Prestonville (later Cairo) – 81 Macleay Street – Potts Point – NSW
Mansion / guesthouse · Cairo hotel era from 1911 · Demolished 1959 · Site now Ikon apartments (former Chevron-Hilton)
At 81 Macleay Street — where the Chevron’s international glamour and later the Ikon towers would rise — stood Prestonville, the Potts Point house of Robert and Mary Anne Thorne. After Mary Anne’s death in 1911 the place traded as the Cairo hotel and guesthouse, lawn tennis courts and garden still part of its pitch. It was knocked down in 1959 for Sydney’s Chevron-Hilton. The mansion is gone; the street number is not.
At a glance
- Address: 81 Macleay Street, Potts Point (Rockwall Lane at side on mid-century survey cards)
- Built: Mid–late Victorian mansion fabric; illustrated as Prestonville by 1876 (Australian Town and Country Journal, 27 May 1876)
- Architect: Not established in sources used for this draft
- Early residents: Robert Thorne (d. 4 August 1878 at Prestonville); widow Mary Anne Thorne (née Moffitt; d. 1911 still at Prestonville)
- Later name / use: Cairo hotel / lodging house from 1911; tennis courts and large garden noted in secondary lost-mansion summaries; wings proposed mid-century (City Archives DA files 1951–53)
- 1929 sale: Mrs J.J. Copeman sold Cairo for £45,000 to Mr L.H. Hinks, “intention to erect a block of modern flats” (SMH, 13 Nov 1929)
- Fate: Demolished 1959 for Chevron-Hilton Hotel (opened 1960); site succession Nikko / Landmark Park Hotel / Ikon apartments (Mirvac, 2002–05)
Site & setting
Macleay Street is the ridge high street. Number 81 sat in the band of large houses and later residential hotels that defined Kings Cross–Potts Point before the international hotel boom. City building-survey cards file “Cairo” at 81 Macleay with Rockwall Lane beside — a reminder that Rockwall and the Verge villa layer were neighbours in spirit even when the fabric differed.
Timeline
- By 1876 – Australian Town and Country Journal (27 May 1876) features Prestonville for Mr Robert Thorne (illustrated).
- 4 Aug 1878 – Robert Thorne dies at Prestonville, Potts Point (People Australia / death notice trail).
- to 1911 – Mary Anne Thorne remains at Prestonville; dies 1911; Evening News obituary (10 Aug 1911) and related notices.
- 1911 – Property enters its Cairo hotel / guesthouse chapter (secondary consensus; timing tied to the end of Thorne occupation).
- 13 Nov 1929 – SMH reports sale of Cairo, 81 Macleay Street, for £45,000 to L.H. Hinks with flat-building intent. Flats were not the final twentieth-century outcome.
- 1949–53 – City Archives building survey / DA trail for Cairo residences and proposed new wings (lodging-house additions).
- 1959 – Cairo demolished for Chevron construction.
- Sept 1960 – Chevron-Hilton opens; later chapters Nikko (from late 1980s/1990), Landmark Park Hotel, then Ikon apartments.
- Today – Ikon residential towers at 81 Macleay Street.
Architecture & interiors
Prestonville reads in 1876 illustration as a substantial Victorian house in garden grounds. Cairo-era descriptions emphasise lawn tennis courts and a large garden — residential-hotel amenity layered onto the old mansion. Mid-century lodging-house wings (Gange & Son DA trail) show the incremental hotelisation typical of Macleay Street before total clearance.
No claim is made here to a named colonial architect without a ledger or notice.
People & anecdotes
Robert and Mary Anne Thorne anchor the house’s domestic identity. Mary Anne, daughter of early Sydney identity William Moffitt and sister to the Marks women of Glenrock and Elystan, died still calling the house Prestonville in 1911 — the hinge year when the Cairo hotel story begins.
The 1929 flat scheme that did not finally own the site’s future, and the Chevron that did, bookend the Cross’s shift from mansion-hotel to international tower. Secondary hotel lore (Silver Spade nightclub, Beatles snub, Molly Meldrum interviews) belongs to the Chevron chapter on the same street number — footnote it lightly; this post is about Prestonville/Cairo.
What stands today
Prestonville / Cairo is gone. 81 Macleay Street is now the Ikon apartment complex on the Chevron’s ground. Read the street number as a palimpsest: Thorne mansion → Cairo hotel → Chevron-Hilton → Nikko/Landmark → Ikon.
Sources & further reading
- Australian Town and Country Journal, 27 May 1876, p. 20 — Prestonville / Robert Thorne (Trove)
- Obituaries Australia — Mary Anne Thorne: https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/thorne-mary-anne-23062
- People Australia — Robert Thorne: https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/thorne-robert-23063
- Sydney Morning Herald, 13 November 1929, p. 16 — Cairo sale
- City of Sydney Archives — Cairo / 81 Macleay building survey and DA files (e.g. nodes/view/962888; nodes/view/1015371)
- Existing posts: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2026/04/prestonville-potts-point.html and https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2017/02/81-macleay-street-potts-point.html
Related on this blog
- Rockwall – Potts Point
- Larbert Lodge – Macleay Street
- Maramanah – Macleay Street
- Osterley – Fitzroy Gardens
Historic live gallery
Images retained from the live Blogger post:
Prestonville, the Residence of
Mr. Robert Thorne.
We give this week a view of Prestonville, the mansion of Mr. Robert Thorne, situate in Macleay-street, Potts' Point,—a handsome edifice, which takes a prominent place, both in regard to architecture and adaptability for a family residence, among the many noble-looking buildings which ornament that portion of the suburbs of the city. It stands in from Macleay-street a distance of about 160 feet, and the intervening space is exquisitely laid out in walks and gardens. The principal entrance is from Macleay-street, where there is a handsome iron palisading, on stone foundations, with six very ornamental pillars. Our engraving represents the building from an eastern aspect, and of course does not convey any idea of the equally handsome appearance that it presents from a northerly point of view. The architect for the whole of the work was Mr. David M'Beath, of Palmer-street, Sydney, and it was under his personal superintendence that it was carried out. The structure is of brick, with stone foundations, cemented in a highly ornamental manner. As will be seen from our engraving, the building is two storeys in height—the ground floor being 14 feet 6 inches high, and the first floor 13 feet 6 inches in the clear. At the portico of the Macleay-street entrance, there are two Corinthian stone columns supporting a domed ornamental canopy, and the door from this leads into an entrance hall, striking from its highly classic and magnificent appearance. The hall is twelve feet wide, and is surrounded by twelve Corinthian columns, bearing an entablature, which with other like architectural adornments are afterwards found to be a good index to the internal ornamentation of the building. From the hall there is a flight of cedar stairs, quite in keeping with the appearance of the hall, and of very easy ascent. It may be mentioned, without entering …
[The clipping ends here.]
[Caption under the engraving at the top of the post:]
PRESTONVILLE, THE RESIDENCE OF MR. ROBERT THORNE.
DEATH OF A POTTS POINT IDENTITY.
The large circle of friends of Mrs. M. A. Thorne, widow of Mr. Robert Thorne, will regret to learn of her death, which occurred at her residence, "Prestonville," Potts Point, on Monday last. The deceased lady was 76 years of age, and was the last surviving daughter of the late William Moffitt, one of Sydney's best known early identities. She was pre-deceased by her two sisters, Mrs. John Marks, of "Glenrock," and Mrs. James Marks, of "Elystan," during the past three years. The remaining family members are Mr. H. E. Thorne, Mrs. J. Spencer Brunton, and Mrs. C. W. Marsden. Mrs. Thorne was a benefactress whose charitable services will be greatly missed by many. A representative cortege of some of Sydney's oldest residents, including relatives, followed the last remains to the family vault at the Rookwood Cemetery, on Wednesday.
The death occurred at Ballina on Tuesday night of Mrs. Isabella Brown, 74. Her husband, who was 79 years of age, died on Friday last. The old couple, who were formerly residents of Shoalhaven, celebrated their golden wedding last year.
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THE CAIRO, POTTS POINT.
SOLD FOR £45,000.
The Cairo, 81 Macleay-street, Potts Point, formerly one of Sydney's most fashionable boarding establishments, was sold yesterday by Mrs. J. J. Copeman for £45,000.
The property, which has a frontage of 100ft to Macleay-street, with considerable depth, was put up for auction on March 15 last, and was passed in at £35,000.
The purchaser is Mr. L. H. Hinks, and it is his intention to erect a block of modern flats on the site.
