Historic Sydney Mansions, Manors, Villas & Houses : Eynesbury – Edgecliff Road & Albert Street – Edgecliff

Eynesbury – Edgecliff Road & Albert Street – Edgecliff – NSW

Late-1860s mansion (demolished) · Name reused by 1930s Art Deco flats at 22 Albert Street · Live title spelling “Eyensbury” — historical spelling Eynesbury

Corner of Edgecliff Road and Albert Street — high ground, harbour in the distance, and a name that refused to die when the house did. The live post was a March 1934 photo dump: garden path, rounded window, stairs, lookout, main entrance — labelled Eynesbury / Eyensbury in the filenames. Those pictures catch the mansion on the eve of the flat boom. Then came Carmel (1935) on part of the old ground, and an Art Deco block that stole the old name and held it for eighty years. This scrapbook keeps the layers unmixed.

At a glance

Historic mansion: Eynesbury, Edgecliff — built late 1860s for John Pirie Roxburg (Woollahra Local History Fast Facts, under Carmel)
Setting: estate between Edgecliff Road and Albert Street (SLNSW subdivision plans Eynesbury | Edgecliffe Rd, Albert St)
Spelling: Eynesbury in Woollahra, SLNSW, and the later flat building; live blog title/labels Eyensbury / Eyenesbury — correct to Eynesbury
Fate of mansion: demolished mid-1930s (precise wreckers’ year not secured — flag; March 1934 interiors/exteriors exist on the live post)
On former grounds: Carmel, 24 Albert Street — Mediterranean villa, 1935, architect Glen F. Gilling, for the Utz family (Woollahra Fast Facts)
Name reuse: Art Deco apartment building Eynesbury, 22 Albert Street — built c.1935, purchased 1938 for £29,000 by the Babington-Lees family; sold 2017 for $33.25 million (press)
Disambiguation: ≠ Quambi (Albert St, demolished 1930s → Quambi Place); ≠ Quirang (Trelawney block, demolished 1966)

Site & setting

Edgecliff’s high point — the ridge where Albert Street meets Edgecliff Road. Nineteenth-century Eynesbury commanded that rise; twentieth-century agents still sold the Art Deco namesake on “Edgecliff’s highest point” with harbour panoramas from every flat. Aboriginal Country: Cadigal. European chapter: Point Piper / Cooper estate leasehold world giving way to freehold subdivision (SLNSW holds Eynesbury estate plans among Edgecliff subdivision sheets). Carmel next door (No. 24) is the readable 1935 house on part of the old Eynesbury land; Fenton and Quambi Place sit in the wider Albert Street story.

Timeline

Late 1860s – House Eynesbury built for John Pirie Roxburg (Woollahra Fast Facts).
1910 / other dates – SLNSW Edgecliff subdivision list includes Eynesbury sheets (Edgecliffe Rd, Albert St) — estate already in the subdivision imagination.
March 1934 – Detailed photographic survey of house and interiors (images on the live blog) — mansion still standing / being recorded.
1935 – Carmel built at 24 Albert Street (Gilling for Utz) on part of previous Eynesbury grounds (Woollahra).
c.1935–1938 – Art Deco flat building Eynesbury at 22 Albert Street completed; 1938 purchase by Babington-Lees for £29,000 (press: three years after construction).
1938–2017 – Same family holds the flat block ~80 years; sold November 2017 for $33.25 million to a private investor.
Today – Mansion gone; Carmel and the Art Deco Eynesbury flats carry the site’s visible history; name persists on 22 Albert Street.

Architecture & interiors

Mansion (lost): Known from the March 1934 photo set — garden pathway, rounded window looking east, stair hall, first-floor lookout, main entrance, north and south elevations. Do not invent a style school beyond what those photographs show until a contemporary description is quoted from Trove. The images suggest a substantial Victorian / Federation-era house with generous glazing to the view — let the photos speak. Carmel (standing): Mediterranean Villa, Glen F. Gilling, 1935 — Woollahra Fast Facts; later trophy sales in the press. Art Deco Eynesbury (standing): Eleven apartments historically described as ten three-bedroom units plus a large penthouse (~400 m²), lift, garaging, harbour orientation — 1930s flat boom architecture reusing a nineteenth-century estate name.

People & anecdotes

John Pirie Roxburg — named on the Woollahra Carmel card as the late-1860s Eynesbury client. Deepen via Sands and Trove before adding biography colour. Utz family / Glen F. Gilling — Carmel’s 1935 chapter on the sliced estate. Babington-Lees family — held the Art Deco Eynesbury from 1938 to 2017; one of those rare single-family flat-block custodianships the eastern suburbs still talk about when the auction gavel falls at $33 million. The 1934 photographer (credit if the live-post filenames or archive labels supply one) caught a dying house type: big Edgecliff villas about to become footprints for Carmel and flats.

Image gallery guidance

1. March 1934 set already on the live post (garden path, interiors, stairs, lookout, entrance, N/S views) Re-credit; prefer filename spelling Eynesbury. Caption idea: Last close looks — Eynesbury, March 1934. 2. Corner Edgecliff Rd & Albert St context (live post includes a corner shot) Caption idea: High ground — where the mansion met the ridge roads. 3. SLNSW Eynesbury subdivision plan (Z/SP/E4/…) Search: https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/content_lists/subdivision_plans/edgecliff.html Caption idea: Estate on paper — Edgecliffe Rd and Albert St. 4. Carmel, 24 Albert Street Search: Woollahra Fast Facts C; contemporary sale photography. Caption idea: 1935 on old Eynesbury ground — Gilling’s Carmel. 5. Art Deco Eynesbury, 22 Albert Street Search: 2017 campaign photography; AFR / Property Observer. Caption idea: The name reused — flats that outlived the house by decades.

What stands today

The 1860s mansion does not stand. On and beside its ground you can still find:

Carmel, 24 Albert Street (1935 Mediterranean villa)
Eynesbury flats, 22 Albert Street (Art Deco block that inherited the name)

Walk Albert Street and Edgecliff Road; use the 1934 photos as a ghost overlay; keep Quambi Place further along Albert Street in its own mental folder.

Sources & further reading

Woollahra — Local history fast facts – C (Carmel / Eynesbury note): https://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/Library/Local-history/Local-history-fast-facts/Local-history-fast-facts-C
SLNSW — Edgecliff subdivision plans (Eynesbury sheets): https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/content_lists/subdivision_plans/edgecliff.html
Live scrapbook (1934 photo set; spelling Eyensbury): https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2026/07/eyensbury-edgecliff-new-south-wales.html
Property press — 2017 sale of 22 Albert Street Eynesbury ($33.25m); construction c.1935 / 1938 purchase £29,000 (Jonathan Chancellor / AFR / apartments.com.au reporting)
Trove — “Eynesbury” + Edgecliff / Roxburg / Albert Street
Related Woollahra Fast Facts — Fenton; Quambi (Q)

Research gaps: Exact mansion demolition year, architect of the 1860s house, and Roxburg biography not secured from ADB / Dictionary of Sydney / Heritage NSW in this pass.