"Barham "
Saturday, May 20, 2017
“Barham” - Forbes Street - Darlinghurst
"Barham" is located just off Forbes Street within the grounds of SCEGGS and not be viewed from the street
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Friday, February 3, 2017
The Hordern Family Home - 14 Ginahgulla Road - Bellevue Hill
This Was The Home To One Of Australia's Mosr Imoortant And Influential Dynasties. This House Is Firmly Entrenched In Rhe Nations History
It Occupies A Magnificent 2,700 sqm Parcel Of Land
More Than Likely The Best Example Left In Sydney Of Professor Leslie Wilkinson's Style.
Thursday, February 2, 2017
"Cairo" - 81 Macleay Street, Potts Point
This Was Pulled Down To Make Way For The Chevron Hotel.
WHAT A SHAME!!!' THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN A BEAUTIFUL MANSION
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Sophienburg estate Liverpool
RUINS of a long lost Georgian estate once owned by prominent figures from Liverpool’s history have been discovered but an archaeologist is now needed to uncover the story behind the enigmatic site.
The remnants of Sophienburg estate were found last year by the City of Liverpool and District Historical Society’s president Glen op den Brouw.
Working on a hunch about where the estate would have lain, the Liverpool resident was walking through dense bushland in Casula when he stumbled upon several stone pieces.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
A Classic Georgian Manor - Mosman
Positioned In The Prestigious Balmoral Dress Circle, This Impeccably Reatored Georgia. colonial Manor Is Neatled On A Bast 2163sqm Landholding. Reminiscent Of The Sttely Rural Retreat, The Reaidence Is Set Amid Magnificent Heritage Hepunds Which Provide A Unique Level Of Peace And Seclusoon.
5 Eastbourne Road, Darling Point.
Wednesday 9th Nobemver 2016
Historic Charm
Beathtaking Views
Built In The 1880's, This Freestanding Villa Presents A unique Opportunity
265 Oxford Street- Town Homes
Without A Doubt One Of Paddingtons Finest Transformations, This Divine Turn Key Projecy Offers An Enviable Lifestyle. Hints Of Character, Intertwined With Contrmporary Chich Finishes Gives Thus Once In A. lifetime Town home A Truly Unique Aesetic.
Reflecting Pure Quality, No Expense Has Been Spared Creating This Exclusive Sanctuary.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
"Rona" - 2 Ginahgulla Road - Bellevue Hill
"Rona" - 2 Ginahgulla Road - Bellevue Hill
"Rona' Is A 2 Storey Ssndstone Mansion Set On A 5,700m Estate With Harbour Views.
It's One Of Sydney's Finest Residential Estates. A Trophy Residence Of Unparalleled Prestige, Size & Significance.
It's In The Best Position In Bellevue Hill.
It's Built In The Victorian Gothic Revival Style - Designed by G. A Morell And Built In Sydney Sandstone in 1883 For Mr William Knox, The Founder Of CSR Limited.
'Rona" Was Severely Damaged By fire in 1905, & Is Restored With Modifications by the Architect William Wardell Jnr.
The House Sold For $58 Million in 2018, Making It One Of Australia's Most Expensive Homes At The Time.
What You See From The Street & What Exists Beyond The Iron Gates Are 2 Very Different Things.
12 Ferdinand Street - Hunters Hill
Exuding An Elegance & Granduer Unmatched In Heritage Value Of Period Grace, This Breathtaking 1856 Sandstone Manor Is A Remarkable Rarity. One Of Hunters Hills Oldest Homes, The Residence Is Set On Approx1,037sqm.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Vaucluse - South Head - The Keepers Cottage
Unrivalled In Prestige, Setting Or Historical Significance. Built In 1881 As The Keepers Residence Adjacent To The 1818 Macquarie Lighthouse And Set On Over 2,600 sqm
Thursday, June 2, 2016
"Swifts" - Darling Point - New South Wales
"SWIFTS"
Originally Built For The Tooth's Brewing Family
Swifts Is Cirrently Owned By Shane Moran Of The Moran
Health Care Family. The Gothic
Revival Mansion Was Originally
Built by Beer Baron Sir Robert Lucas tooth In 1882 And At One Stage Was Owned By The Catholic Church.
Goderich Lodge - Bayswater Road - Penny's Lane - Woolcott St - Darlinghurst - New South Wales
Goderich Lodge - Darlinghurst - NSW -
Bayswater Rd - Penny's Lane - Woolcott St
DEMOLISHED
This Darlinghurst villa, was originally designed by John Verge for the High Sheriff of NSW, Thomas Macquoid, & was situated near what is now the corner of Bayswater Road & Penny Lane, which is pretty much behind the Coca Cola Sign At Kings Cross
Born in Ireland, Macquoid came to Australia in 1829, following a period in Java, where he produced coffee crops for the East India Company, as well as a tenure as Sheriff of India.
The 1832 the mansion was named Goderich Lodge, after Lord Goderich (Frederick John Robinson), the then Secretary of State for the colonies, who was also the British Prime Minister for a brief period.
Macquoid arrived in Australia full of optimism for his new role in a new colony, but very soon had slunk into depression.
His first major issue was with his new job, which he believed did not have the appropriate status for such an important position. His office was also understaffed and overwhelmed with work. Litigation and bankruptcy proceedings were rife and there were over 700 summonses to be served.
To worsen things, Macquoid was also suffering financially after investing in a large farming property in the Tuggeranong Valley, near Canberra, which he named Waniassa. The country had been hit by drought, while the colony was also in financial collapse.
Unable to cope, Macquoid committed suicide in October, 1841, leaving his son Thomas Hyam to deal with his mounting debts.
(Incidentally, Thomas Hyam was one of 121 people who died aboard the wreck of the clipper, Dunbar, which crashed into rocks at South Head, at the base of suicide-spot, The Gap, in 1857; his body was never recovered. The Dunbar's anchor was retrieved and is mounted at The Gap as a memorial.)
Goderich Lodge was sold at auction 2 months after Macquoid’s death &
in the years that followed was rented by the First Bishop of Australia, Dr William Grant Broughton, whose wife died at the house in 1849.
The next tenant was Surveyor General Samuel Augustus Perry, & then in the 1850s, Goderich Lodge was purchased by Frederick Tooth, of Tooth's Brewery fame, who later sold it to shipping merchant Captain Charles Smith. He died at Lodge from embolism in June 1897 & his wife Marjorie stayed on at the home until at least 1904 when her daughter, Marjorie, married.
By then, the original four-acre land grant had been subdivided & there were a number of properties on Macquoid's original estate.
According to the book, Villas of Darlinghurst, Goderich Lodge, demolished in 1915, was located where the old Hampton Court Hotel sits today
The name of the old British PM still remains however, in the laneway that runs along the back of the old Hampton Court Hotel, Goderich Lane.
The Hampton Court Hotel, which has been pretty much dormant since the late 1990s has finally been refurbished into apartments, know as The Hampton.
And before you start complaining that all the old hotels in the area are being converted into apartments, the hotel actually began life as a 100-flat, apartment block, Hampton Court, after 1915. It was converted into a hotel in the late 1930s, following the death of its owner, motoring industry pioneer Albert Gordon Hampton.
This City of Sydney Archives photograph (above) was taken in 1910 from Bayswater Road, looking down Penny Lane before Hampton Court was built.
The Victorian-era terrace house to the left would have been built up alongside Goderich Lodge as the land was subdivided. Shame there are no photographs of the lodge, which was obviously further back somewhere.
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Empire - Syd - Sat 29 Oct 1864 Pg 7
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Origianl Plan Of Land Grant Showing Goderich Lodge And Kellett House
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ANYTHING LEFT OF THE GODERICH ESTATE -------- GONE BY 1909
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Brougham Lodge - Darlinghurst -
Brougham Lodge was built in 1831 for the second Chief Justice of NSW, Sir James Dowling, who took over the role after Francis Forbes was given long leave in September 1835.
Sir Dowling was born in London in 1787 and studied at St Paul's School and worked as a parliamentary reporter before being called to the bar in 1815, at the age of 28.
Thirteen years later, at 41, he decided that he wanted to make ''myself useful to the public'' and advance his ''private interests and welfare of my numerous family,'' and so applied to the Colonial Office for an appointment abroad.
In February 1828 Sir Dowling arrived in Sydney aboard the Hooghly with his wife, Maria Sheen, and their six children. The couple had ten children but four died in infancy. Maria, his wife, died six years after their arrival in Australia and Sir Dowling then remarried Harriet Ritchie, the widowed daughter of John Blaxland (older brother of Blue Mountains settler Gregory Blaxland). The newlyweds made Kings Cross their home, living at one of the busiest junctions in the area, but I'll get to that later.
Sir Dowling initially came to Australia to act as puisne judge, or regular judge, but in 1835 he won the battle against Sir William Burton for the role of Chief Justice. He was also knighted in 1838.
Sir Dowling was a hard-working jurist, described by one colleague as having a ''painstaking and anxious industry rarely equalled'' who ''never failed to make himself its master in every detail'' of cases brought before him.
In 1829 he delivered the first sitting of the Supreme Court in the Hunter Valley (at the Union Inn) and also travelled to Norfolk Island for the same in 1833.
He worked so hard that in 1840, his daughter, Lady Dowling, despaired: ''Papa has for six days been at court until seven and eight o'clock in the evening. Yesterday he was there from 10am until three this morning.''
It seemed Sir Dowling was driven by a desire to build a good life for his children.
His salary as a puisne judge was 1000 Pounds a year, which doubled when he became chief justice.
Still, in 1828 he wrote to his patron, Lord Henry Brougham, in England, that ''Without parsimonious economy . . . I cannot keep out of debt . . . even with my frugal habits.
''I have been obliged to mortgage the little property I have scraped together to enable me to maintain and educate my children.''
But this dedication to his children and the role of Chief Justice would eventually take its toll.
In 1840 he was advised by his doctor to take medical leave for three months and a year later Sir Dowling applied for 18 months leave in order to regain back his strength lost from ''13 years of incessant judicial labour, never once relaxed''.
But his seniors refused this leave until June 1844 when Sir Dowling collapsed on the bench.
Sir Dowling eventually booked passage on a ship but before he could sail, he died on September 27, 1844, aged just 56.
Sir Dowling's home from 1831 to his death was Brougham Lodge, which was built at what is now the junction between Darlinghurst Road and Victoria Street in Kings Cross. He was granted over eight acres there in 1831. Brougham Lodge was initially designed by an unknown architect, but John Verge completed the designs.
The painting at the top of this post also shows the two windmills, known as the North Darlinghurst Mills, which featured on the Kings Cross landscape in the 1830s. There were also three other windmills on Darlinghurst Road - Clarkson's Mill and two wooden-post mills - as well as the Craigend Mill, all located along the ridge line and in the highest points of the neighbourhood so as to best catch the air currents. The mills were used as a source of renewable energy and to grind grain.
After Sir Dowling's death, the former chief justice's home was tenanted and also used as a boys's school. It was sold to developers in 1882 for 7000 Pounds and demolished soon after.
The Holiday Inn now marks the site of Brougham Lodge.
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