Retford Hall – Thornton Street / Yarranabbe Road – Darling Point – NSW
Built 1865–1866 · Architect Edmund Blacket (Woollahra notes Horbury Hunt involvement) · Demolished 1967 — name retained by later apartments
Anthony Hordern — Haymarket draper, city councillor — named his Pyrmont-sandstone Italianate mansion for Retford, Nottinghamshire, his mother’s place. Blacket’s drawings survive in the State Library. The Horderns held on for nearly a century after Anthony’s 1876 death. In 1967 the house was sold and cleared for flats that kept the name. The live post is one photograph and two lines — this draft is the missing history.
At a glance
- Address: historically 23 Thornton Street, Darling Point (DoS); also described at Yarranabbe Road / Thornton Street corner in SLNSW catalogues
- Built: 1865 (DoS constructed; SLNSW Blacket plans 1866); Woollahra “built in 1866”
- Architect: Edmund Blacket; Woollahra fast facts add J. Horbury Hunt involvement
- Style: Italianate mansion in Pyrmont sandstone — seven bedrooms upstairs; morning, drawing, dining, breakfast rooms below (DoS)
- Original owner: Anthony Hordern (1819–1876); family retainership almost a century
- Heritage: Demolished 1967 — documented in DoS / Woollahra local history; Blacket plans at SLNSW
- Fate: Sold 1967 and demolished for apartment building retaining the name Retford Hall (DoS / SLNSW / Woollahra)
Site & setting
Darling Point / Yarranabbee — fashionable eastern ridge near Mort’s Greenoaks and other merchant villas. Grounds subdivided extensively in the first half of the twentieth century while the house stayed in Hordern hands (SLNSW).
Timeline
- 16 Jul 1819 – Anthony Hordern born London; mother Ann née Woodhead of Retford, Nottingham (ADB).
- c.1844–55 – Brickfield Hill / Haymarket drapery career with brother Lebbeus; own Haymarket business 1855 (ADB).
- c.1860 – ADB states he “built Retford Hall”; prefer 1865–66 Blacket dating from DoS / SLNSW / Woollahra.
- 1865–66 – Blacket commission; Garling watercolour view c.1866 (SLNSW ML 1130); technical drawing PXD 206 (SLNSW).
- 21 Aug 1876 – Anthony dies Sydney; buried Rookwood; house fails to sell out of family (ADB / DoS).
- Late 19th–mid 20th c. – Family photographs at Retford Hall (SLNSW Hordern collections); progressive ground subdivision.
- 1967 – Sold and demolished for flats keeping the name (DoS / Woollahra / SLNSW).
Architecture & interiors
Italianate Pyrmont sandstone; room schedule from DoS as above. Primary design evidence: Blacket office drawings (SLNSW). Woollahra’s Horbury Hunt note — acknowledge without inventing which wing or phase. Do not elaborate vanished interiors beyond sourced room names.
People & anecdotes
Anthony Hordern (1819–1876) — draper; Phillip Ward councillor 1869; married Harriett Marsden (tanner’s daughter, Windsor 1841) (ADB). Firm became Anthony Hordern & Sons under sons Anthony (1842–1886) and Samuel. Naming: mother’s Retford, Nottinghamshire (DoS / Woollahra) — SLNSW says mother’s birthplace Retford.
Do not confuse with later Retford Park, Bowral (son Anthony’s Southern Highlands estate — ADB son biography).
Image gallery guidance
Keep the single live-post exterior. Add credited SLNSW items:
1. Frederick Garling, View of Retford Hall, c.1866 (ML 1130)
2. Blacket technical drawing, 1866 (PXD 206 v.1/15)
3. Hordern family photographs at Retford Hall (SLNSW Looking East)
4. PXA 918 views, Yarranabbe Rd / Thornton St
5. Modern apartment block retaining the name — caption as namesake only
What stands today
Retford Hall the mansion is gone (1967). An apartment building kept the name on / near the Thornton Street site. Pair with Greenoaks / Bishopscourt (standing) and other Darling Point losses. Consult Woollahra Local History for street-level confirmation before claiming a precise modern street number beyond DoS’s 23 Thornton Street.
Sources & further reading
- Dictionary of Sydney — Retford Hall: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/retford_hall
- State Library of NSW — Looking East / Retford Hall (archived): https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/discover_collections/people_places/east/settlers/hordern/retford.html
- Woollahra Council — Local history fast facts R (Retford Hall): https://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/Library/Local-history/Local-history-fast-facts/R
- ADB — Ruth Teale, “Hordern, Anthony (1819–1876)” (shared entry): https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hordern-anthony-3915
- Live post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2025/05/retford-hall-darling-point.html
- Trove / SLNSW — search “Retford Hall” Darling Point
Related on this blog
- Greenoaks – Darling Point
- Other Hordern / Blacket searches on the blog
Gallery
