Spencer Lodge – Millers Point – NSW
Mercantile villa for Captain John Lamb · Demolished · Site now harbour / Walsh Bay infrastructure
Mary Salmon, writing when the house was already a casualty ward, remembered lawns, rosaries, and naval officers under Captain Lamb’s roof. Conrad Martens painted the single-storey verandahed lodge above Darling Harbour. The Australian Dictionary of Biography puts Spencer Lodge in the fashionable mercantile locale at Miller’s Point — hard by Lamb’s wharf. The lodge is gone; the view Salmon praised is still the point of the story.
At a glance
- Name: Spencer Lodge
- Location: Millers Point / Miller’s Point — harbour face toward Balmain / Darling Harbour (Cockle Bay in Lamb’s day)
- Built: 1835 for Mr Edwards (Yanga Parks CMP comparative table); Salmon notes a 1833 dated stone adjacent — soft timing flag
- Notable resident: Captain John Lamb R.N. (1790–1862), merchant, MLC (ADB) — leased / occupied; firm Lamb, Buchanan & Co. then Lamb & Parbury
- Later (Salmon tradition): some old-timers place Dr Bland after Lambs left for England 1855; J. L. Isaacs writing from Spencer Lodge 1872 (CoS Archives)
- Institutional use (Salmon 1907): Sydney Hospital casualty ward / outdoor department
- Fate: Demolished (CMP); exact year open this pass
Site & setting
Western harbour edge — windmills, wharves, bond stores, merchants’ houses looking across to Balmain and the river mouths. Lamb’s Wharf (Carmichael 1837 map tradition; Walsh Bay history) sat below. Garden curtailed by Salmon’s day to “a tree or two.” Panorama she lists: Balmain, Cockatoo, Iron Cove, Lane Cove, Parramatta River, ship-ridden Darling Harbour.
Aboriginal Country: Gadigal country of the Eora Nation (Warrane / harbour foreshores).
Timeline
- 1829 – John Lamb arrives Sydney in Resource as resident partner Lamb, Buchanan & Co. (ADB).
- 1833–1835 – Site dating: Salmon’s 1833 stone; CMP build 1835 for Edwards; Lamb lease/occupation.
- 1830s–1850s – Mercantile peak; anti-transportation Circular Quay meeting June 1849 (Lamb speaker — ADB/Salmon); Sydney Railroad Co. director; CBC Sydney chairman periods.
- 1855 – Lamb retires wealthy; to England (Clapham Park); part of family remains (ADB/Salmon).
- c.1857 – Returns Sydney; Legislative Council again; Dunbar / Catherine Adamson marine inquiries (ADB).
- 17 January 1862 – Dies at Larbert Lodge, Darlinghurst; buried St Jude’s, Randwick (ADB).
- 1872 – J. L. Isaacs still addresses letters from Spencer Lodge (CoS Archives).
- By 1907 – Salmon finds casualty ward of Sydney Hospital; gardens stripped; walls bare of mansion character.
- Later – Demolished (CMP); Millers Point / Walsh Bay harbour works and resumptions reshape the shore (plague / Harbour Trust context for the precinct — not yet a proven single demolition notice for Spencer Lodge itself).
Architecture & interiors
CMP / Martens type: Colonial Georgian / early Victorian single-storey verandahed house, brick, originally shingle roof — harbour-oriented mercantile villa, not a Potts Point tower. Salmon: bare walls by hospital chapter; view intact. Do not invent room counts beyond Martens/Salmon evidence.
People & anecdotes
Captain John Lamb (ADB) — navy midshipman under Bligh’s favour; merchant captain; anti-transportation agitator; Chamber of Commerce / Exchange founder-chairman; Spencer Lodge then Larbert Lodge. Children include Walter (Woodstock), Lucy (Mrs H. C. Dangar of Potts Point “castle” in Salmon).
Mary Salmon — Sunday Times historic-houses series; keep her voice, footnote modern corrections (Edwards build; Lamb death house; demolition).
Dr William Bland — Salmon’s “some old-timers assert” post-1855 occupancy — mark as tradition, not ADB fact.
Gallery placeholder note
Do not invent historic photo URLs — keep existing live-post images; captions and sequence guidance below for the merge pass.
1. Conrad Martens — Spencer Lodge, Millers Point (Caroline Simpson Library / SLNSW; Christie's 1850/1865 cataloguing variants — caption dates carefully).
2. Ebsworth’s Wharf and Spencer Lodge views (DAAO / period prints).
3. Keep/re-credit any live Salmon illustration.
4. Carmichael 1837 map — Lamb’s Wharf labelled.
5. Modern Walsh Bay / Millers Point — “site of” only after footprint research.
What stands today
Spencer Lodge does not stand. The Millers Point / Walsh Bay foreshore is harbour infrastructure, terraces, and later Trust-era fabric. Do not invent a street plaque without checking City of Sydney / Harbour Trust interpretation. Pair with the blog’s Larbert Lodge draft for Lamb’s death house.
Sources & further reading
- Live scrapbook (Salmon text): https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2026/06/spencer-lodge-millers-point.html
- ADB — John Lamb: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lamb-john-2321
- Mary Salmon, Historic Houses of N.S.W. — Sunday Times series (ADB biblio: 8 Sept 1907)
- Walsh Bay history — “First barons of our bay” (Martens credit; Lamb summary): https://walshbayhistory.net/stories/first-barons-of-our-bay
- Yanga Parks CMP Vol.1 comparative early verandah houses table (Edwards 1835; demolished)
- City of Sydney Archives — J. L. Isaacs, Spencer Lodge, 1872 letter
- Conrad Martens works — Caroline Simpson Library / auction records
Related on this blog
- Larbert Lodge – Potts Point (Lamb’s death house)
- Tarmons – Potts Point
- Ultimo House
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