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Issue 3 of 2018 (May 2018) ISSN 1836-599X part of the glebe lands is called St Phillip's Estate as it was handed, in 1828, to the Trustees of St Phillip's church in York St, Sydney, the first parish church in the colony, to provide income for the parish. The Trustees offered lots in St Phillip's for lease in 1842, and three separate structures were built on the site in the mid 1840s. By 1875 these structures, two cottages and a butcher's shop, were derelict, two of them unoccupied. This was typical of the first buildings in the area, described by Max Solling in Grandeur and Grit: ‘Many of the cheap, insanitary timber cottages built from 1842 were the products of speculative builders interested The Old Fire Station, on the left is the house and on the only in profit.’ (p96) right is the annexe. (image: Phil Young) Many people who live in Glebe are familiar with the Old Fire Station at 113 Mitchell St. Its late Victorian architecture makes it a distinctive and well known addition to the heritage streetscapes that characterise Glebe, our 19th century suburb. However, its appearance is only one important aspect of this building and its situation; perhaps more important is its function as a de facto community centre. Unlike other community centres it was not built by, nor is it funded through, the local government purse, as many are, although as part of the St Phillips Estate the site is owned by the NSW Government. For the past 40 years the Old Fire Station has provided a neighbourhood venue for social activities, mostly initiated and maintained ‘Glebe Estate Precincts’. St Phillip’s Estate, on which the by local people, faith-based groups and other Old Fire Station is located, is identified by the arrow. services. (Jackson, Teece, Chesterman, Willis, The Church of England Lands, Glebe: Report to the Dept of Urban and In addition to its role as a social hub, the building Regional Development, July 1973.) itself, which includes the adjoining house and annexe, has a history that reveals many layers of Redevelopment from 1876 use that were once characteristic of Glebe but are To encourage redevelopment of the St Phillip’s no longer found in our suburb. As well as its Estate, the Estate’s Trustees began to issue new, obvious history as a Fire Station, the site has longer, leases mainly of 45 or 50 years. George served residential, commercial and manufacturing Wigram Allen, landowner of the Toxteth Estate, roles. The Old Fire Station, though modest in scale, took out leases for most of the estate in the mid- has great heritage value because of its connections 1870s. The redevelopment of the site which is now to Glebe's non-residential past as well as its major the Old Fire Station seems to have been directly role as a social centre since the mid-1970s. financed by Allen, with a long-term local tenant and The site in the early nineteenth century small businessman, Edward Fortescue, as manager. The site was part of the original grant made by Governor Phillip to the Church of England. This The two-storey house which is now part of the Hiatus after the Fire Brigade whole site was the first building to be constructed, The Old Fire Station building had sporadic use as a in 1876. In about 1879 a workshop was built on the warehouse and storeroom from 1906 to 1920, then corner of Campbell Lane and the Cawley family was largely vacant until the mid 1930s. At the same were its long-term tenants, from 1881 until 1921. time the farrier’s workshop on the corner of Over that time, it was used as a blacksmith's forge Campbell Lane became vacant. Similarly the two- and farrier's shop (a smith who shoes horses). The storey house, like other buildings in the area, was land in between was let at various times as a yard becoming run down as the new lease approached in conjunction with either the house or the its expiry date, and had no recorded tenant after workshop. 1926. The volunteer fire service finds a home The Glebe Volunteer Fire Brigade was formed in 1875, and was based at the Council premises, next to Derby Place, until 1880 when it moved to vacant land in Mitchell St, immediately behind the building on the corner of Glebe Point Rd (Fascination House). The Brigade’s location had compensations, not least of which is likely to have been the goodwill of Allen, or of his agent Fortescue, ensuring either free or heavily subsidised rent on otherwise unoccupied land. G. W. Allen had also showed support for the Brigade by hosting a major event for it at Toxteth Park in 1880. The location also had other benefits once Adam Newton became Superintendent of the Brigade in 1879. Newton Glebe Volunteer Fire Brigade photographed in front of the was licensee of the Great Britain Hotel on the fire station in ca 1896-1898 (image: corner of Campbell and Mitchell Streets. The http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au) Brigade’s proximity to Newton’s hotel gave Brigade A new lease on life for the Old Fire Station volunteers a meeting space, and it was of course After the leases on the St Phillip's Estate expired, good for the licensee’s business. the Trustees appointed Harry Hibble as managing During the 1880s the Brigade operated with agent. The vacancies at the Old Fire Station site minimal equipment. By the late 1880s it still relied were ultimately Hibble’s responsibility but these on a hand pulled hose reel and a manually properties would have been difficult to let. Even the operated pump. It had no facilities to keep a horse two-storey house had been used as much as a or to store larger equipment or a long ladder, until place of business as a residence for most of the its new station was built towards the end of 1892, time since it had been built. The old farrier’s shop between the residence and workshop in Mitchell St. and the old fire station had an even narrower range The Glebe Volunteer Fire Brigade occupied the of possible uses. However, they proved well-suited new station until 1906. From 1894, the Brigade also to Hibble’s son Miles’ new venture. used the two-storey house as the engine keepers’ Miles Hibble founded Automatic Screw Company, accommodation. establishing a factory on the site in 1936. It From 1884, firefighting gradually became more remained on the site until 1952 and must be the professional under the Metropolitan Fire Brigades reason for the annexe re-build, including the Board. Registered Volunteer brigades were subject construction of the rear saw-tooth section which to the Board’s supervision and the equipment extends across the back of the old fire station and levels expected of all brigades was increasing. The seems to have been built in 1939. Automatic Screw Glebe Brigade, like some other volunteer was a precision engineering firm – part of an companies, was falling behind by the late 1890s. industry group that developed to supply components to the emerging electrical goods and In 1906 the Brigade moved to a new, much larger motor vehicle industries in the 1920s and more station in St Rd, one of a number funded John’s particularly from the mid-1930s. Automatic Screw and built by the NSW government through the produced components for the electrical goods firm, Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board in the same AWA, among others. The precision engineering period. By this time firemen were partly-paid. While capabilities Australia built up through small firms the Glebe supporters were still holding Brigade’s like Automatic Screw, and some much larger firm to a volunteer brigade, it would not be long concerns, were critical to the manufacture of a wide before it became a fully professional unit. range of new products which had to be locally 2 Glebe Society Bulletin no.3 of 2018 (May 2018) produced under wartime conditions. During the war Fascination House (115 Glebe Point Rd). The Old Automatic Screw produced firing pins, rifle sights Fire Station then began to be used as a community and other essential material. The company had centre, primarily for residents' meetings and display outgrown its site by the 1950s and moved to a new of project proposals, but also for more general location in 1952. community development activities. Typical activities Thus the Old Fire Station had a long life as a were 'housie' and afternoon tea for older people, factory from 1936 to 1952 and the annexe had a and child minding/playgroups, generally arranged much longer industrial history. Although Glebe by the Glebe Estate Women's Group. contained a significant amount of industry until the In 1985 the Glebe Estate was transferred from the 1950s, it has very few reminders of Australia’s Commonwealth to the NSW Department of industrial development. Even Glebe's once proud Housing. During the 1990s the rooms were maritime and timber industry has left only a few gradually upgraded, including the installation of a relics along the shoreline, the crane from Strides small kitchen and indoor toilet. Following the death Yard and the nearby dry-dock winch being the of the tenant in the adjoining house, an internal most notable. The Old Fire Station is one of the door with the Old Fire Station was opened, and the very few buildings which remain from our industrial three areas – house, fire station room and annexe past.

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