Barncleuth (later Kinneil) – Elizabeth Bay Road / Barncleuth Square – Elizabeth Bay–Potts Point edge – NSW
Built 1852 · Architect James Hume (original); J.J. Clark remodel (1880s–90s) · Demolished 1971
On the eastern fall of the old Macleay Elizabeth Bay Estate — where Elizabeth Bay Road swings above Rushcutters Bay — wine merchant John Brown raised a trophy house in 1852 and called it Barncleuth. Within two years he was bound for Britain with his fortune. Later owners subdivided the acres; Robert Amos hired John James Clark to Italianate the colonial shell into Kinneil. The mansion lasted until 1971. The name survives in Barncleuth Square.
At a glance
- Address / locality: Eastern side of Elizabeth Bay Road; memory preserved in Barncleuth Square, Elizabeth Bay (Potts Point edge)
- Built: 1852 for John Brown (wine and spirits merchant, Brown & Co.)
- Original architect: James Hume
- Later architect: John James Clark (remodel for Robert Amos after 1881 purchase) — Italianate “trophy house” transformation; design published
- Original owner: John Brown (with Mary, née Mackellar); allotments bought 1846 from Macleay subdivision
- Later names / owners: Remodelled as Kinneil under Amos / Clark; successive socially mobile owners through late 19th–20th centuries
- Fate: Demolished 1971; site now Lawrence Hargrave Reserve and underground carpark (City of Sydney heritage assessment). Sandstone retaining walls noted as surviving in later apartment fabric on Barncleuth Square
Site & setting
Alexander Macleay’s 1841 subdivision of the Elizabeth Bay Estate offered suburban and villa allotments at the high southern end of the grant. Depression slowed sales; John Brown bought four acres and one perch (about 16,212 m²) on the eastern side of today’s Elizabeth Bay Road in 1846, but did not complete his city mansion until 1852 (O’Callaghan / SAHANZ).
Barncleuth was conceived, in O’Callaghan’s reading, as a glamorous commodity — a crowning gesture of colonial success — rather than a dynastic seat like neighbouring Elizabeth Bay House. The grounds were large enough that 1880s owners could carve “splendid building sites” while keeping the house and immediate garden.
Timeline
- 1841 – Macleay Elizabeth Bay Estate subdivision.
- 1846 – John Brown purchases his allotments.
- 1852 – Barncleuth built by James Hume for Brown.
- c.1854 – Brown returns to Britain; house begins its career as a transferable trophy.
- 1880s – Successive owners subdivide most of the grounds (including high-profile client Robert Amos).
- 1881 onward – Amos retains house and immediate grounds; commissions J.J. Clark to transform the colonial mansion into a fashionable Italianate villa — thereafter known as Kinneil.
- Early 1890s – Clark additions published; noted in later heritage assessments as a conspicuous display of wealth beside emerging Italianate flats and houses.
- 20th century – Continues as Kinneil (see separate Kinneil post for boarding-house / later chapters as researched there).
- 1971 – Mansion demolished; Lawrence Hargrave Reserve and carpark occupy the site.
- Today – Street name Barncleuth Square; mid-century and newer apartment fabric; remnant sandstone retaining walls cited in local building histories.
Architecture & interiors
Hume’s 1852 Barncleuth belonged to the first wave of “city mansions” on the subdivided Macleay estate. Clark’s remodel pushed it into high Italianate — arcades and fashionable statement-making that heritage assessments contrast with the older colonial restraint of Elizabeth Bay House next in spirit if not in unbroken ownership.
Without a fabric survey in hand, do not invent joinery schedules. The published Clark campaign and the 1971 clearance are the secure architectural facts for this pass.
People & anecdotes
John Brown — colonial wine-and-spirits success (Brown & Co., from Chisholm’s earlier business); Barncleuth as parting trophy before the return to Britain.
Robert Amos — the client who paid Clark to make the house modern and subdivided the pleasure grounds into building sites — classic Potts Point / Elizabeth Bay monetisation of a view.
John James Clark — the prodigious architect of Melbourne’s Treasury and much else (ADB); his Sydney domestic work at Barncleuth/Kinneil is a local chapter of a trans-colonial career.
Image gallery guidance
1. Keep SMH 30 Nov 1937 clippings already on the live Barnclueth post (pp. 13 and 18).
2. SAHANZ / O’Callaghan figures — 1841 Macleay subdivision plan (NLA); any Barncleuth elevations reproduced there.
3. Published J.J. Clark Italianate remodel illustrations (early 1890s architectural press).
4. Pre-1971 photographs of Kinneil / Barncleuth — SLNSW / City of Sydney Archives.
5. Lawrence Hargrave Reserve today — “what stands on the footprint.”
6. Sandstone retaining wall remnants on Barncleuth Square apartment sites (local agent/heritage notes).
What stands today
The mansion is gone (1971). Lawrence Hargrave Reserve and the carpark under it mark the house site; Barncleuth Square keeps the name. Walk Elizabeth Bay Road and the square; then read the separate Kinneil post on this blog for the remodelled identity.
Sources & further reading
- Judith O’Callaghan, “The Story of Barncleuth (Later Kinneil),” SAHANZ 2016 conference proceedings
- City of Sydney — heritage assessment noting Barncleuth/Kinneil demolition 1971 and Lawrence Hargrave Reserve (e.g. 1A Elizabeth Bay Road / Darlinghurst Rd assessment attachments)
- ADB — John James Clark: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clark-john-james-3216
- Dictionary of Sydney / local subdivision histories of the Macleay Elizabeth Bay Estate
- Existing scrapbook post (URL spelling barncolueth): https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2026/05/barncolueth-potts-point.html
- Related Kinneil post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2021/03/kinneil-potts-point-nsw.html
Related on this blog
- Kinneil – Potts Point (same house, later name)
- Elizabeth Bay House – Elizabeth Bay
- Roslyn Hall – Potts Point
- Maramanah – Macleay Street
Historic live gallery
Images retained from the live Blogger post:
BARNCLEUTH
ESTATE
DARLINGHURST
FOR AUCTION SALE BY
HARDIE & GORMAN
AT THE ROOMS PITT ST., AT 11.30 A M
WEDNESDAY 21ST SEPTEMBER
F. H. REUSS JR. Licensed Surveyor PITT ST
LOCAL SKETCH [small locality map showing Elizabeth Bay, Rush Cutter Bay and the "Land for Sale"; other street names too small to read]
[Plan: Lots 1–39 laid out along Elizabeth Bay Road, a Private Road 30 ft wide and Private Entrances, around the house BARNCLEUTH, with Lots 1–17 fronting Elizabeth Bay Road; "MACLEAY ESTATE" and Rushcutter Bay Road below. Also marked: Lankelly Terrace, Macleay St to Potts Pt., S. A. Joseph, Dr Palmer, "ROSLYN HALL", Reserved, "IDERAWAY", J. R. Street, F. H. Dangar, Hon. W. Macleay, Lodge, C. A. Lloyd, Burt, Bennett, Rushcutter Bay Reclaimed Govt. Park, R. Holdsworth.]
GHOSTS IN CRINOLINES
WHEN KING'S CROSS WAS DOTTED WITH STATELY HOMES.
People Then Slept in Four-Posters.
A GREAT effort is required to imagine that King's Cross—the present throbbing centre of Sydney's night life—was once sparsely dotted with stately homes, where demure ladies drove leisurely through private avenues of trees in their carriages.
Those were the days when land was owned by the acre. To-day, despite stout resistance to the demolishers' picks, century-old homes are being knocked down so that the task of converting King's Cross into a swarming, human ant-hill may proceed unimpeded.
ROSLYN HALL and Orwell House are already man-made ruins, and a similar fate awaits Kellett House, Springfield, and Larbert Lodge. But before modern mammoth structures completely annihilate even the memory of their long lives, these last survivors of a bygone age merit at least a brief obituary.
Once the most imposing of them all, Roslyn Hall is now a lamentable spectacle. Its floors have been ripped out and the back and front pulled down.
Stripped of its former majesty, it now confronts, over wrought-iron gates, a huge, nearly completed, ultra-modern seven-storey block of flats across the road.
Destruction and construction have kept pace, so that the final brick of the new edifice, which dwarfs everything else nearby, will be laid at almost the same moment as the last stone from the ancient dwelling is carted away.
Gilded dados and wallpapers of a chaste design are exposed to curiosity, while a few surviving trees and shrubs huddle together in the northern end of the grounds, sighing mournfully for other days.
Governor Darling's Grant.
ROSLYN HALL, or what is left of it, is a relic of the spacious times of King's Cross and Elizabeth Bay when Governor Darling made grants with a lavish hand. That to Thomas Barker, on November 28, 1833, was an area of five acres one rood, and on it he built Roslyn Hall.
An iron lattice gate opened on to Darlinghurst Road, opposite Springfield House. It was the entrance to land which sloped down to the south-east, taking in the present Roslyn Street and Roslyn Gardens.
A similar gate, on the site now occupied by St. Canice's Church, led out to Bayswater Road. On the north, Barncleuth (now Kinneil) and Elizabeth Bay Road marked the boundary of the domain.
Beautiful Spiral Staircase.
A LARGE, well-built, two-storey stone mansion, Roslyn Hall was flanked on two sides by high verandahs supported by massive stone columns. Among the amenities not usual in those days were a beautiful spiral staircase leading to the upper storey, and sunken baths level with the floors in most of the bedrooms.
Houses in the district were few and far apart, and because of its imposing architectural and elevated position, Roslyn Hall had a grandeur equalled only by that of its neighbour, Elizabeth Bay House.
Fashionable Garden Parties.
FOR many years Roslyn Hall was one of the gayest houses in Sydney. Its high halls echoed to the laughter of dancing throngs, and birds in the widespread grounds became accustomed to the light-hearted chatter at fashionable garden parties.
After the original owner, Thomas Barker, the house saw a succession of occupants, including Mrs. Wm. Lawson and her two daughters, a Mr. Chauvel, and the Hon. Wm. Macleay.
For the last quarter of a century, however, Echo had little to answer except the footsteps of a lonely woman, Mrs. Parry Long, who died there a few years ago after her daughter had predeceased her.
Now the grey old stone is being carted away to make room for the foundations of a resplendent block of flats.
Darlinghurst's Origin.
SOLD last month, Kellett House, standing in the street which bears its name, is another historic home in the same locality.
It was built on part of the grant, dated October 19, 1831, to Captain S. A. Perry, Deputy Surveyor-General. He resided there until 1836.
In that year, Richard ("China") Jones sold his house at the corner of Pitt and Hunter Streets for £9000, and moved into Perry's place, which was then called "Bona Vista."
In 1817 Jones had established himself in business as an importer of merchandise from China and India—especially of Bengal rum. His office was also the first in Australia to undertake marine insurance.
Because of her friendship with Lady Darling, Mrs. Jones renamed the house "Darlinghurst," but her husband's financial position was severely shaken by the trade depression of 1843, and the home passed into the possession of Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson, the first Premier under responsible government, who changed the name to Kellett House.
He lived there for some years, and subsequently the property was acquired by W. F. Buchanan. He pulled down part of the house and built the terrace (still there) which used to be known as Bayswater Terrace.
Hidden from Macleay Street by a two-storey terrace, Orwell House, at various times the home of distinguished men, is being demolished to provide the site for a new theatre.
It originally stood on 11 acres 37 perches, granted on October 19, 1831, to Mr. Justice John Stephens, first Pusine [sic] Judge of the colony after the charter of justice. Among subsequent occupants were James Raymond (then Postmaster-General), Colonel H. C. Wilson, Mr. Justice Milford, and in 1848 Sir W. Manning.
Up to a few days ago the original house was still standing, but hemmed in by buildings in Darlinghurst Road and Hughes Street, to both of which the grounds extended, even in comparatively recent times.
(Continued on page 18.)
[Picture captions:]
(Top.) Only the lines of its architecture indicate Kinneil's old age.
(Above.) Larbert, seen across its spacious garden, which will soon be covered with flat buildings like the one in the distance.
(Left.) Ruins of Roslyn Hall and the towering modern edifice opposite.
Orwell House is falling rapidly under the demolishers' picks.
Larbert provides an 1837 background for two 1937 tennis girls (MISSES MONA ZEPPEL and LOIS GREEN).
[Page 18:]
Ghosts in Crinoline.
OLD STABLES ON MACLEAY STREET.
(Continued from page 13.)
ONLY a gunshot away, and also doomed to destruction, is Larbert Lodge, a quaint house which might have been modelled on Hawthorne's "House of the Seven Gables."
Old stables are almost flush with Macleay Street, and the remains of its grounds extend to Greenknowe Flats. It is enclosed by high walls designed to shield its privacy, but, ironically enough, surrounding flats are so high that probably no dwelling in Sydney is so exposed to the gaze of strangers.
Larbert Lodge was built by the Hon. Campbell Drummond Riddell (Colonial Treasurer from 1831 to 1854, and Acting Colonial Secretary in 1855 and 1856) on one of the first blocks of the Macleay grant made available. It was subsequently acquired by Captain Lamb, who was followed by a succession of private owners.
This property, which has a frontage of 190ft to Macleay Street and 234ft to Greenknowe Avenue, was recently sold and subdivided into eight allotments on which flats will be erected.
Springfield House, another sacrifice to progress, was built on a grant dated October 19, 1831, by Alexander Baxter, second Attorney-General under the charter.
All Were Neighbours.
ALL the homes mentioned were neighbouring properties, but during the course of the years block after block of their land was disposed of and built on to house a rapidly growing population.
Their few remaining contemporaries in the immediate locality are easily enumerated.
On the original Macleay grant, David Jones built Cheverells and Kinneil (formerly Barncleuth). He sold Cheverells to Captain Deloitte, who included it in his marriage settlement.
After several renovations, both houses are in good condition, and are used as guest houses.
It may seem strange that residences like these were built so close to the city, but the district was by no means easily accessible. Vehicular traffic had to take a round-about route along Hyde Park up to the part of Old South Head Road, now called Oxford Street, to the gaol, and from there across to Darlinghurst Hill.
A trip to the city was therefore long enough to be a minor event in a woman's week, and sufficiently slow for prolonged meditation or conversation as the carriage described almost a semi-circle.
Only a track for pedestrians existed on the site of William Street until 1845, when Sir Thomas Mitchell, Surveyor-General, surveyed the extension which halved the distance to the city.
—Joseph Reidle.
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