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Darlinghurst Blog: Villas of Darlinghurst: Kellett House

noreply@blogger.com (Violet Tingle) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Kellett House (detail), artist unknown, circa 1876.

Built on an allotment of over 3-acres granted to Samuel Augustus Perry in 1831.

The first NSW Premier, Stuart Alexander Donaldson, was one of Darlinghurst's first residents and can lay claim to the naming of Kellett Street.

In the mid-1800s Donaldson moved into a large, two-storey villa on a 3-acre plot, where the Hotel Mansions on Kellett Street and Baywater Road sits today.

The villa, originally called Bona Vista, had been built for Samuel Augustus Perry in 1831, and Donaldson renamed it Kellett House, giving the street its name.

Perry was granted the allotment by Governor Ralph Darling, but unlike most of the gentry who were given the original 17 plots on the ridge of Woolloomooloo Hill - which came to be known as Darlinghurst - he had a rather scruffy appearance.

The London-born soldier and surveyor, who arrived in Australia with his wife and six children in 1829, sat for his portrait in the 1800s and the unknown artist captured a man who looks more like the hipsters that roam around Darlinghurst today.

His hair looks like it could do with a good brush, his sideburns are very 2005 and his unbuttoned, military coat looks straight off the Autumn-Winter 2012 runway. A man ahead of his time, perhaps.

Perry came to Sydney to serve as the deputy to NSW Surveyor General Thomas Mitchell, and he clashed with the older man who was jealous of anyone he thought likely to succeed him.

Therefore, Perry was generally assigned mundane duties so Mitchell could accuse his underling of being idle.

Perry didn't live in Bona Vista for long and in 1834 sold it at auction to Richard "China" Jones MP, who renamed the villa Darlinghurst House, after his wife's good friend, Lady Elizabeth Darling, wife of the Guv.

While researching this transaction, I came across this gem of an article from the 30 November 1937 edition of The Sydney Morning Herald, written by Joseph Reidle:

"Ghosts in Crinolines, When Kings Cross was dotted with stately homes.

"A great effort is required to imagine that King's Cross (sic) - the present throbbing centre of Sydney's night life - was once sparsely dotted with stately homes, where demure ladies drove leisurely through private avenues of trees in their carriages.

"Those were the days when land was owned by the acre.
"To-day (sic), despite stout resistance to the demolisher's picks, century-old homes are being knocked down so that the task of converting King's Cross into a swarming, human ant-hill may proceed uninhibited.

"Roslyn Hall and Orwell House are already man-made ruins, and a similar fate awaits Kellett House, Springfield and Larbert Lodge.
"But before modern mammoth structures completely annihilate even the memory of their long lives, these last survivors of a bygone age merit at least a brief obituary."

The article goes on to describe, in words and pictures, the ruin-like state of some of the original villas and, despite the fact that the Villas book states Kellett House was demolished in 1877, it appears from this article parts of the home were still around in the 1930s.

So, after Donaldson moved out of Kellett House in the mid-1800s, it was purchased by wealthy squatter W.F. Buchanan.
The original plot was subdivided from 1864 and Buchanan demolished part of Kellett House and built a terrace on the site, known as Bayswater Terrace - obviously how the road today was given its name.

The Hotel Mansions was built in the late 1800s and remodelled in 1918.

The remains of Kellett House were sold in October 1937 and it was probably demolished soon after.
Today, the Hotel Mansions is about to be converted into designer apartments known as Manor, and the area continues to be a swarming, human ant-hill.

SOURCES: Villas of Darlinghurst

Australian Dictionary of Biography

Wikipedia

Darlinghurst Blog: Food: Messina Laboratorio

noreply@blogger.com (Violet Tingle) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

For a long, long time I have been admiring the Mario Brothers-style mushroom-shaped dessert in the window of Gelato Messsina.

I would pass by on some boring Tuesday night and see four or five mushroom desserts, with their big red heads and white comic book-type spots, in the big showcase freezer, and I would try and dream up reasons to buy one.

Surely it would make an ideal birthday present. Or perhaps I could buy one to take into work for my colleagues to enjoy.

But there was always the melt factor. A frozen, gelato dessert would never last the distance.

And then Messina Laboratorio opened up next door.

Messina Laboratorio, or Messina Lab for short, is like the weird Willy Wonka side of the traditional Gelato Messina, where the ice-cream makers go a bit kooky and make big crazy stuff and miniatures of stuff, such as hamburgers (above left) or the strange (usually much bigger) Mario Brothers' mushrooms (below centre).

So when it opened a few months ago, I had my heart set on the mini mushroom - I could eat it on my own; no need for a birthday present or other reason.

I had to have one.

But then I was on some stupid detox for a while and it seemed revoltingly indulgent to go in and buy the mini mushroom purely for myself.

Until last night, that is.

Last night, I thought, "stuff it, I deserve the $9.90 mushroom", and so I bought one and carried it home like precious cargo, put it in the freezer and forgot about it for four hours until I got the munchies about 11pm.

That was when I pulled the box out of the freezer . . .

opened it up . . .

photographed the mushroom . . .

put it on a plate . . .

and started to eat it.

The mushroom crown is all chocolate gelato with a caramel centre, then there is the vanilla gelato mushroom stem, which grows out of a "moss" of green crackly stuff, which has the same effect in your mouth as Magic Gum, that weird pop-in-your-mouth chewing gum you may have had as a child.

Eating the mushroom, known as "Mini Me", was a bit of a production, and had me interested at every spoonful, unlike the usual bowl of ice cream or gelato in a cone, which still has me excited, just not switched on.

It is not the most dainty thing to eat - especially when you get down to the green moss, crackling base - but I still devoured it pretty quickly.

Messina Creative Department

Laboratorio and Patisserie

243 Victoria Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

02 8354 1223

www.gelatomessina.com

Darlinghurst Blog: Retailers: The Main Drag

noreply@blogger.com (Violet Tingle) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

It's debatable which street in Darlinghurst is the main drag. Some would say it is the eponymous Darlinghurst Road.

Others might think Victoria Street, with its excess of cafes, deserves the name.

But, it is too late, Oxford Street has already claimed the title and TODAY it celebrates the win with a special Sydney Mardi Gras 2012 Festival event, fittingly titled, The Main Drag.

And - as to be expected - burlesque performances, a pop-up yoga garden and knitted penises will feature.

The day is designed to promote the shops that line the world-famous Mardi Gras Parade route, and it is well-timed, as just yesterday three new arts and crafts shops officially opened for business on the strip.

The shops are so new that when I went by yesterday, the proprietress of the Oxford Street Design Store, at 58 Oxford Street (above), was only just opening its roller-door.

The Oxford Street Design Store is run by Alex de Bonis and Louise Helliwell, from non-profit artist collective, Tough Titties.

The idea behind the shop is that artists can supply T-shirts, tote bags, jewellery, zines, whatever - as long as the price-tag is less than $20.

It's a cute idea and is bound to work, so long as local artists get on board to provide products to sell.

And I must admit, it has sparked off my creative bug and I am now musing on what sort of stuff I could create that would retail for less than $20 but still earn me a pretty penny.

These cute, hand-printed tea-towels (above) are a clever idea, and come in at just $18 each.

He Made She Made, at 70 Oxford Street, is the next shop along the street, and features the work of four designers: Bent Patterson, Laura Kepreotis, Maaike Pullar and Patrick Chambers.

The quartet create mostly larger pieces for the home, such as this cool Tetris-inspired book-nook or display case (above), which I really adore, but can't afford (it's just over $1000).

I also love the lighting stand (above), which would look amazing in a big warehouse space, but not a teeny-weeny studio like mine.

Many of the pieces are created using the "upcycling" method, that is, taking some old junk that was dumped on the side of the road perhaps, and turning it into an exquisite piece of art-furniture.

Also sweet is this wall-piece (above), which reminds me of Jesus' crown of thorns.

You must also go in to try out the amazing twin chairs they have on display in the centre of the shop, which I forgot to photograph.

They really don't look like chairs and have strange wands shooting out the back that bend when you sit in them.

They are so unique and imaginative, they are destined to be a collectors' item.

Further up the street is Platform 72, at 72 Oxford Street - natch.

The shop is run by Samantha Mitchell-Finn and Juliet Rosser, who rent shelf space to local artists to display and sell their wares. The artists receive 100 per cent of the sale price.

In one of the front windows at Platform 72, is this hot pink "Venis" chair (above), which has a big penis bursting out from the middle of the seat.

And in the other window is a display of knitted penises styled into cactus-shapes and arranged in pots on a great 1950s plant-holder.

Sitting inside, knitting on a chair, was the artist behind the penises, Kirsten Fredericks.

The space has loads of interesting products, including hand-printed tea-towels featuring font-heavy maps of Sydney and maps of Surry Hills main streets.

There's also jewellery hand-crafted from decapitated Ken dolls (above).

And high-end, hand-tooled leather handbags (above).

The Main Drag

Saturday 25 February 2012
Yoga at Oxford Square from 11am
Performances at Taylor Square from midday-4pm

Oxford Street Design Store

58 Oxford Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

www.oxfordstdesignstore.com.au

He Made She Made

70 Oxford Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

0478 504 232

www.hemadeshemade.com

Platform 72

72 Oxford Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

www.platform72.com.au

Darlinghurst: Food: Sur Bourke

noreply@blogger.com (Violet Tingle) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

My friend Ruby, who tends to dwell on the western side of Darlinghurst Road, introduced me to this new French cafe late last year and it quickly became one of our favourite lunching spots.

Sur Bourke doesn't look like much from the street; you could swing past on the bus on Bourke Street and barely notice it, but its healthy, well-balanced menu is a real stand-out and the prices will keep you returning.

Inside, there is fairly limited seating and a distinct French touch to the decor.

There is de bicycle suspendu au mur.

Common bottles of water packed in a sweet wooden crate.

Colourful berets lined up in a row.

And tins of French Cassoulet and bags of coffee grouped together on shelves.

But it is outside, on warm days, where Ruby and I love to be: sitting with the flower pots, sun on our backs and watching the world go by very slowly.

Sur Bourke serves breakfast ala Francaise, such as croissants or brioche with jam, Nutella or ham and cheese ($4.50-$6), as well as home made bircher muesli ($7.50), spelt fruit loaf ($5.50) and smoked salmon with scrambled eggs on sourdough ($9.50).

But we often go for lunch and even Ruby, who is happy to eat breakfast eggs all day long, usually orders from the lunch menu just because it is so good.

There's the obvious croque Monsieur ($11.50/$16) and a quiche with side salad ($9.50) but it's the tasting plates and salads we love.

Last time we were there, Ruby ordered the mixed leaf salad with parmesan, walnut and pear, served with a slice of sourdough and a boiled egg ($10). It's actually quite a generous bowl, despite that photograph above making it look quite small. And don't you think the eggs look like frangipanis when they are cut that way. Everything is prepared with love.

I had what I always have: the $14.50 lunch plate, which includes ham, pickles, Swiss cheese, tomato, two slices of sourdough and a side salad.

I love picking at things and slowly eating and everything on this plate is like a taste bomb, including the salad, which in other places is often just tired old bland mixed lettuce without any dressing.

Here, it is so flavoursome, it could stand alone as its own meal.

Just writing this post has made me realise that it has been far too long since my last visit.

Sur Burke

266 Bourke Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

02 8084 9376

Darlinghurst Blog: Street of the Week: Tewkesbury Avenue

noreply@blogger.com (Violet Tingle) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Most people who live in the Darlinghurst-Kings Cross area, have their favourite street in the neighbourhood.

For some, it is Roslyn Avenue, with its little shop-houses and cafes; for others it is the leafy-canopied Surrey Street; and, for me, it is Hardie Street - more for the memories of my life there, than for any of its physical attributes.

One reader has written to me about Tewkesbury Avenue.

Photograph: City of Sydney Archives, 1982.

I don't know if this stumpy little street is his favourite in Darlinghurst, but he was interested enough to want to know who, or what, it was named after.

I only really know Tewkesbury Avenue as a shortcut, somewhere to look for car spaces, or as the back entrance to filmmakers Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin's mansion, Iona.

Here is his investigation into the history of Tewkesbury Avenue.

"From the 1920’s to the 1970’s there were two huge warehouses occupying the site incorporating the present day residential towers called Palisades, Kirketon Mews, Kirketon Gardens, Kirketon Manor and No. 1 Tewkesbury Avenue (entrance in photograph above)," he writes.

"Prior to this, there were four to five single-storey large houses on the site, dating from the 1850’s, which formed part of the original William Long land grant of 5 acres.
"Obviously the houses deteriorated to a point that the land was more valuable for warehouse distribution and the then council allowed for such “backward” land-use change. Strange!
"So the houses were eventually torn down to make way for the warehouses."

Photograph: City of Sydney Archives, 1921 (see Clapton House/Earls Court in the top left).

"These warehouses appear on some of the 1940s black and white photos available from Archives and form the physical reason which made it possible to amalgamate a large development site in an inner-city area. By the way, the initial developer was The Hayson Group and they referred to this site as 'Pallisades'.

"You can also find out what the warehouses were originally used for:

"The main warehouse was used as the headquarters for Yellow Cabs of Australia Ltd and the other, Harden and Johnston Pty Ltd (distributor of automobiles)."

"The first building constructed was for Yellow Cabs and its entrance was simply a private driveway sandwiched between two buildings fronting Darlinghurst Road.
"The gentleman who introduced Yellow Cabs to Australia was William Pearson Tewksbury, nicknamed 'Tewks' (notice that his surname is spelled without the 'e').
"My theory is that the driveway to the business was coined Tewksbury Avenue by the staff working for Mr Tewksbury."

*
One of the large 19th century houses he mentions, was Rosebank - one of 17 gentlemen's villas from the original subdivision of Woolloomooloo Hill.
Rosebank was demolished in the 1920s and the Pallisades apartment block on Farrell Avenue was built on the site.
Do you know anything more about Tewkesbury Avenue?

What street would you like to know the history of?

Darlinghurst Blog: Villas of Darlinghurst: Grantham

noreply@blogger.com (Violet Tingle) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Grantham, photographer unknown, circa 1880.

Built on five acres of land purchased by Felix Caleb Wilson in 1836.

Potts Point was originally named Point Campbell by Governor Arthur Phillip, during his survey in 1772, and was kept as a reserve for the Aboriginal peoples who were "allowed" to occupy the foreshore area - which they called Carragheen - "without molestation" for a number of years.

But during Governor Darling's reign, this all changed when he decided to claim the land, which stretched from the headland back along Woolloomoloo Hill, for important government officials.

The first of these grants was in 1822 when 11 acres were given to Judge John Wylde, the last Judge Advocate and a Justice of the NSW Supreme Court.

But by 1828, Judge Wylde had done nothing with the land and Governor Darling was considering resuming it unless improvements were made.

This issue probably informed his decision that year - when allotting the land that later formed Darlinghurst - to impose certain "villa conditions" to allotments, such as the size and grandeur of the home and the landscaping of the gardens.

Governor Darling didn't have to force the issue with Judge Wylde, who soon sold a substantial chunk of his allotment - just over six acres - to Joseph Hyde Potts.

Potts didn't build on the land either, but he did rename the area Potts Point, ensuring he would be remembered to this day.

Felix Caleb Wilson, a settler in the Hawksbury region, north of Sydney, purchased the remaining five acres of Judge Wylde's allotment in 1836, and set about building the point's very first home, on the site where St Neot Avenue is today.

Photograph: Potts Point from Mrs Macquarie's Road, State Library of NSW.

Wilson's home was not subject to Governor Darling's strict "villa conditions", so the wealthy merchant and ironmonger went all-out in the design of his house, which he named Caleb Castle. You can see some of its turrets if you look closely in the photograph above.

According to the Villas book, the house later came to be known as Grantham and was designed by an unknown architect in the "same Gothic Revival style as the new Government House (1837-1845) across the bay".

"Grantham was considered a rather pretentious building, and became known locally as 'The Pepper Pot' on account of its turrets, or 'Frying Pan Castle' (referring to Wilson's occupation)."

Wealthy merchant and wharf proprietor Frederick Parbury bought the the home in the early 1840s and renamed it Granthamville. Another owner was Donald Larnach who purchased the house and property for 5000 Pounds - a considerable increase on Wilson's 405 Pounds for the land alone.

The land was then subdivided and in 1853, the section with the home was purchased by surveyor and pastoralist Henry Dangar for 6000 Pounds and the residence became known as Dangar's Castle.

(Dangar was born at St Neot, in Cornwall, England, which is probably what the avenue was named for.)

After Dangar's death in 1861, his wife stayed on in the castle until she died in 1869 and it was inherited by one of their sons, Henry Cary Dangar.

Henry Dangar Junior rebuilt the home to his own design in 1870, following the Norman style of architecture.

According to a 1937 article from The Sydney Morning Herald, "the palatial home . . . was built of solid dimension stone quarried on the waterfront".

"Mr Dangar brought into his design the battlemented walls and the old fashioned stone fence. The entrance porch was tiled and led into a vestibule, in which a fine mahogany staircase was built with an overhead balustraded gallery.

"Upon the rebuilding of the home in 1870, Mr Dangar renamed the house Grantham."

Mr Dangar Junior stayed at Grantham until 1917, after which it had a succession of owners.

In the mid-1930s, the 22-bedroom, five bathroom house with cedar fittings was listed for sale and in 1937 was sold for demolition. A little bit of history vanished.

The new owner developed the site, building two blocks of three-storey flats over the original footprint of Grantham.

The only trace that remains is in the name of this apartment building (above), Grantham, and a little street and laneway that run behind St Neot Avenue.

SOURCES: Villas of Darlinghurst

Australian Dictionary of Biography

Wikipedia

Darlinghurst Blog: Past and Present: Corner of William Street and Kirketon Road

noreply@blogger.com (Violet Tingle) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

The corner of Kirketon Road and William Street is a rather bland, nondescript junction these days, not conducive to lingering.

But back in the 1950s it was a bustling corner and home to the original Bar Coluzzi:

This photograph, from the City of Sydney Archives, was taken in 1957 and shows Luigi Coluzzi standing in front of his eponymous cafe. Inside the darkened doorway sits Eleni Coluzzi.

I still find it hard to believe it is the same location in the contemporary photograph, but according to the archives, the photographer is standing on the corner Kirketon Road, looking down to Rosebank Street.

I again pulled out the old City Building Surveyor's maps to see what the corner once looked like from a geographical perspective, but the building must have been demolished prior to the building survey, as there is no trace of this row of shops, which also includes a laundrette, a bird shop and chemist.

SOURCE: City of Sydney Archives

And here's a glimpse of Bar Coluzzi as it is today:

Bar Coluzzi

322 Victoria Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

02 9380 5420

Darlinghurst Blog: Apartment Buildings: The Statler and The Hopes

noreply@blogger.com (Violet Tingle) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

This photograph, taken in 1964, is an absolute gem. Not just because it is a rare historical photograph of The Statler and The Hopes apartment buildings on Darlinghurst Road, but because there is a personal story behind it.

It was sent to me by a woman named Barbara, who lived in the house, from her birth in 1951, to her marriage in 1969.

The car parked out the front belonged to Barbara's father.

"I still have memories of waiting at the bus stop outside the flats, for the 312 to take me to school at St Vincents College," Barbara writes.

"I remember the coke man delivering coke to the cokehouse out the back and stoking the boiler, and the ice man delivered blocks of ice to each flats' door, where it stood in a puddle until you brought it in and put it in the ice-chest.

"We've come a long way since then."

These days, the grandeur of the twin buildings (The Statler on the left and the The Hopes on the right), is obscured by trees, and passing by you would rarely notice the intricate details of these 19th century buildings, which were once grand homes belonging to the Docker family.

This 1935 historical photograph (above) looks north down Darlinghurst Road, with St John's Church on the right.
To the left, you can see the chimneys of The Statler and The Hopes, and perhaps, just faintly, you can see the whisper of an outline of the decorative metal finials atop the building, which are still there today.

Barbara's parents moved from a hotel on Oxford Street, to The Statler in 1948.

"Growing up I had heard rumours that it used to be the home of one of the 'hanging court judges'," Barbara writes.

"Recently my husband and I noted one of the real estate agents advertised it as having been built as a home for the sisters at Saint Vincent's Hospital, however the inside indicates that it was built as a large private home.

"From our research to date it seems that The Statler and The Hopes, next door, were built as homes at the same time around 1880, after the southern end of Darlinghurst road was redefined.

"The Hopes appears to have always been the Hopes, then 99 Darlinghurst Road (now 251-255 Darlinghurst Road).

"The Statler was originally 'Nyrambla', and 101 Darlinghurst Road (now 257-261 Darlinghurst Road).

"Both were owned initially by the Docker family."

"Nyrambla (now The Statler) was owned by Wilfrid Lawerence Docker (1848-1919; above) and his wife Ada Mary Lord (1851-1917), who married in 1875 and by 1882 were living at the house," Barbara writes.

"It seems they had no children. He was a banker and accountant, and both were very strong members of the St John's Church community.

"One of the Houses at SCEGGS was named after Wilfrid, who was first treasurer of the School Council (1895–1919)."

"The Hopes was owned by his brother Arthur Docker."

The excellent Trove website backs up Barbara's research and sheds even more light on the Docker family. Firstly, it seems that Arthur was based in England, so perhaps let out The Hopes to another family.

Secondly, I think Wilfrid and Ada moved into Nyrambla in 1884, because in July of that year there was an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald for a clearance sale at Nyrambla, "the residence of Mr George Mair and former residence of Mr Charles Fairfax".

There was also another Docker brother called Edward Hay, who was an orchardist based in Parramatta.

But the big wig among the four Docker brothers was Ernest Brougham Docker (above), who was a District Court Judge for 38 years until his retirement in 1918. This photograph was taken in 1909 by pioneering photographer Harold Cazneaux.

Judge Docker lived at Elizabeth Bay until his death in August 1923. His funeral was held at St John's Church and a report of the event, and tributes to him, were published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The "Girls' Friendly Society" mourned his loss and according to the Herald, "earnestly prayed that his great example might inspire younger men".

Judge Docker was also an amateur photographer and the State Library of NSW has in its collection, an album of photographs taken by the judge and his father, Joseph Docker MLC (1801-1884), who held the positions of Postmaster-General and Minister of Justice in the NSW Government.

Back at The Statler and The Hopes . . . after Wilfrid's death in 1919, both Nyrambla and The Hopes were converted into flats.

Barbara delved into the rate assessment books and found that by 1930, The Hopes was being called St Pancras flats, while in 1945 and 1948 it was known as Fernleigh.

I can find no trace in Trove of either of these names in Darlinghurst, but I did find St Pancras mentioned in this old City Surveyor's map, which I came across at the City of Sydney Archives a year or so ago.

It clearly shows St Pancras sitting at the rear of The Hopes. I suspect it was an addition that was put on in the 1920s or 30s, which formed this courtyard (below):

St Pancras would be the one with the blue door, while the early-Victorian era The Hopes is the cream building on the left (picture from a Richardson and Wrench Bondi Junction advertisement).

The two buildings had a colourful owner in the 1930s: Samuel Curotta, a Sydney man who made "large sums of money" through city and suburban property deals.

Curotta was raking in 109 Pounds a week through rent at The Hopes, and probably just as much from The Statler. He also owned the Omrah Private Hospital, just down the road on the corner of Farrell Avenue (now the Altamont Hotel):

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Curotta appeared before the Registrar in Bankruptcy in August 1933, with secured debts of over 30,000 Pounds and unsecured liabilities of 7,546 Pounds.
His estate was valued at 143,750 Pounds, so he wasn't in too much trouble, but he did have to explain the reason why he had 2000 Pounds stashed in a locker at his home.

"Making money was no trouble to us," Mr Curotta said.

"My position was good, but the banks were crook."

SOURCES:

Barbara, former resident of The Statler

Darlinghurst Blog: Lost and Found: Two Gold Sovereigns

noreply@blogger.com (Violet Tingle) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Genuine Reward. Two gold sovereigns given by a dying man to his wife.

No questions asked.

This pink flier was taped to a number of telegraph poles on Liverpool Street yesterday and is so, so sad.

Apparently the woman who taped them up, parked her car outside the Sacred Heart Hospice on Darlinghurst Road on Friday night.

She was inside visiting her dying husband.

When she returned to her car, it had been broken into and the thieves had taken her handbag from the boot.

Inside her handbag were the two gold sovereigns, which her husband had given her.

I hope her luck takes a better turn soon.

Darlinghurst Blog: Art Galleries: Love Postcode 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Violet Tingle) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

This Sunday an exhibition of photographs captured by mobile phone cameras is opening in Darlinghurst. The pictures were entrants in last year's Oxford Arts Festival's Love Postcode 2010 competition, which invited people to submit photographs taken in the Darlinghurst and Surry Hills area - both share the 2010 postcode.

It was only the second year for the Oxford Arts Festival, which was established to celebrate the Oxford Street area, which in City of Sydney "Villages" parlance is known as the "Cultural Quarter", given the artistic characters, creative businesses and galleries that line its streets.

The Love Postcode 2010 competition, which was held for the first time in 2011, attracted dozens of entries depicting the area's residents, landmarks, pets and streetscapes - all shot through the lenses of mobile phone cameras.

Some of the entries can be viewed at the Oxford Arts Festival's Facebook gallery here.

Curator Polly Chin describes them as a "fascinating and intimate look into one of Sydney's oldest and most notorious precincts", and says they will be displayed with the stories behind the snappers, which adds another layer of interest.

I only embraced mobile phone photography about a week ago when I signed up to the Instagram application. The app allows you to snap photos, edit them slightly and caption them before posting them on to a site - which can only be used by mobile phones - where they can be viewed by other Instagram members.

It is strangely addictive.

I took the photograph above at the Surry Street playground on Sunday. My Instagram photographs are also instantly fed to my Twitter site, so if you are interested in seeing them, please follow me via the link at the left of this blog page. My twitter username is @Violet_Tingle and my Instagram name is violettingle

Anyway, here are the first prize and second prize winners from the Love Postcode 2010 competition, which I may be inclined to enter this year:

First prize: Untitled, by Sheridan Mills.

Location: Stanley Street, East Sydney.

Second prize: Deranger, by Tom Christophersen.

Location: Sophia Street, Surry Hills.

The winners and a selection of entries will go on show this Sunday from 3-5pm at the Vientiane Restaurant and Gallery, on the corner of Oxford and South Dowling streets, which is across the road from the Beauchamp Hotel and right next door to that place that plucks designer eyebrows.
The exhibition will be on display throughout the month of February.

For more details visit the Tap Gallery website.

Vientiane Restaurant and Gallery

Shop 1a, 1-11 Oxford Street

Paddington NSW 2021

02 9380 7414
Wednesday to Friday: 12pm-3pm
Monday to Saturday: 6.30pm-9.30pm

www.bamboostickyrice.com

Darlinghurst Blog: Villas of Darlinghurst: Goderich Lodge

noreply@blogger.com (Violet Tingle) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Goodrich (sic), The Residence of Captain Smith, artist unknown, 1875 (detail).

Goderich Lodge: allotment of over four-acres granted to Thomas Maquoid in 1831.

This Darlinghurst mansion-house, or villa, was designed by John Verge for the High Sheriff of NSW, Thomas Macquoid, and was situated near what is now the corner of Bayswater Road and Penny Lane.

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 mansion house 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 two months after Macquoid's death and 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, and 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 (which was when the illustration at the top of this post was created).

Captain Smith died at Goderich from embolism in June 1897 and 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 and 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 (above).

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.

Just over 100 years later, there are no signs of the old Darlinghurst at this corner.

The only distinct trace, apart from the laneway, is the curve of the gutter.

From the rear, looking down Goderich Lane, the Hampton Court is massive.

And I wonder if the trees at the right in this archive photograph are the ones that surrounded Goderich Lodge, which feature in the two illustrations.

SOURCES: Villas of Darlinghurst