Richmond Villa – 116–122 Kent Street – Millers Point – NSW
Gothic Revival sandstone villa · Mortimer Lewis 1849–51 · Standing (relocated 1975–78) — Society of Australian Genealogists · Sydney LEP I923
Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis designed it for himself beside the Domain; Parliament later swallowed the site; the villa survived by being carefully taken apart and rebuilt above Kent Street.
At a glance
- Current address: 116–122 Kent Street, Millers Point NSW 2000; City of Sydney
- Original site: behind Macquarie Street, facing the Domain near Parliament House (Domain Terrace access) (inventory / MHNSW)
- Traditional Custodians: Gadigal / Eora (inventory Aboriginal notes)
- Built: 1849–1851; architect Mortimer Lewis (Colonial Architect) for his own intended residence (inventory)
- Style: domestic Gothic Revival / cottage ornée — Georgian plan logic with neogothic elevations; Loudon / Ziegler pattern-book influences noted on inventory
- Heritage: Sydney LEP I923 (14 Dec 2012); Register of the National Estate (21 Mar 1978, place 2347); National Trust associations; not a current NSW SHR State item
- Fate / current use: Standing — relocated 1975–78; headquarters of the Society of Australian Genealogists since 1978 (50-year government lease cited on inventory)
Site & setting
Original: picturesque Domain edge among government and villa buildings east of Macquarie Street — Lewis bought three plots 1849 (Wikipedia/secondary; inventory ownership sequence from Rogers consolidation). Main garden aspect toward the Domain; entrance from the west via Domain Terrace (inventory).
Present: elevated rock shelf above Kent Street — quarry-cut sandstone wall and trachyte steps; site vacant from c.1880 after earlier Glover-group buildings cleared, chosen for reconstruction (inventory). Now reads with Glover Cottages and the Millers Point / Observatory Hill heritage streetscape.
Timeline
- 1849 – Lewis begins Richmond Villa for himself; insolvency same year; continues oversight for new owner interests (inventory / MHNSW).
- Mar 1851 – “Lately erected” villa sold by George Rogers to Samuel Peek for £2,200 (inventory).
- 1851–93 – Family residence (owners then lessees): Peek; Josiah Lavers (1853); James Williams (1863–72); leased to George Neville Griffiths from 1876; short leases continue after 1879 Macquarie Street Land Resumption (inventory / MHNSW).
- 1879 – Resumed for parliamentary buildings and other purposes (MHNSW).
- 1893–1975 – Parliamentary annex (Richmond House): librarian’s quarters and library storage (1893–c.1910); later Country Party offices and politicians’ hostel sleeping quarters (inventory / MHNSW). Alterations 1912 onward; bathrooms 1934–36; 1950s upper-floor dormitory for ten (inventory).
- 1975 – Parliament House additions make retention on site impossible; dismantling begins 10 Nov 1975; every stone numbered (MHNSW).
- 1976–77 – Re-erected on Kent Street; 1978 reopened for Society of Australian Genealogists (inventory).
- Today – SAG headquarters; Millers Point local heritage item.
Architecture & interiors
Two storeys plus basement; thick sandstone walls; half-round bow to drawing room with five sets of curved French doors, transom lights and internal shutters; rectangular bay with gothic-inspired openings to the other principal room; straight verandah across the bow rather than an encircling verandah; stone-flagged verandah; multi-pane windows; originally timber shingles (replaced with iron 1890; shingles reinstated in reconstruction) (inventory). Reconstruction required reinstating glazing bars, fretwork and other details from surviving evidence (inventory). Painted plaster decoration salvaged during dismantling is held/interpreted by MHNSW (MHNSW story).
People & anecdotes
Mortimer Lewis — Colonial Architect whose public works usually overshadow his rare self-designed domestic Gothic; insolvency means he never lived in the finished villa (MHNSW). Parliamentary chapters — librarian, Country Party, overnight members — turn a private Gothic cottage into a footnote of Macquarie Street power. 1975–78 relocation — a pre-Burra-Charter-era rescue that inventory significance still debates as conservation philosophy evidence.
What stands today
Richmond Villa stands on Kent Street as the Society of Australian Genealogists headquarters. Pair with Darling House and Spencer Lodge (Millers Point drafts on this blog) and with History House for the Macquarie Street / Domain institutional story.
The Prettiest Old House in the City
Richmond Villa - Once at Macquarie Street
Now At Kent Street - Old Sydney
Tucked Behind Parliament House, Facing The Domain, Is The Prettiest Old House In The City - Richmond Villa.
Governor Macquarie gave an acre of Macquarie Street land to his Irish Lieutenant Governor, Maurice O’Connell; who had married Governor Bligh‘s daughter.
At Various times the site carried the Light Horse Barracks which became an institution with the title of the Sydney Female School of Industry, the Presbyterian prefabricated iron church of Saint Stephen, and a cluster of houses – Richmond Terrace
O’Connell did not build on the land, and passed into other Hands & was subdivided.
In 1849 three of the lots sold to the colonial architect Mortimer Lewis, who boldly made a breach in the domain wall that sealed the property off from the park and started work on his gabled sandstone Gothic villa.
Note that the site could’ve been chosen for a man with a sociable nature, for the domain had by then changed its character of official wilderness.
This land, that Governor Phillip dedicated to his government property, not to be alienated, it had for more than 50 years largely been a waste of scrub land, apart from the portion developed to be the botanical Gardens.
In the 1840s it was put in order. A road that became a carriage drive for Gentry was favourite for afternoon social & fashion parades.
But Mortimer Lewis hardly stayed long enough to enjoy it all. He sold the house within a year of moving in. Various owners held it until it was acquired, with other eastern side Macquarie Street sites, by the state in 1879.
It has since served as part of Parliament house now housing Country Party members. It Is Such A Shame that A “Publicly” Owned classic Georgian Gothic Revival Masterpiece Is Only Accessible To The Political Elite.
Sources & further reading
- Heritage NSW / City of Sydney inventory — House “Richmond Villa” Including Interior (ID 2423502): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=2423502
- Museums of History NSW — Painted decoration from Richmond Villa: https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/painted-decoration-richmond-villa/
- Australian Heritage Database — Richmond Villa (RNE place 2347)
- Otto Cserhalmi & Partners — Conservation Plan Richmond Villa & Glover Cottages (2000) cited on inventory
Related on this blog
- Darling House – Millers Point
- Spencer Lodge – Millers Point
- History House – Macquarie Street (this batch)
- Bronte House — another Lewis Gothic domestic comparison (search labels)
