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