Redleaf (Woollahra Council Chambers) – 536 New South Head Road – Double Bay – NSW

Redleaf (Woollahra Council Chambers) – 536 New South Head Road – Double Bay – NSW

*(Not Redleaf Wahroonga — different house, different suburb, different century of Federation fabric)*

Victorian Italianate harbourside mansion · George Allen Mansfield 1863 · Standing — Woollahra Municipal Council Chambers + Blackburn Gardens / Redleaf Pool · Local heritage (LEP #212)

William Benjamin Walker’s Italianate seat on Seven Shillings Beach became the civic front door of Woollahra: Council chambers in the villa, library in St Brigid’s, formal Blackburn Gardens stepping to a tidal pool. Where almost every peer along this shore stayed private or fell to flats, Redleaf was reconsolidated for the public and that is why the mid-Victorian mansion, gates, Moreton Bay fig and Bunya still frame the Double Bay foreshore.

At a glance

• Address: 536 New South Head Road, Double Bay NSW 2028 (Woollahra Council Chambers)
• Traditional Custodians: Cadigal / Eora (inventory Aboriginal notes)
• Built: 1863 for William Benjamin Walker (lease endorsement: £2,000 expended on first-class building by 7 Nov 1863) (inventory)
• Architect: George Allen Mansfield (SMH tender Oct 1862 for villa at Double Bay; Woollahra fast facts). Inventory also notes possible J.F. Hilly flag
• Style: Mid-Victorian Italianate sandstone mansion with terraced Italianate grounds to the harbour
• Early occupants after Walker: H.C. Dangar (while altering Grantham); Hon. William Busby; Frederic Lassetter; later Dixson / Sir William Cooper / W.H. Mackay (inventory / fast facts)

Civic chapter: Woollahra Council purchase 1940; RAAF/WAAAF occupation 1942–46; Council Chambers from Aug 1947; St Brigid’s library from 1950s; Blackburn Gardens 1955; Redleaf Pool 1941 (opened by Premier McKell)

Heritage: Woollahra LEP #212 (23 May 2015) — house, interiors, gates, gateposts, Moreton Bay Fig, Bunya Pine (and related landscape). Not SHR

Fate / current use: Standing — Council chambers/offices; public gardens; Redleaf Pool; Allen Jack + Cottier / Design 5 conservation + underground offices 1999–2001

Site & setting

Lot 13 of Point Piper Estate on the ridge between the Double Bay arms, looking north between Clark Island and Bradley’s Head. Stone terraces, dry-stone walls, flights of steps and a hierarchy of formal upper lawn, steeper bank, and wilder foreshore scrub once structured the Italianate garden (Woore watercolours 1877; Bayliss c.1875 — inventory). St Brigid’s (1897) was built in the south-east corner under Lassetter ownership; 1912–13 split Redleaf from St Brigid’s; Council resumptions 1943–51 reunited the foreshore for public bathing and civic use (inventory). Neighbours historically include Gladswood/Glenyarrah, Elaine, and Fairwater along Seven Shillings Beach.

Timeline

• 1853–62 – Cooper trustees lease Lots 10/13; Dillon / Cheeke assignments; 26 Aug 1862 Lot 13 leased to W.B. Walker (inventory).
• Oct 1862 / 1863 – Mansfield tender; Walker occupies Redleaf by late 1863 (after temporary stay at neighbouring Seaford/Glenyarrah per Griffiths — inventory). Name Redleaf in Sands by 1871 (inventory).
• 1860s – Seven Shillings Beach tradition: Gurrah’s fishing rights bought for seven shillings by Mrs Walker (CMP anecdote on inventory).
• Oct 1872 – Lease assigned to Hon. William Busby for £7,000; Busby family chapter to 1891 (inventory).
• 1889–1911 – Occupancy then leasehold/freehold of retailer Frederic Lassetter; St Brigid’s built 1897; freehold from Coopers 1905 (inventory).
• 1912–13 – Subdivision: Redleaf to T.S. Dixson; St Brigid’s (with former stables) separate (inventory).
• 1918–39 W.H. Mackay ownership; dies at Redleaf Dec 1939 (inventory).
• 1940 – Woollahra Council purchases Redleaf to protect Seven Shillings Beach foreshore and build public bathing (inventory / fast facts).
• 29 Nov 1941 – Redleaf Pool opened by Premier W. McKell (inventory).
• Feb 1942 – Jul 1946 RAAF / WAAAF accommodation (inventory / fast facts).

11 Aug 1947 – First Council meeting at Redleaf (inventory).

1951 – Full resumption of St Brigids; title reconsolidated (inventory).

1955 – Blackburn Gardens opened; municipal library moves into St Brigid’s 1957 (inventory).

1960s–80s – Office additions (later partly reversed); pool controversies and restoration 1987–88 (inventory).

1999–2001 – Conservation of villa + new subterranean Council offices (Allen Jack + Cottier; Design 5; landscape Tom Sitta) (inventory).

Today – Civic harbour estate: chambers, gardens, pool, library.

Architecture & interiors

Dressed sandstone ashlar Italianate villa with quoins, bracketed eaves, slate roof; reconstructed verandahs to east/north/west after removal of 1960s office accretions (inventory). Original room arrangement substantially intact despite twentieth-century alterations; fine stonemasonry, plasterwork and joinery called out in significance statement (inventory). Bas-relief hall panels traditionally associated with Busby’s Italian imports (Griffiths via inventory). Service wings south in rendered brick; c.1910 first-floor junction visible (inventory). Landscape significance: mature figs and araucarias, remnant woody pear (Xylomelum pyriforme) near the pool bank, gates and gateposts (inventory).

People & anecdotes

William Benjamin Walker — “merchant prince,” Legislative Council 1863–67, founding commodore of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron; named the house after his parents’ English Redleaf (Wikipedia / fast facts). William Busby outgrew Edgecliffe House and bought the harbour terrace; Frederic Lassetter made it a retail dynasty seat and added St Brigid’s for the next generation. Civic punchline: Council bought a mansion to save a beach, then moved the town hall into the drawing rooms. Pool associations later include Olympic swimmer Murray Rose, coach Sam Herford, administrator Arthur Tunstall (significance statement).

Image gallery guidance

1. 1871 Illustrated Sydney News / Bayliss panoramas — Redleaf + Glenyarrah on the ridge. 2. Thomas Woore 1877 watercolours — terraces and steps (inventory). 3. North elevation / reconstructed verandah after 2000–01 works. 4. Main entry gates and sandstone piers. 5. Blackburn Gardens terraces to harbour. 6. Redleaf Pool opening / mid-century carnival scenes. 7. St Brigid’s / library — clear captions as 1897 sibling house on the estate.

What stands today

Redleaf stands as Woollahra Council Chambers. Blackburn Gardens and Redleaf Pool are public; chambers access follows Council/public-meeting rules — check current visitor arrangements before publishing hours. Pair with Gladswood, Elaine, and Fairwater. Do not confuse with Redleaf, Wahroonga.

Sources & further reading

• Heritage NSW inventory “Redleaf”—Woollahra Council Chambers… (DB 2711246; LEP #212): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=2711246
• Design 5, Redleaf Conservation Management Plan (May 2004) — cited on inventory
• Woollahra Municipal Council — Local history fast facts – R (Redleaf): https://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/Library/Local-history/Local-history-fast-facts/R
• Wikipedia — Redleaf; William Walker (NSW colonial politician) verify against inventory/fast facts
• Existing Wahroonga disambiguation draft: /workspace/Redleaf-Wahroonga-BLOGGER-DRAFT.md

Related on this blog

• Redleaf – Wahroonga — different house
• Gladswood House / Elaine / Fairwater — this batch / drafts
• Grantham Potts Point — H.C. Dangar temporary Redleaf link

Keep existing photos; add SLNSW/Trove images with captions and credits from Image gallery guidance.