Durham Hall – 207 Albion Street – Surry Hills – NSW

Durham Hall – 207 Albion Street – Surry Hills – NSW

Colonial Georgian · Built 1834–35 for George Hill · NSW State Heritage Register No. 00221 · Standing — Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia

On Albion Street’s early colonial terrace-line, butcher-politician George Hill raised a symmetrical two-storey Georgian town residence that still reads as a gentleman’s house. Clubs, a wartime American Red Cross service club for African American servicemen, a bank and heavy twentieth-century alterations almost erased its face — yet after 1980s reconstruction Durham Hall again holds the street with its verandah and slate roof, now offices for the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia.

At a glance

• Address: 207 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 (corner precinct with Nichols Street)
• Built: 1834–1835 for George Hill (1802–1883)
• Architect / builder: Not identified in the State Heritage Register summary
• Style: Colonial Georgian — stuccoed brick, stone dressings, ground-floor verandah with Doric columns, hipped slate roof, symmetrical plan
• Also known as: Concordia Club; Booker T. Washington Club; Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia
• Heritage: NSW SHR No. 00221 (listed 2 April 1999); related Hill cottages/terraces at 203–205 and 197–201 Albion Street
• Fate / use: Standing — RCPA national office (from 1986)

Site & setting

Part of John Palmer’s 1794 grant, later subdivided from Isaac Nichols’s holdings; George Hill assembled lots after 1833–35 purchases. Durham Hall anchors a rare Colonial Georgian group on Albion Street with the adjoining cottages and terraces Hill also built. A 1980s palisade fence and reconstructed front garden frame the Albion Street elevation. Compare Cleveland House (Surry Hills) and Willandra (Ryde) for related Georgian house types cited in heritage assessments.

Timeline

• 1834–35 – Durham Hall built for George Hill; family seat until his death.
• 1840–50 – Hill builds cottages at 203–205 Albion Street adjoining.
• 1842–50 – Hill on first Sydney Municipal Council; magistrate; Mayor of Sydney (1850).
• 1856–61 – Member, NSW Legislative Council.
• 1883 – George Hill dies after a buggy–tram collision; widow Jane remains for several years.
• 1889–99 – Boarding house (Mrs Cecilia Anderson; Mrs Mary Parker — tennis court advertised).
• 1899–1924 – Hat manufacturer Charles Anderson and family; Anderson & Co. factory behind in Nichols Street.
• 1923/24–1939 – German Concordia Club — bowling alley, gymnasium, new street façade (unsympathetic additions).
• c.1940 – Master Bakers’ Association educational/social use.
• 1943–45 – American Red Cross Booker T. Washington Club for African American servicemen (and Aboriginal patrons facing parallel exclusion).
• 1949 onward – Commonwealth Bank alterations; further mid-century change.
• 1979–82 – National Trust classification; Permanent Conservation Order.
• 1983–87 – Major reconstruction/restoration; removal of club/bank accretions; garden rebuilt.
• 1986 – Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia occupies the building.
• 2 Apr 1999 – Entered NSW State Heritage Register.

Architecture & interiors

Archetypal colonial Georgian two-storey brick house with stone dressings: symmetrical front, skillion verandah returning to rear wings, paired Doric columns at the entry, twelve-pane upper sashes with shutters, French doors flanking the door, hipped slate roof (1980s) and stone-flagged rear courtyard. An 1899 description listed hall, eight rooms, dining room, pantry, kitchen with servant’s room over, bathroom, detached laundry, three-stall stable, man’s room and two coach houses — value £2,300. Extensive 1980s work replaced much joinery, verandah and roofing; stone cellars and some cedar windows survive; detached kitchen and stables are gone. Heritage advice treats the reconstructed fabric honestly while affirming the rarity of the house type in Surry Hills.

People & anecdotes

George Hill — colonial-born son of convict parents; butcher, innkeeper, alderman, mayor, magistrate, Legislative Councillor; daughters married into Wentworth, Cooper and Rundle families (ADB).
Concordia Club — German community rooms between the wars.
Booker T. Washington Club — wartime answer to segregated recreation for Black American troops under Jim Crow practice “down under” (Dictionary of Sydney; Hall; Brawley & Dixon).
RCPA — professional home since 1986, keeping a rare Georgian house in active institutional use.

What stands today

Durham Hall stands at 207 Albion Street as a State-heritage office building. View the Albion Street façade and the related Hill group at 197–205 from the public footpath; the interior is not a museum. Pair with Cleveland House and the wider Albion Street heritage streetscape (including Carlingford Terrace nearby).

Sources & further reading

• NSW State Heritage Register — Durham Hall, SHR 00221: Heritage NSW
• Australian Dictionary of Biography — Martha Rutledge, “George Hill (1802–1883)”
• Dictionary of Sydney — Durham Hall; Booker T. Washington Club
• Clive Lucas, Stapleton & Partners (2003) Statement of Heritage Impact (cited on SHR)
• Paul Davies Pty Ltd, Heritage Impact Statement, Durham Hall (2016)
• Wikipedia — Durham Hall, Surry Hills (portal to SHR-backed narrative)

Related on this blog

• Carlingford Terrace – Albion Street, Surry Hills
• Cleveland House – Surry Hills
• Other Colonial Georgian town houses of inner Sydney

Carlingford Terrace – 179–193 Albion Street – Surry Hills – NSW

Carlingford Terrace – 179–193 Albion Street – Surry Hills – NSW

Victorian Filigree terrace row · Built 1868–69 · Central carriageway dated 1869 · Standing — City of Sydney heritage item

Eight three-storey fronts step along Albion Street with cast-iron lace and a rare mid-block carriageway whose pediment still reads “1869 Carlingford Terrace.” The live title spanned 177–193; heritage inventories lock the row at 179–193. Treat this page as a historic built-form scrapbook for a terrace group — not a single mansion — that still defines Surry Hills’ mid-Victorian streetscape beside Durham Hall’s Georgian precinct further east.

At a glance

• Address: 179–193 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW (heritage listings; live stub also cited 177–193)
• Built: 1868–1869
• Form: Row of eight three-storey Victorian Filigree terraces
• Signature: Central carriageway giving rear access; pediment inscription “1869 Carlingford Terrace”
• Features: Cast-iron verandah balustrades and columns; rendered window dressings; filigree lace typical of grand inner-suburban Victorian terraces
• Heritage: NSW Heritage Database item “Carlingford Terrace” Including Interiors (ID 2420367); National Trust classification noted in City streetscape studies (1977)
• Use: Standing — private residences within the conserved row

Site & setting

Albion Street, Surry Hills — Gadigal Country — on the early nineteenth-century subdivision grid that also carries Durham Hall (207) and the Hill cottages and terraces at 197–205. Carlingford Terrace belongs to the wealthier mid-Victorian terrace boom: three full storeys, iron lace, and the uncommon luxury of a shared central carriage drive to rear yards.

Timeline

• 1868–69 – Eight three-storey terraces erected; carriageway pediment dated 1869.
• Late nineteenth – early twentieth century – Occupied as superior terrace housing in mixed Surry Hills.
• 1977 – National Trust classification noted in later City of Sydney heritage streetscape studies.
• Late twentieth – twenty-first century – Retained as a listed terrace group with interiors included; conservation controls apply to fabric and streetscape.

Architecture & interiors

Victorian Filigree terrace architecture at ambitious scale: three storeys, verandahs with cast-iron lace, rendered ornamental window surrounds, and the axial carriageway that organises the eight dwellings into a single composition. Heritage listings explicitly include interiors, signalling significant surviving joinery, plaster and plan form behind the lace façades. Individual rear wings and internal fit-outs vary by house.

People & anecdotes

No single mansion-owner biography dominates the row in the sources used here — the significance is collective: mid-Victorian terrace building for a rising inner-suburban middle class on Albion Street. Disambiguate from Durham Hall at 207 Albion Street (George Hill’s 1834–35 Georgian house; later Concordia Club / Booker T. Washington Club / Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia). Some secondary web pages confuse institutional occupants between the two addresses; keep Carlingford Terrace residential.

What stands today

Carlingford Terrace stands as an eight-house heritage row at 179–193 Albion Street. Private homes — admire façades, lacework and the 1869 carriageway inscription from the public footpath. Pair on foot with Durham Hall and the 197–205 Albion Street Georgian group.

Sources & further reading

• Heritage NSW / NSW Heritage Database — “Carlingford Terrace” Including Interiors, ID 2420367: ViewHeritageItemDetails
• Wikipedia — Albion Street, Surry Hills (terrace summary; verify institutional claims against the heritage database)
• City of Sydney — heritage streetscape studies citing National Trust 1977 classification
• Trove — “Carlingford Terrace” Albion Street
• NSW SHR — Durham Hall (00221) for the neighbouring Georgian precinct

Related on this blog

• Durham Hall – 207 Albion Street – Surry Hills
• Other Surry Hills / Darlinghurst terrace rows and Georgian houses

 

Salvation Army Hostel - South Dowling Street - Surry Hills

The Iconic Salvation Army Hostel, On South Dowling Street, At Moore Park. 

This Picture Was Taken In 1927