Georce Richard Griffiths, the father of P. C. Griffiths. general manager of the Bank of Australasia. Close to Dangar's Castle was the Douglas grant of 1831. On this Colonel Shadforth built 'Adelaide Cottage' Its grounds reached from Maclcay-st. to the waters of Woolloomooloo Bay. j. H. Challls, who so richly endowed the Sydney University, bought the property. & this, with other property valued at £250,000, was made made over to the University by Mr. Challis. 'Tarmons,' the home of Sir Maurice O'Connell, Commandant of the New South Wales forces, stood on the site of St. Vincent's College. It. still stands there, being incorporated in the general buildings.

Tusculum the present private hospital, was also a well-known home and is identified with such names as that of A, B. Spark (merchant), G. J. Rogers, Bishop of Broughton, the first Bishop of Sydney, & William Long, the father-in-law of Sir James Martin, who died there. Orwell House was a house of many associations. It was a grant to the father of Sir Alfred Stephen, the third Chief Justice, & was successively occupied by Mrs. Grose, Jas. Ramond, Postmaster-General, Colonel N. C. Wilson, Mr. Justice Milford, G. R. Griffiths, & P. Parbury, who lived there in 1847. It then became owned bv Sir William Manning & was subdivided. A notable house was Brougham Lodge, from which Brougham-street takes its name. The land was a grant to Mr. Justice Dowling in 1831. The grounds extended right down to Forbes-street. One of its frontages, Victoria St, was constituted out of a sub-division in 184G. I remember the house when it was j Hornlman's School. In 1882 £7000 was I accepted for it. Most of the data on which this article is casea was complied by the late J. A. Dowling, to whose indefatigable men we owe so much that is valuable in the shape of interesting reminiscence. Where the picture show now stands at the corner of Darlinghurst Rd & Virtoria St. stood Stirling Cottage. was originally part or tne Dowling grant. When Judge Dowling built 'Broug-ham Lodge,' William St did not exist, & a track for foot passengers acted as a short cut to the city. As before stated. Sir Thomas Mitchell altered all this. Vehicular traffic orieinally came from Sydney along Hyde Park, up the Old Sth Hd Rd to the gaol, & then across by Darlinghurst Rd to the hill at the top nf -Urtlltnm-effoAf
Captain John Piper found his way home to Vaucluse by way of what is now Glenmore Rd. or the track known as the Point Piper-Rd, which turned north from St. Matthew's Church at Paddington. Over 60 years ago I walked to church, on the Point Piper Rd via the Cobblers' Paddocks, adjoining
West's Bush, then on to the Glenmore Rd, over Gurner's Bush & by track to Point Piper's Rd. Gurner's fine old Georgian house stood where now stacks of terrace houses arc crowded into Paddington & Hargraves St's. William St was opened for traffic in 1845, & soon many fine houses adorned its frontages. Rosebank stood in grounds now occupied by the post office. Mr. Commissary General Laidley died there. Mr. Donald Larnoch lived there in 1848. Other tenants were Mr. Arthur Little & his son Archibald, a member of the legal firm of Little & Yeomans. Captain Smith, of Macdonald & Smith, lived there, leaving it to occupy a fine mansion called Goderich in Bayswater Rd. now part of the site of Hampton Court Flats. The grounds of Elierslie on the Darlinghurst Rd adjoined those of Rosebank in William St. J. H. Want, & later on Sir Allen Taylor, subsequently resided there. Rose Hall, in Forbes St, was part of a grant to William Cordeaux, who built the Hall. J. Parbury, John Walker & Henry Bell were subsequent occupants. The Hall's grounds were gradually shorn off, Burdekin's  Premier Terrace taking the Willlam St frontage, & houses & St. 'Peter's Church, closing In all round it. Barham, the home of Sir Edward
The effacement of Roslyn Hall before the onslaught of the flats.
Deas Thomson, in Forbes-street, was also similarly crowded out by small tenements. Woolloomooloo Bay was formerly known as Garden Island Cove. Fronting the Cove was the Wallamooloo Farm. This was made up of 100 acres granted to John Palmer, the Commissary General. The original name of Woolloomooloo was originally given as Wallabamullah, meaning a young male kangaroo or a male black Kangaroo. Another version claims that it was Wallamullah. a place of plenty, or where fish were caught. Wallamooloo it was, therefore, called
up to the end of the 1830's. when the present name of Woolloomooloo became generally accented. Kellett St, right in the heart of the King's Cross of to-day, was a famous street. Kellett House, at the back of the old-time Alberto Terrace, was once occupied by Sir Stuart Donaldson, the first Premier of NSW under constitutional Government. The house, formerly owned by Captain S. A. Perry, was at first known as 'Bona Vista' Another occupant, a Mrs. Jones, recalled the house 'Darlinghurst.' as a token of her friendship for Lady Darling. It was Donaldson who called
? ' ? ? if — — . Elizabeth Bay House — the survival of the fittest.
it Kellett House. The Hotel Mansions  now occupies a large part of this historic area. Down the slope, a bit to the east, was a nice stone house called 'Eaton,' in which in my time lived Mr. E. Fosbery, Inspector-General of Police. Cheverells was a fine home on the Elizabeth Bay Rd, built by the original David Jones. Other occupants of Cheverells were Captain Deloltle, J. Gosling. Henry Beit, James Ewcn & Hamilton Osborne; all were wellknown personages in their day. Greenknowe was a fine home in Macleay St that had many notable tenants, including Walter Lamb, F. H. Dangar. F. c. Griffiths, H. E. H. Allen & Bishop Saumarez Smith. This brief sketch of past days will enable readers to visualise what prevailed before the Invasion of King's Cross so completely changed the character of one of Sydney's most exclusive living areas. 

In The Early Days - Potts Point - SMH - Monday 1st October 1906

Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Monday 1 October 1906, page 5

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IN THE EARLY DAYS.
POTTS POINT AND DARLING
POINT.
NOTES BY MR ARTHUR DOWLING.
At the monthly mooting of the Australian Historical Society, held at the Royal Society's House, Elizabeth-street, on Tuesday evening. Mr. Arthur Dowling read an interesting paper in which he traced the history of many not-able buildings & proprties at Potts Pt & Darling Pt, associated with the names of men who have long since passed-away.
Mr. J. H. Maiden presided, and there was a large attendance.

Mr. Dowling commenced with a reference to "Craigend," fronting Upper William St Sth, now Woolcott St, built by Sir Thomas Mitchell, Surveyor-Goneral, on a Crown grant, dated October, 1831. In time it wns converted into a hospital, & subsequently into a boarding house. "Goderich Lodge," near the Windmill-Hotel, in Victoria St, was built and occupied by Mr. T. M'Quoid, sheriff in the 1830's & 1840's. Dr William Grant Broughton (Bishop of Sydney) at one timo was a tenant at the Lodge. The "Roslyn Hall" property fronted Macleay St. The house was a large well built mansion with a spiral iron stair case to the upper storey, & was built on land having an area of 9 acres. "Barncleuth" (now called "Kin-nell"), adjoining "Roslyn Hall," was occupied by Mr. John Brown, who was a spirit merchant, & afterwards by Mr. Henry Moore, agent for tho P &O Company. "Greenknowe" was, built on a portion of the Macleay grant, by Mr. John Gilchrist, in 1846. The Macleay pro-perty had an area of 54 acres, and was grant-ed to Mr. Alex. Macleay, by Governor Darling, in 1828 "for the purpose of erecting a family house & cultivating a garden." It took in all Elizabeth Bay & the western frontage of Rushcutter Bay, as far as the eastern boundary of "Roslyn Hall." A large portion of land at & near the extreme Potts Point, 11 acres in extent, was originally granted to Judge Advocate John Wylde, on November 1, 1822. Mr. Wylde delayed the fulfilment of the condition of the grant for Governor Darling, in a despatch dated March 20, 1829, wrote: "The allotment bearing Judge Wylde's name was granted to that gentleman by Governor Macquane several years since, & still remains unimproved. I propose writing to inform the Judge that it will be resumed by the Government unless the conditions of the grant are speedily fulfilled." However, Judge Wylde ultimately fulfilled the conditions, for he subsequently conveyed 61/2 acres of the grant to Mr. J. H. Potts, one of tho early officers of tho Bank of NSW, first established In 1817. The Point Is named after Mr. Potts; & Wylde St, running botween Macleay St & the Point is evidently named aftor the Judge. "Grantham Ville" was built on the remaining 4½ acres of Judge Wylde's grant. The land had previously passed into the possession of Mr. Caleb Wilson, father of Felix Wilson, a defendant in the celebrated Newtown ejectment writ of "Devine v Wilson." He built the first house on the property, & called It "Caleb Castle,'' & by reason of its turrets it was also known as the "Pepper-box." Afterwards it was called Grantham Ville, & became tho property of Mr. F. Parbury. It then passed into the hands of the late Mr. Henry Dangar, & is now owned by his son, Mr. H. C. Dangar, who almost wholly rebuilt it in 1870, & changed the name to "Grantham." Immediately opposite "Grantham Ville" was "Cla-rens," purchased in 1847 by Mr. Geo. R. Griffiths, father of Mr F.C. Griffiths, who came out to Sydney as general manager of the Bank of Australasia. Later the property was occupied by Sir James Martin, & is now, under the name of "Wilga," owned & occupied by Dr. Faithfull. "Rockwall," now known as "Allanthus College," & "Tarmons," the residence of Sir Maurice O'Connell, & afterwards of Sir Charles Nicholson, were built; on land granted in 1831 to Mr. John Busby, of'the early Sydney water supply fame. "Tarmons" has been absorbed in the building known as St. Vincent's Convent. Next to this was a grant dated October 19, 1831, to Mr. A. B. Spark of 9 acres 3 roods 33 perches, on which "Tusculum" was built. This property was afterwards in the occupation of Dr. W. G. Broughton, the first Bishop of Sydney. Sub-sequently Mr. William Long, the father-in-law of Sir James Martin, became the owner, & lived there until his death. It is now being subdivided. Mr. Justice Stephen, who was tho first pulsne Judge of the State after the Charter of Justice, & the father of the late Sir Alfred Stephen, built "Orwell" upon a grant of 11 acres 37 perches, dated October 19, 1831. "Orwell"'subsequently fell Into tho hands of Sir William Manning. 'The property has been subivided, but the original house still exists.

Adjoining the grant to Justice Stephen was a grant of 9 acres 3 rods (October 19, 1831) to Mr. Alex. Baxter, the second Attorney General under the charter. Upon this land, "Springfield," was erected. "Springfield" has had as tenants Mr. Robert Campbell, Mr. Robert Fitzgerald, & Mr. M. J. Macnamara, & is now used as a boarding-house. "Telford Place" was bullt on a grant of 9 acres 22 perches to Mr. Edward Hallen, Government surveyor. "Brougham Lodge" was erected by Justice Dowling on a grant of 8 acres (October, 1831). It was named after Lord Brougham, through whose influence Justice Dowling received his appointment. Justice Dowling gave the land for the present Vic-toria St (named after the late Queen), for Brougham St (named after Lord Brougham), for Duke St (so-called In honour of the Royal Family), for Dowling St (named after himself), & for Forbes St (named after the then Chief Justice. The land was subdlvldod in 1846, & sold fairly well, but that portion In Victoria St on which Brougham Terrace now stands, with a corresponding frontage to Brougham St, containing under an acre, was retained for a residence, in which Justlce Dowling lived. In 1882 £7000 cash was accopted for the house & land. This was considered a good price, & was larger than the amount realised for the other portion of the eight-acre grant. When "Brougham Lodge" was built there was no William St, but only a track for foot passongers from Sydney on the site of the street, which was not opened for use until 1845. Vehicular traffic till then car from Sydney along Hyde Park, up Old Sth Hd Rd, to the Gaol, & across thence to Darlinghurst Hill. Any person wishing to go from Sydney to the Sth Hd had to travel by the Old Sth Hd Rd (part of which Is now known as Oxford St), this being the only route past Bellevue Hill. "Barham," the residence of the late of Sir Edward Deas-Thomson, was built on grants bearing date January, 1835. West of the Dowling & Deas-Thomson grants lay the grant to Mr. John Palmer, Commissionary General, by his Honor Francis Grose, Lieutenant Governer, on February 25, 1793 of "100 acres of land lying at the head of Garden Island Cove, on the east side of the line laid down as a boundary for the common ground appropriated for the town of Sydney," to be known as the "Wallamooloo Farm." This land, sold to the Riley family on May 3, 1822, for £2290, was afterwards known as the "Riley Estate." The original native name,of Woolloomooloo was "Wallahahmullah," meaning a "young male kangaroo," or a "male black kangaroo." Another narne was "Wallamullah," meaning "a place of plenty," or "where fish were caught." The name Wallamooloo was used up to the end of the 1830's, when that of Woolloomooloo came into common use.
On the east side of Darling Pt Rd, in the vicinity of what was known as Mrs. Darling's Pt (named after the wife of tho Governor), lay the grant of 8 acres made by the Crown to Mr. Thomas Holt in November, 1833. 

"Canonbury," the residence of  Mr. Harry Rickards, stands upon a part of the Holt grant. At the gate leading to "Carthona" was a cottage, in which Sir (then Mr.) Daniel Cooper lived. "The Willows" was bullt on a grant (November 28, 1833) to Mr. Jamos Holt. 'When Mr. Mitchell purchased the bush land between Daniel Cooper's cottage & Mt. Adelaide he also purchased ,"The Willows," & made one property, known as "Etham." "Etham House," where Sir Matthew Harris now resides, was built by Mr. Mitchell on the edge of the slope fronting Double or "Keltie" Bay, and behind where "The Willows" originally stood. Next to "The Etham" Estate was "Mount Adelaide" The house was originally a large, comfortable cottage, known as "Derby Lodge," built by Mr. W. M. Lewis, Colonial Architect in 1848. It was subsequently purchased by Mr. Henry Mort, youngest brother to Mr. T. S. Mort. "St. Mark's Cottage was built by a well known solicitor named Callaghan, who died some 60 years ago. It was supposed to be the first dwelling built on Darling Pt, & is now occupied by Mr. E. M. Paul, Consul for Russia. To the past, & adjoining the Double Bay portion of "Green-oaks," was situated "Brooksby," built by Mr. Cooper Turner on portion of Elizabeth Pike's grant. It Is now the residence of M. Pinard, the Consul for France. Adjoining "St. Mark's Cottage" came the entrance lodge to "Green-oaks," and then St. Mark's Church and St. Mark's Cres. The church was opened for service in 1847, with the Rev. Thomas Cusack Russell, B.A., In charge. The church & St. Mark's Cres are built on a portion of T. W. Smith's grant, dated April 8. 1835, of 14 acres 2 roods. In tho early 1850's &, indeed, at a much lator date there were very few well known families living In the neighbourhood, & they were almost all worshippers at St. Mark's. Up a right-of-way from tho "Greenoaks" prívate road into the Glenrock  property is a house claimed to be the oldest on Darling Pt,  is called the "Octagon," by reason of the shape of the main portion of it. It was originally a guard house, & was purchased by Mr. Henry Gilbert Smith. It was added to, & subsequently came Into tho possession of Professor Liversidge, the present occupant. Land in the early 1850's at Darling Pt was thought of no value. It was stated that the Hon. George Thornton, who lived at "Longwood," adjoining Mr. Hordern's property, & now owned by Mr. Tillock, purchased the bulk of the land surrounding his property for £80, and "on being told that it was too far from town, & of no prospective value, resold It for £100. Darling Pt was at night a dark, dismal place, without gas & other modern conveniences, & for the safety of travellers, who at night generally carried lanterns, It was like the Sth Hd Rd, patrollod by a body of mounted police.
At the conclusion of the address Mr. Dowling was accorded a vote of thanks. 

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Campbell Lodge - Potts Point -

Campbell Lodge – Wylde Street – Potts Point – NSW

Built mid-19th century (by 1850s) · Architect unknown (Gothick villa) · Demolished c.1909–1911

On the harbour side of Potts Point — uphill from Bomera’s foreshore Italianate, downhill from the Grantham “Pepper Pot,” facing Woolloomooloo Bay — stood a multi-gabled Gothick lodge that the scrapbooks simply call Campbell Lodge. Architect John Frederick Hilly lived here while he drew Bomera for the McQuades. Later the Brownes wrote their address as Wylde Street. Schoolgirls remembered Mrs Gilder’s Campbell Lodge classrooms in the same breath as Merioola. By December 1910 the estate was under the auctioneer’s hammer; City demolition photographers caught the stripped gables before the flats ate the curtilage. Welcome to Campbell Lodge — a lost Wylde Street neighbour of Grantham and Bomera, and not to be confused with Campbell’s Fields out at Minto.

At a glance

• Address / site: Wylde Street, Potts Point (historic Darlinghurst / Woolloomooloo Point labels); estate ground between Wylde Street and Woolloomooloo Bay; 1910 sale frontages also Grantham Street and Macleay Street
• Built: standing and occupied by the mid-1850s (Hilly residency while designing Bomera, 1856); exact start year not pinned here
• Architect: unknown — do not credit Verge or Hilly for this house
• Style: multi-gabled Gothick / Gothic Revival villa (steep gables, bargeboards, tall chimneys, oriel — from demolition-era photographs)
• Name: Campbell Lodge — implies a Campbell ownership chapter; founding Campbell not named without title research
• Documented residents: architect John Frederick Hilly (c.1856); Mrs W. C. Browne / Jessie Campbell Browne household (1891–92); ladies’ school chapter (Mrs Gilder among remembered principals)
• Estate context: later mansion estate on the Potts Point / Wylde Street ridge — not one of the SLNSW Villas of Darlinghurst original Darling-grant set
• Heritage status: demolished — no standing villa fabric; neighbours Bomera & Tarana (SHR) and the Grantham / St Neot Avenue flat sites tell the street story
• Fate: photographed in City of Sydney Demolition Books c.1909–1911; Campbell Lodge Estate auctioned 15 December 1910; land absorbed into denser Potts Point residential fabric

Site & setting

Potts Point is Cadigal Country — the ridge and foreshores once labelled Woolloomooloo Hill, Darlinghurst, Paddy’s Point, and finally Potts Point after Joseph Hyde Potts bought into Judge-Advocate John Wylde’s 1822 grant at the tip of the peninsula. Wylde Street remembers the Judge Advocate. The harbour edge below became McQuade marine-villa ground (Bomera, 1856; later Tarana). Uphill and inland, Gothick and “castle” statements such as Grantham (Caleb Wilson’s 1830s pile, later Dangar’s) dominated the skyline that photographers shot from Mrs Macquarie’s Road.

Campbell Lodge sat on that Wylde Street rise — “up hill” from Bomera in the Bomera conservation histories — with grounds later advertised as the Campbell Lodge Estate between Wylde Street and Woolloomooloo Bay, and on the 1910 lithograph with frontages to Grantham Street, Wylde Street and Macleay Street.

It was not one of Governor Darling’s carefully conditioned 1828–31 villa allotments that produced Tusculum, Rockwall, Springfield, Orwell and their kin. The State Library’s Villas of Darlinghurst set does not list it. Treat it as a later nineteenth-century mansion estate on the point — fashionable, photogenic from the Domain side of the harbour, and vulnerable once flat capital arrived.

Do not confuse this house with Campbell’s Fields (also on this blog): that is Dr William Redfern’s early farming estate at Minto, sometimes called Campbellfield — a different Campbell story entirely.

Timeline

• 1822 – Judge-Advocate John Wylde granted ~11 acres at the northern end of the point; Wylde Street later takes his name (SHR Bomera / Potts Point heritage notes).
• 1830s – Neighbouring Grantham / “Caleb’s Castle” rises on remaining Wylde grant land purchased by Felix Caleb Wilson (Villas of Potts Point / DoS Grantham).
• 1849 – Heritage inventories note subdivision of an “A. Campbell’s Estate” with lots in Macleay, Victoria, Brougham and Forbes Streets — possible early Campbell landholding on the ridge; link to the Wylde Street lodge not proven here.
• 1856 – John Frederick Hilly designs Bomera for William McQuade while living “up hill at Campbell Lodge” (NSW SHR / Graham Brooks CMP tradition). Lodge already standing.
• c.1856–1870s – Hilly’s Potts Point working years (Bomera, Tusculum verandah attributions, and other commissions); he dies at Potts Point 3 Sep 1883 (Dictionary of Sydney).
• Later 19th century – Campbell Lodge operates at times as a ladies’ / boarding school; Trove school notices resume “duties” at Campbell Lodge, Potts Point; twentieth-century memory names Mrs Gilder among principals also linked to Merioola (Australian Women’s Weekly, 11 Dec 1948).
• 14 May 1891 – Mrs W. C. Browne, Campbell Lodge, Wylde Street, requests use of Centenary Park (City Archives A-00322036).
• 8–9 Feb 1892 – Same household again — Centennial Park request (City Archives A-00322873).
• c.1909–1911 – House appears in City of Sydney Demolition Books Vol. 5 (print A-00036568) — façade stripped, Gothick gables still readable.
• 15 Dec 1910 – Campbell Lodge Estate auction / subdivision plans (City Archives A-00530262; SLNSW Z/SP/P16/38–39) — Grantham / Wylde / Macleay frontages; area between Wylde Street and Woolloomooloo Bay.
• 1910s–1930s – Broader Potts Point mansion-estate carve-up continues — City heritage reviews list Campbell Lodge 1910 with Tusculum 1901, Orwell 1921 and Grantham 1922; flats replace villas street by street.
• Today – No Campbell Lodge fabric. Walk Wylde Street past Bomera & Tarana (SHR survivors at 1 / 1A Wylde) and read the lost Gothick lodge against Grantham’s flat sites around St Neot Avenue and the Holtermann skyline views from Mrs Macquarie’s Chair.

Architecture & interiors

The scrapbook photograph on the live post — and the City Demolition Books print of the same generation — is the best fabric evidence we have. Campbell Lodge reads as a substantial Gothick villa:

• Multiple steep forward gables with bargeboards
• Tall, moulded chimney stacks
• A projecting upper oriel bay
• Rendered elevations over stone (stone exposed where demolition had already peeled the skin)

That puts it in conversation with the peninsula’s other Gothick statements — Grantham’s turreted “Pepper Pot” nearby, and later pattern-book Gothick such as Larbert Lodge on Macleay Street — rather than with Verge’s severe Regency / Greek Revival temple fronts at Tusculum, Rockwall or Elizabeth Bay House.

No signed architect has been located. Prefer “architect unknown.” Hilly lived here while designing Bomera downhill; that does not make him the lodge’s designer.

The Holtermann-collection harbour view (ON 4/Box 60/no. 367) places Campbell Lodge in the same skyline sentence as Grantham when Sydney looked back at the point from Mrs Macquarie’s Road — exterior massing and neighbour relationships, not interiors.

Architect note: Unknown for Campbell Lodge. Hilly is a resident and the architect of neighbouring Bomera (and of Carrara / Strickland House, Fiona / Ascham, Greycliffe, and other commissions), not a documented designer of this Gothick house.

People & anecdotes

The house and the 1910 estate keep the Campbell name; the founding Campbell still needs a title search before this blog nails a builder biography. Leave that door open — and keep other Campbell houses on this blog in their own lanes.

John Frederick Hilly is the name the heritage literature locks to the address in the 1850s. Warwickshire-born surveyor-architect, arrived 1839, married Ellen Morgan at Christ Church St Laurence in 1842, and became one of mid-century Sydney’s busiest house and church designers. While living at Campbell Lodge he drew McQuade’s sandstone Italianate Bomera on the foreshore below — “up hill” and “down hill” on the same Wylde Street story. He died at Potts Point on 3 September 1883 and was buried at Waverley Cemetery. Dictionary of Sydney lists his major works; Campbell Lodge is his home, not one of those commissions.

Jessie Campbell Browne (née MacTaggart) and grazier-politician William Charles Browne (ex-MLA for Patrick’s Plains) leave a paper trail from Campbell Lodge in 1891–92 — polite municipal letters about Centennial Park use, filed in the City’s Letters Received series. That pins a household on Wylde Street late in the villa’s life; it does not, by itself, prove they held the freehold.

Then the scrapbook changes key from drawing-room to schoolroom. Newspaper notices resume “duties” at Campbell Lodge, Potts Point, among the ladies’-school advertisements. In 1948 the Australian Women’s Weekly still remembered Mrs Gilder’s pupils from Merioola and Campbell Lodge — two lost Potts Point / Darlinghurst mansions turned classrooms, recalled by women who had been girls under her care.

By 1909–11 the City’s condemnation photographers were on the doorstep. The Gothick skin was already coming off. On 15 December 1910 the Campbell Lodge Estate went to auction. What replaced the lodge was the denser Potts Point we know — the same flat-boom generation that finished Grantham, Orwell, Springfield and so many ridge neighbours.

Gallery placeholder note

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

Do not invent URLs — search these collections and embed with proper acknowledgement. Keep the historic Gothick exterior already on the 2021 scrapbook post and re-credit.

1. Existing scrapbook exterior (demolition-era Gothick)

Already on the live post; also City of Sydney Archives A-00036568. Caption idea: Campbell Lodge, Wylde Street — gables still standing as the façade peels away, c.1909–1911.

2. City of Sydney Demolition Books print

Search: Archives node 662935 / Demolition Books Vol. 5. Caption idea: Official last rites — Campbell Lodge in the condemnation albums.

3. Campbell Lodge Estate auction plan, 15 Dec 1910

Search: City Archives A-00530262; SLNSW Z/SP/P16/38–39. Caption idea: Watch the lodge become lots — Grantham, Wylde and Macleay frontages.

4. Holtermann / A&A view from Mrs Macquarie’s Road

Search: SLNSW ON 4/Box 60/no. 367 — “Grantham Castle and Campbell Lodge and other mansions on Potts Point.” Caption idea: Skyline partners — Grantham and Campbell Lodge read from the Domain shore.

5. Bomera (Hilly, 1856) — the downhill neighbour that survives

Search: MHNSW / SHR Bomera & Tarana; existing Boomera scrapbook post. Caption idea: What Hilly drew while living uphill at Campbell Lodge.

6. Grantham / St Neot Avenue compare set

Search: DoS Grantham; SLNSW; blog Grantham / demolition albums. Caption idea: Two Gothick statements on the point — one turreted, one multi-gabled; both gone.

7. Wylde Street letters / Browne household (optional document image)

Search: City Archives Letters Received 1891–92. Caption idea: “Campbell Lodge, Wylde Street, Potts Point” — Mrs Browne to the Town Clerk.

8. Compare set: Tusculum, Rockwall, Jenner, Elizabeth Bay House

Search: existing blog posts / MHNSW. Caption idea: Ridge survivors and ridge ghosts — Campbell Lodge belongs with the ghosts.

What stands today

Campbell Lodge does not stand. The house was cleared in the City demolition wave of c.1909–1911, and the 15 December 1910 estate sale finished the carve-up.

• Walk Wylde Street from Macleay Street toward the tip of the point — you are in the former Campbell Lodge Estate geography (Grantham / Wylde / Woolloomooloo Bay).
• Visit the surviving marine villas Bomera and Tarana at 1 / 1A Wylde Street (State Heritage Register) — the downhill neighbours Hilly tied to this story when he lived “up hill” at the lodge.
• Look across to the St Neot Avenue flat sites for the ghost of Grantham, Campbell Lodge’s Gothick skyline partner in the Holtermann views.
• Pair with standing ridge houses on this blog’s beat: Tusculum, Rockwall, Jenner House, Elizabeth Bay House.
• For the school memory, cross-reference Merioola (Edgecliff Road / Woollahra scrapbook territory) — Mrs Gilder’s other remembered classroom mansion.
• Remember the separate post: Campbell’s Fields (Minto) is not this house.

No public house museum, no remnant gable on Wylde Street. The enrichment is the street, the demolition albums, the 1910 plan, and the habit of looking from Mrs Macquarie’s Chair back toward the point.

Sources & further reading

• City of Sydney Archives — Print, Campbell Lodge, Wylde Street, Potts Point, c.1909–1911 [A-00036568]: https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/662935
• City of Sydney Archives — Campbell Lodge Estate plan, 15 Dec 1910 [A-00530262]: https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1069683
• City of Sydney Archives — Letter: Mrs W. C. Browne, Campbell Lodge, 14 May 1891 [A-00322036]: https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1557957
• City of Sydney Archives — Letter: Mrs W. C. Browne, Campbell Lodge, 8–9 Feb 1892 [A-00322873]: https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1558793
• State Library of NSW — Potts Point subdivision plans Z/SP/P16/38–39 (Campbell Lodge Estate, 15 Dec 1910)
• State Library of NSW — Holtermann ON 4/Box 60/no. 367, “Grantham Castle and Campbell Lodge… from Mrs. Macquarie’s Road” (File 60 list): https://content-lists.sl.nsw.gov.au/tabular-list/file-60-views-sydney-and-suburbs
• NSW State Heritage Register — Bomera & Tarana (H01400): Hilly residency note
• Dictionary of Sydney — Hilly, John Frederick: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/person/hilly_john_frederick
• Dictionary of Sydney — Potts Point: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/place/potts_point
• Dictionary of Sydney — Grantham: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/grantham
• NSW Parliament — Mr William Charles Browne (1842–1916), former member
• Australian Women’s Weekly, 11 Dec 1948, p. 10 — Mrs Gilder / Merioola & Campbell Lodge schools: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47221965
• Trove — school duties notice, Campbell Lodge, Potts Point (nla.news-page1420459)
• State Library of NSW / Potts Point Preservation — Villas of Potts Point (2002): https://pottspointpreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Villas-of-Potts-Point.pdf
• City of Sydney / CSPC heritage reviews — mansion-estate subdivisions including Campbell Lodge 1910
• Existing scrapbook post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2021/07/campbell-lodge-potts-point.html
• Related (different place): Campbell’s Fields — https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2026/07/campbells-fields.html

Related on this blog

• Boomera – Potts Point (Hilly’s downhill Bomera neighbour — scrapbook spelling)
• Larbert Lodge – Macleay Street – Potts Point (another Gothick lodge; different Campbell — C. D. Riddell)
• Tusculum – Potts Point
• Rockwall – Potts Point
• Jenner House – Macleay Street – Potts Point
• Elizabeth Bay House – Elizabeth Bay
• Orwell House – Potts Point
• Springfield House – Potts Point
• Merioola – Edgecliff / Woollahra (Gilder school memory partner)
• Campbell’s Fields (different place — Minto / Redfern)
• Progress Of The Suburbs – Potts Point – SMH 1913
• Potts Point, Darling Point And Neighbourhood – J. Arthur Dowling

Historic live gallery

Images retained from the live Blogger post:

Progress Of The Suburbs - Potts Point - SMH Saturday 1st November 1913 - Page 8

Progress Of The Suburbs In Sydney 

Potts Point

 Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Saturday 1 November 1913, page 8

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PROGRESS OF THE SUBURBS.

XVI. - POTTS POINT AND DARLINGHURST.

II.

Chief amongst the principal properties that were built at Potts Point was "Roslyn Hall," with its extensive and elaborately-finished frontage to Macleay-street. The house was a large, well-built mansion, with a spiral staircase, constructed of cast iron, leading to the first floor. The rooms were each spacious, well-finished, and elaborately-furnished apart ments. Each of the principal bedrooms had a bath of its own, built level with the floor, and a person wishing to bathe had to follow the Scriptural injunction and go down into the water instead of climbing up into the bath as is the present-day custom. This system of putting in baths to the main bedrooms and building them level with the floor was one adopted in most of the mansions around Syd-ney erected in the early days. At "The Rangers" at Mosman and other large dwell-

ings the remains of such a system of bath buildlng are still visible. For Roslyn Hall it may be claimed to have been at one time one of the most fashionable houses around Sydney. The land extended on the south-east to the site of what is now St. Canice's Church, with Roslyn Gardens and Roslyn-road on the east; while on the north the grounds ex-tended to Elizabeth Bay-road. In area there were 9 acres 1 rood to this property. It was a grant to a Mr. T. Barker, dated November 28, 1833. Mr. Barker built the house, and lived there for a time. Mr. Ambrose Hallen was the architect. Surrounding Roslyn Hall a number of other large and fashionable dwellings were erected. There was "Eaton",

with its old-fashioned wooden pump, which Mr. Dowling, in his description of the district, states was situated at the bottom of the pri-vate road, and served two cottages, which were erected by Mr. T. W. Smart next to "Eaton." Then there was "Cheverells," part of the Macleay grant, where Captain Deloitte and Mr. David Jones (of David Jones and Co.) respectively lived. Later the house was occupied by the Hon. W. R. Campbell. "Barncleuth," which adjoined Roslyn Hall, was occupied at one time by Mr. Henry Moore, who was the local agent for the P. and O. Company. It will he interesting to note that in those days the vessels of the P. and O. Company arrived here only once a month, and their arrival was generally noted by the firing of a gun from Fort Deni-son, and Barncleuth, Mr. Dowling states, was later purchased by Mr. Amos, a well-known railway contractor, and by him was named Kenneil. It Is now a boarding-house. Then there was that well-known residence, Green knowe, which Mr. John Gilchrist, senior part-ner in the well-known firm of Gilchrist, Watt, and Co., erected in 1846, under the super-vision of Mr. James Hume, one of Sydney's leading architects. Mr. Gilchrist occupied the house for a number of years. Finally it was purchased by Mr. F. H. Dangar, who still owns it. Larbert Lodge was built and occupied by Mr. C. D. Riddell, the then Co-

lonial Treasurer. Many other such well known properties of tho early days were, to

be found at Potts Point, and a large num-ber of them were built on what is known as "The Macleay Grant," which consisted of 51 acres, granted to Mr. Alexander Macleay by Governor Darling in 1828. The formal grant was in 1831. The Governor, in a despatch to the Right Hon. William Huskis-son, dated March 28, 1828, wrote thus:

"The land granted to Mr. Macleay at Elizabeth Bay, a mile and a half from Sydney, was for the purpose of erecting a family

house, and cultivating a garden. Mr. Mac-leay's knowledge as a horticulturist is likely

to prove beneficial to the colony. He has always spent a considerable sum in the im-provement and cultivation of his grounds, and in erecting a stable and ofllces, prepara-tory to building a house, which it is his in-tention shortly to commence. From the manner in which he has entered into this undertaking, and the scale upon which he has commenced to settle and stock the land he has received for agricultural purposes (the usual grant of 2500 acres), he will no doubt prove an important acquisition to the colony In this respect alone, the capital which he

has already vested in stock, and is still continuing to expend, is considerable.'"

Mr. James Arthur Dowling, in his paper be-fore the Historical Society, describes this property thus: "It took in all Elizabeth Bay and the western frontage of Rushcutter Bay as far as the eastern boundary of Roslyn Hall, and was approached by the Elizabeth Bay-road as at present." The residence which Mr. Macleay built is the present Elizabeth Bay House. It is a splendid example of the old style of erecting a family mansion. At a later date much of this grant of 54 acres was subdivided by Sir George Macleay, son of the original grantee, and by him was let out on long building leases. Upon this land, which to-day constitutes Elizabeth Bay, quite a number of beautiful homes have been

erected.

Quoting from Mr. Dowilng's paper: "Eliza-beth Point was so named by Governor Mac-quarie, after his wife's second name. The native name was 'Yarrandabby.' That of Mac-

leay Point was "Jerrowan."

Another interesting portion of this aristo-cratic suburb was some 11 acres of land near the extreme Potts Point. This was a grant to Mr. Judge Advocate John Wyld, on Novem-ber 1, 1822. Mr. Wyld was the last Judge Advocate, and for a short time a Judge of the Supreme Court under the charter of 1824. It is evident that at the outset Mr. Wyld made no attempt to improve his property, and he nearly lost it for falling to comply with the conditions of the grant, and Governor Darling in his despatch of 1828, already men-tioned in connection with the Macleay grant, dealtalso with the Wyld grant in these words: "The allotment bearing Judge Wyld's name was granted to that gentleman by Gover-nor Macquarie several years since, and still remains unimproved. I purpose writing to inform the Judge that it will be resumed by the Government unless the conditions of the grant are speedlly fulfilled. It is quite evi-dent, however, that Mr. Wyld complied with the conditions at a later date, for Mr. Dowl-ing in his article points out that the Judge Advocate conveyed 61 acres of the land to Mr. J. H. Potts, who was one of the early officers of the Bnnk of New South Wales, which was first established in 1817. Hence, the name Potts Point, the native name of which is Carrageen. But it was also called Point Campbell, in a survey by Gover-nor Phillip in 1792. The street from the end of Macleay-street, opposite Grantham, is call-ed Wyld-street, and Mr. Dowling adds "evi-dently after the judge." On the north side of this street nnd built in the land once owned by the Judge Advocate, were the fine residen-ces, Bellevue, Clarens, Creelwood, Clifford, and Tarana. Some of these have been re-built or added to, and renamed, including the site of Mr. W. R. Hall's modern Wildfell, and opposite them Bomerah, belonging to the well known McQuade family, who occupied the extreme Potts Point. Bomerah 20 years ago was the home of the Admiral in charge of the station, and Mr. Dowling says, "near by was Grantham Villa, built on the remain-ing 4½ acres of John Wyld's grant. This land, on which the house was erected, be-came by purchase from the Judge, the pro-perty of Mr. Caleb Wilson, the father of Felix Wilson, who was the defendant in the celebrated Newtown ejectment suit, "Devine v Wilson." He built the first house in the property which he called Caleb Castle, and by reason of its turret it was, Mr. Dowling says, also known as the Pepper-pot. Later the name was changed to Grantham. It was done in this way: The property was pur-chased by Mr. P. Parbury. It then passed Into the hands of Mr. Henry Dangar, and Is now owned by his son, the Hon. H. C. Dangar, who almost wholly rebuilt it in 1870, and call-ed the house Grantham. Immediately opposite Grantham Ville, states Mr. Dowling, was Clarens, which was in 1847 purchased by Mr, George Richard Griffiths, father of Mr. F. G, Griffiths, who came out to Sydney as the general manager of the Bank of Australasia, and after resigning this appointment he conducted a merchant's business in Sydney under the style of Grif-fiths, Graham, and Co., and afterwards Grif-fiths, Fanning, and Co. He sold out, and went

to England in 1833. Later this property was occupied by Sir James Martin, the Chief Jus-tice. It is now under the name of "Wilga," and is owned by Dr. Faithfull.

Another important property In this district is one on the west side of Macleay-strcet, next to "Grantham,". It was a grant to Dr. Douglas in October, 1831. He sold It the fol-lowing year to Colonel Shadforth, who built a residence known as "Adelaide Cottage" upon the ground. The land, Mr. Dowling states, extended from Macleay-street down to the waters of Woolloomooloo Bay. The whole property came later into the possession of Mr. J. H. Challis, manager for Messrs. Flower, Salting, and Co., and later a partner in the business. Mr. Challis gave this pro-perty, along with others, as a magnificent be-quest, valued at £250,000, to the Sydney University. Hence we have Challis House in

Martin-place. Next to Challis' properly was the grant in 1831 to Mr. John Busby, of early Sydney water supply fame, "the Busby bore."

This land was divided into two parts . On

one was erected Rockwall, the residence of Mr H. C. Sempill, and afterwards of Mr .

Arthur Little, a wealthy resident, who died

there in 1852. The house afterwards became

a "college for young ladles". On the other block was elected Tarmong, the residence of Sir Maurice O'Connell, the commandant of the forces, who died there in 1848. After-wards Tarmong was occupied by Dr Nichol-son (late Sir Charles) who in 1852 was a member of the Legislative Council and a Vice Chancellor of the University of Sydney. The house has now become absorbed in St Vincent's Convent

Not far away was the grant to Mr. Justice John Stephen of 11 acres 17 perches. Mr Stephen was the first Puisne Judge of the colony after the Charter of Justice and was the father of the

late Sir Alfred Stephen and upon this property

Orwell was erected. It was occupied at various times by such personages as Mr

James Raymond (Postmaster-General), Co-lonel H. C. Wilson (police magistrate), and

Mr Justice Milford. In 1846 Mr G R Griffiths lived there before he purchased Clarens,

and Mr F Parbury lived there in 1847. The property was subsequently owned by Sir Wil-liam Manning. The original house still stands. The adjoining property, Mr Dowling states was a grant, dated October 19th 1831, to Mr Alexander Baxter, the second Attorn-Generall under the Charter, who later went to Van Diemen's Land. Upon this land Spring-field was erected, and occupied by Mr Robert Campbell of Campbells Wharf and later by

Mr Robert Fitzgerald, of Windsor. It is now a boarding-house. A grant, dated October 11

1841, to Mr Edward Hallen, would appear to have been originally granted to Mr Bal-combe, the Colonial Treasuer, but it must have been revoked. Mr Hallen built a house upon it, which he called Telford Place his widow was a daughter of Lieutenant Lawson, and she died there only a few years ago.

Mention could be made of many other grants in this aristociatic part of old Sydney, including one to Mr Edward Deas Thomson (afterwards Sir Edward) in 1835, on which he erected Barham, and resided there until his

death; but there is one grant to the west of

the Deas Thomson grant which should be mentioned. It was 100 acres of land, which Mr Dowling desrcibes as lying at the head of Garden island Cove, known as Garden Cove, but marked in Roe's map of 1822 as Palmer's

Cove. The land was on the east side of the line laid down as a boundary for the

common ground, appropriated for the town of Sydney, which was to be known as

'Wallamooloo Farm'. This 100 acres was

granted to John Palmer, the Commissary General, hy his Honor Mr. Francís Grose,

Lieutenent-Goveneor of the colony, on Feb-ruary 25, 1793. But Palmer sold the pro-pcrty to the Riley family on May 3, 1882, for the sum of £2290 and since then it has been known as the Riley estate, heing all the land bounded on the eastby the whole of the grants already mentioned and on the south by as near as possible Albion-street, Surry Hills, and on the west by Hyde Park, and on the north by the waters of Woolloomooloo

Bay. Hence Palmer and Riley streets. This proved to be one of the most valuable

grants in the city.

It will thus be seen that Potts Point, Eliza-beth Bay, and Darlinghurst formed at one time the principal residential areas for the

well-to-do people of Sydney .They still do, so, but look at the remarkable change which has taken place in any portion of this dis-trict. Instead of spacious mansions, sur-

rounded by large and picturesque grounds, that .. were once to be seen and thoroughly enjoyed at Potts Point and the adjacent district, we now have terrace after terrace of large and

fashionable boarding-houses, private hospi-

tals, and such like semi-public residences. The commercial element has got a hold of the district, and is entirely transforming it. Values have, in consequence, risen enormously, and they are likely to continue to do so. In fact, it is most difficult to secure a property

at the present time in this district, and if one does appear in the market it is quickly snapped up. Its close proximity to the city gives to it a somewhat abnormal commercial value, and it is likely to continue to increase in value,, until some day it will be swallowed up in the commercial advance-ment of the city proper. Residences will then disappear, and commercial houses will occupy

the once famous aristocratic Potts Point

Roslyn Hall – Roslyn Street / Darlinghurst Road – Potts Point – NSW

Roslyn Hall – Roslyn Street / Darlinghurst Road – Potts Point – NSW

Built c.1833–1834 · Architect Ambrose Hallen · Demolished 1937

On the eastern fall of Woolloomooloo Hill — where Darlinghurst Road meets the boomerang of Roslyn Street, where Barker’s windmills once turned above Rushcutters Bay, where St Luke’s and Ward Avenue flats now hold the ground — millwright-made-good Thomas Barker raised a stone villa that contemporaries ranked with Elizabeth Bay House. Conrad Martens caught it white on the slope in 1836. George Edwards Peacock painted the house beside the mills in 1844. By November 1937 Joseph Reidle found floors ripped out and the grey stone going for flats. Welcome to Roslyn Hall — the mansion behind this blog’s “Roslyn House” Potts Point URL; not Roslyndale at Woollahra; not a Darling Point house despite an old ADB slip.

At a glance

• Address / site: Woolloomooloo Hill / Darlinghurst–Potts Point–Rushcutters Bay eastern slope; Darlinghurst Road gates opposite Springfield; Roslyn Street / Roslyn Gardens / Ward Avenue / St Luke’s Hospital locality (DoS ~−33.8737, 151.2247)
• Built: c.1833–1834 on Barker’s Nov 1833 grant / purchase (DoS constructed 1834; standing for Martens 1836)
• Architect: Ambrose Hallen (Colonial Architect 1832–35)
• Style: large two-storey stone villa; columned high verandahs; cast-iron spiral stair; sunken bedroom baths; reputed palace-scale drawing-room (period descriptions)
• Original owner: Thomas Barker (1799–1875), engineer, miller, MLA/MLC, University of Sydney benefactor
• Estate extras: Barker’s Hope Mill and second windmill at Darlinghurst Road / Roslyn Street junction (from 1825/1826)
• Famous later chapter: Chauvel occupancy (1880s); Parry Long household into the 1930s (AWW / Reidle)
• Estate context: ridge neighbour of Springfield, Orwell, Barncleuth/Kinneil, Elizabeth Bay House — dress-circle Sydney, eastern harbour fall
• Heritage status: demolished 1937 — no standing villa fabric; street names and estate-lot survivors tell the story
• Fate: cleared for residential flats (Reidle: already ruins 30 Nov 1937); name survives in Roslyn Street / Gardens

Site & setting

Call the ridge Woolloomooloo Hill, Darlinghurst, Potts Point or Kings Cross — Barker’s ground fell east from the spine toward Rushcutters Bay. An iron lattice gate opened on Darlinghurst Road opposite Springfield House; another gate, later the St Canice’s locality, faced toward Bayswater Road; north lay Barncleuth (later Kinneil) and Elizabeth Bay Road (Reidle 1937). SMH suburb history (1913) put 9 acres 1 rood under a grant dated 28 November 1833, with Roslyn Gardens and Roslyn-road on the east. Dictionary of Sydney’s estate entry rounds the same story to 9 acres acquired 1833, villa plus windmills, subdivided 1889.

Disambiguation, twice. First: this is Roslyn Hall, Potts Point / Darlinghurst — the house already scrapbooked on this blog under the URL roslyn-house-potts-point and the title Roslyn Hall. It is not Roslyndale, the surviving Victorian Gothic house at 38 Roslyndale Avenue, Woollahra. Second: ignore the ADB line that plants Roslyn Hall on Darling Point. Barker bought Darling Point allotments in the 1830s auctions, but the Dictionary of Sydney’s Darling Point entry is explicit — Roslyn Hall stood on the other side of Rushcutters Bay, in today’s Darlinghurst. Hallen’s ADB entry has it right: Rushcutters Bay, where Roslyn Street now is.

The windmills were the landmark before the villa. Barker and John Smith raised a large mill in 1826 and another close by (ADB). SLNSW / Villas of Darlinghurst tradition names the first and largest Hope Mill (from 1825), the pair standing at the Roslyn Street / Darlinghurst Road junction north of present Kellett Street, with Roslyn Hall built next door. Peacock’s 1844 oil still shows house and mills together on the ridge. Potts Point Preservation notes that some of the mills’ huge sandstone blocks were later reused in nearby buildings in Kellett Street.

Today the villa is gone. Walk Roslyn Street from the Cross toward Rushcutters Bay — St Luke’s Hospital occupies the former villa locality (PPP), Ward Avenue flats, Barncleuth Lane, the plane trees — and you are inside the old estate’s street plan.

Timeline

• 25 Mar 1799 – Thomas Barker born, Soho, London (ADB).
• Oct 1813 – Arrives Sydney in Earl Spencer with guardian / master engineer John Dickson (ADB).
• 4 Jun 1823 – Marries Joanna Dickson at St Philip’s (ADB).
• 1825–1826 – Hope Mill / Darlinghurst windmills raised on Woolloomooloo Hill (SLNSW Villas tradition; ADB 1826).
• 28 Nov 1833 – Grant / purchase dated for Barker’s Roslyn Hall land (SMH 1913; Reidle).
• c.1833–1834 – Ambrose Hallen designs / builds Roslyn Hall (DoS constructed 1834; PTW ~1833; ADB “more like a palace than a private house”).
• 1836 – Conrad Martens views include Roslyn Hall white on the Rushcutters Bay slope (View from Craigend tradition; live-post sketch).
• 1844 – G. E. Peacock, View of part of Wooloomooloo and Mr Barker’s house and mills with Bradleys Point (SLNSW DG 372).
• 24 Dec 1851 – Joanna Barker dies at Roslyn Hall, Darlinghurst (family notices / Barker bio tradition).
• 1857 – Barker marries Katherine Heath Gray (ADB); later builds Maryland, Bringelly.
• c.1861–1862 – Barker leaves the town house (Uni. Sydney archives ~1861 sale note); Feb 1862 SMH “To Let” — occupied by Walter Lamb, Esq.
• 1875 – Thomas Barker dies at Bringelly, 12 March (ADB).
• 1880s – Charles Chauvel (and later his widow) occupy; City Solicitor / Freehold Society papers 1880–1888 (PTW; City Archives).
• 10 Sep 1889 – Roslyn Hall Estate gardens / Darlinghurst Road frontage auctioned; house retained behind Barncleuth Lane (PTW / NLA subdivision plan).
• By 1898 – Alfred Parry Long (Registrar-General) already associated with Roslyn Hall as his Darlinghurst residence (contemporary press at his death, Sept 1898); PTW notes the later Parry Long holding as Barker family connection by marriage.
• c.1900–1935 – Eliza Amelia Parry Long holds Roslyn Hall after Alfred’s death; she lives there 30+ years (AWW 1936); daughter Eliza Ina dies 1930; Mrs Parry Long dies 1935.
• 30 Nov 1937 – Reidle: Roslyn Hall already a man-made ruin — floors out, fronts down, stone carted for flats; Orwell likewise; Springfield still “awaits.”
• 1937 – Dictionary of Sydney demolition year; flats replace the villa (Clairmont / Ward Avenue tradition in secondary writing).
• Today – No villa fabric. Roslyn Street, Roslyn Gardens, St Luke’s Hospital group and neighbouring flats occupy the former estate geography.

Architecture & interiors

Forget inventing cedar inventories. The period reporters who still knew the house agree on scale and a few stubborn details.

Reidle (1937), walking the wreck: a large, well-built, two-storey stone mansion, high verandahs on two sides carried on massive stone columns; a beautiful spiral staircase to the upper storey; sunken baths level with the floors in most bedrooms — the same Scriptural “go down into the water” baths the SMH suburb series had already praised in 1913, when it also named the stair as cast iron. The 1913 writer called Roslyn Hall one of the most fashionable houses around Sydney, with spacious, elaborately finished rooms and an elaborately finished frontage remembered toward Macleay Street / the ridge.

The Parry Long scrapbook (AWW, 1936) adds the drawing-room folklore: reputed biggest drawing-room in Sydney, ceiling painted pale blue with gold stars to resemble the sky; a unique stone-flagged entrance-hall. ADB preserves the colonial boast that Hallen’s design was “more like a palace than a private house.” Reidle put its grandeur beside Elizabeth Bay House alone.

James Broadbent, surveying Woolloomooloo Hill’s architects, groups Roslyn Hall with Springfield among the Hallen villas whose appearances are known — Ambrose for Barker’s palace; Edward for other ridge work. Do not credit John Verge. Prefer the eyewitness fragments above over any invented room schedule.

People & anecdotes

Thomas Barker is the self-made centre of the story: orphaned apprentice to John Dickson, windmill builder against “overgrown Millers,” steam flour and later tweed at Sussex and Bathurst Streets, magistrate, railway promoter, Commercial Banking Co. chairman, Legislative Councillor then MLA, first major cash benefactor to the University of Sydney’s mathematics scholarship (ADB). Roslyn Hall was the town expression of that fortune — mills on the skyline, villa on the slope, farms at Bringelly and beyond. Joanna died in the house in 1851; by the early 1860s Barker had shifted weight to Maryland, and Walter Lamb was in residence when the Herald advertised the lease.

Then the scrapbook fills with other names. Reidle lists Mrs William Lawson and her daughters, a Mr Chauvel, and the Hon. William Macleay. City of Sydney and PTW place Charles Chauvel (and later his widow) in the 1880s — the same decade the Sydney Permanent Freehold Land and Building Society was carving the Darlinghurst Road frontage for sale (10 September 1889), leaving the old house behind a new lane. AWW remembers “Major Chauvel” and wonderful parties. Keep him distinct from the twentieth-century film-maker of the same surname.

Eliza Amelia Parry Long — widow of Registrar-General Alfred Parry Long — is the last long chapter. Alfred was already living the house as a Darlinghurst address by 1898; PTW’s later heritage assessment notes the Parry Long estate connection to Barker by marriage. The Women’s Weekly of September 1936, already clipped on the live post, wraps Roslyn Hall into her property empire and the thwarted plan to make daughter Eliza Ina “the wealthiest woman in Australia.” Mother and daughter both died before the picks finished the house; Reidle, walking the ruins in November 1937, still heard only the lonely woman’s footsteps in the last quiet quarter-century.

Gallery placeholder note

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

Do not invent URLs — search these collections and embed with proper acknowledgement. Keep the Martens and Peacock images already on the live post; fix any “Conrad Martens” spelling in the caption to Martens.

1. Conrad Martens, Roslyn Hall / View from Craigend tradition, 1836

Search: SLNSW / Christie’s View from Craigend, Darlinghurst 1836 (white building left = Roslyn Hall); live-post pencil sketch. Caption idea: White on the Rushcutters Bay slope — Martens, 1836.

2. George Edwards Peacock, View of part of Wooloomooloo and Mr Barker’s house and mills with Bradleys Point, 1844

Search: SLNSW DG 372; already on the live post. Caption idea: House and mills on the same ridge — Barker’s double skyline.

3. Peacock / Craigend north view with Hope Mill note (a140025)

Search: SLNSW digital order a140025; Villas of Darlinghurst catalogue. Caption idea: Hope Mill at the Roslyn Street–Darlinghurst Road junction — villa next door.

4. Panorama of Darlinghurst c.1836

Search: SLNSW XV1A/Darh/1; DoS media. Caption idea: Windmills on the hill above Roslyn Hall — ridge roll-call.

5. Metropolitan Detail Series / Roslyn Hall gates to Darlinghurst Road

Search: City of Sydney Archives (PTW Fig. 4); pre-1889 subdivision. Caption idea: Lattice gate opposite Springfield — the town front.

6. Roslyn Hall Estate subdivision plan, auction 10 Sep 1889

Search: NLA Map Folder 49, LFSP702. Caption idea: Gardens for sale — house kept behind the new lane.

7. SMH Reidle “Ghosts in Crinolines,” 30 Nov 1937

Search: Trove article 17408467 (already clipped). Caption idea: Floors out, stone going — November 1937.

8. Australian Women’s Weekly, 5 Sep 1936 — Parry Long / Roslyn Hall

Search: Trove; already on the live post. Caption idea: Blue ceiling, gold stars, stone-flagged hall — the last long tenancy.

9. Roslyn Street / St Luke’s / Ward Avenue today

Search: City of Sydney imagery; own site photos. Caption idea: Name on the street — villa gone, estate geography still underfoot.

10. Compare set: Springfield (opposite gate), Orwell, Elizabeth Bay House, Kinneil/Barncleuth, Grantham

Search: existing blog posts; Reidle neighbours. Caption idea: Same obituaries, same ridge.

What stands today

Roslyn Hall does not stand. Dictionary of Sydney and Reidle’s November 1937 ruin report agree on a 1937 end. What you visit is the estate geography, the street names, and the neighbours.

• Walk Roslyn Street from Darlinghurst Road toward Rushcutters Bay — the T-intersection is the old windmill corner; St Luke’s Hospital sits on the former villa locality (PPP), with Ward Avenue flat blocks in the former grounds’ story.
• Look for Barncleuth Lane, Roslyn Gardens, and St Canice’s as edge-markers Reidle and the 1913 Herald already used.
• Pair the visit with Springfield Avenue (gate opposite), Elizabeth Bay House (museum), Tusculum, Rockwall, Jenner, and the Orwell / Minerva–Metro site.
• Do not confuse this walk with Roslyndale, Woollahra — different suburb, different century, house still standing.
• Do not look for Barker’s palace on Darling Point — that was allotment speculation, not this villa.

No public house museum, no remnant spiral stair. The enrichment is Martens and Peacock, the mill corner, the street that kept the name, and Reidle’s wrought-iron gate facing the seven-storey future.

Sources & further reading

• Dictionary of Sydney — Roslyn Hall: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/roslyn_hall
• Dictionary of Sydney — Roslyn Hall Estate: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/place/roslyn_hall_estate
• Dictionary of Sydney — Barker, Thomas; Barker’s Windmill; Darling Point (location correction)
• ADB — ‘Barker, Thomas (1799–1875)’: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/barker-thomas-1741
• ADB — ‘Hallen, Ambrose (?–1845)’: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hallen-ambrose-2147
• SMH, 1 Nov 1913, ‘Progress of the Suburbs… Potts Point and Darlinghurst’: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15462331
• Joseph Reidle, ‘Ghosts in Crinolines…’, SMH, 30 Nov 1937: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17408467
• Australian Women’s Weekly, 5 Sep 1936 (Parry Long / Roslyn Hall) — clipped on live post
• PTW Architects — Heritage Assessment, 1A Elizabeth Bay Road / 18–32 Darlinghurst Rd / 2 Roslyn Street (City of Sydney, 2018): https://meetings.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/documents/s18763/Attachment%20D%20-%20Heritage%20Assessment.pdf
• James Broadbent, The Australian Colonial House (Potts Point Preservation excerpt): https://pottspointpreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Broadbent_reduced.pdf
• SLNSW — Peacock DG 372; Villas of Darlinghurst / Potts Point exhibition materials: https://pottspointpreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Villas-of-Potts-Point.pdf
• Potts Point Preservation — Roslyn Street local history: https://pottspointpreservation.org/local-history/roslyn-street-potts-point/
• Existing scrapbook post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2021/07/roslyn-house-potts-point.html

Related on this blog

• Springfield House – Potts Point (opposite Darlinghurst Road gate)
• Orwell House – Orwell Street – Potts Point (same 1937 Reidle ruins)
• Elizabeth Bay House – Elizabeth Bay (grandeur compare)
• Grantham – Potts Point (Parry Long estate neighbour)
• Kinneil – Potts Point (Barncleuth neighbour)
• Lulworth House – Roslyn Gardens (Roslyn Gardens / St Luke’s orbit)
• Tusculum – Potts Point
• Rockwall – Potts Point
• Larbert Lodge – Potts Point
• Campbell Lodge – Potts Point
• Maranamah – Macleay Street / Darlinghurst Road – Potts Point
• Roslyndale – 38 Roslyndale Avenue – Woollahra (different house — disambiguation)
• Progress Of The Suburbs – Potts Point – SMH 1913
• Stately Homes Of Old Potts Point – Daily Telegraph 1933
• Original Villas of Darlinghurst