Leichhardt Historical No11 Journal 1982 RECOLLECT! ONS OF 34 JOHNSTON STREET ANI~ANDALE INVENTING THE SUBURBS Aim MAKING' A FORTUNE HOW SUBURBANISATION BEGAN fN BALMAIN GLEBE ROWING CLUB ON OPENING DAY Annandale Balmain Glebe Leichhard t Lilyfield Rozelle Leichhardt Historical Journal No 11 1982 Leichhardt Historical Journal EDITORIAL That there is adequate transport, water views, interesting shopping,a ISSN ol55-4s4o No 11 1982 WHY LEICHHARDT? less extreme climate, a lack of P Reynolds, A Roberts, M Solling People who live in the Leich­ overpowering buildings and freedom Peter Reynolds hardt Municipality, that is in the from boring uniformity, are also Editors Alan Roberts wards of Annandale, Balmain, Glebe, significant factors. Max Soiling Leichhardt, Lilyfield and Rozelle, But many more reasons for the respond very subjectively about significance and interest of Leich­ The Leichhardt Historical Journal is their choice of area. hardt lie in a detailed inventory of published jointly by the Annandale They feel strongly about the div­ buildings, parks, monuments and the Association, the Balmain Association, ersity of their neighbourhood, the other components of the built envir­ the Glebe Society and the Leichhardt closely settled streets, the idio­ onment based on the questions of Association. syncrasies of the architecture, the what, where, when, how and why. The Editors are not responsible for obvious links with the past and the There is already a heightened opinions expressed by contributors mostly united efforts to improve the awareness of the richness of the area. to the Journal. public amenity. The broad sweeps of Annandale, the Correspondence should be addressed Max Freeland set out the para­ clusters of harbourside cottages in to Dr P L Reynolds, 9 The Avenue, meters for evaluating the built en­ Balmain, and the intact streets of Balmain East, 2041. vironment very succinctly in 1976*. Glebe have already attracted much He described them in terms of their critical appraisal. Acknowledgements historical, psychological, aesthetic, But it is to Leichhardt (the sub­ The Editors gratefully acknowledge sociological, economic and education­ urb) that we now look for a growing the financial assistance of the Bal­ al aspects. appreciation of the special qualit­ main Association from its own funds Whilst these definitions are em­ ies of its built environment - an and from money allocated to it by inently suitable for heritage build­ appreciation based not upon compar­ the Royal Australian Historical ings and conservation areas, it is ison ("Is it as good as Paddington?") Society. Jennifer Bates helped with more difficult to apply them evenly but upon recognition of its own in­ layout and production. to the Leichhardt suburbs. ----- trinsic worth. The interesting mix of residential, Some of the buildings are unique, commercial and industrial uses pre­ some are excellent examples of what Contents clude comparison with Paddington or they represent and each must be trea­ Haberfield. sured, because they will never occur Recollections of 34 Johnston What is it then that brings a pos­ again. Street,Annandale by Gwen Ashton 3 itive response to questions about This Journal promotes awareness Inventing the Suburbs and living in this area? What is the of the heritage value of Leichhardt. Making a Fortune by Barrie Oyster 6 genius loci - the special character­ A direct impetus to the conservation istics that make the place what it of this heritage has been given by Peacock, Weston, Pearson and is? If the genius loci of Haberfield the Annandale Association, the Herit­ Paul: how "suburbanisation" is inscribed in its Federation archi­ began in Balmain age Council of NSW and the Leichhardt - 1 Peacock tecture, Watson's Bay in its origins Municipal Council combining to pro­ Point to Darling Street Wharf - as a fishing village and King's Cross Part I duce a booklet to encourage the good by Peter Reyno l ds 13 in it being the first Sydney suburb, management of building stock in the Index LHJ: 1971-1981 27 then why is Leichhardt important and area. interesting? The booklet will set standards for Reviews 28 There are many intangibles that architectural form, style, proportion, come to the surface - a high level colour and texture of materials#. of public esteem, people enjoying Actions such as this affirm that the place where they live, and an if change must come then it should awareness of deep roots in their occur so as to conserve - not destroy - Leichhardt suburb. the genius loci of Leichhardt. * J M Freeland, "The 'Whys" for Pre­ Historical servation" in Conference with·Affil­ Peter Reynolds llliJ iated Societies, Royal Australian # Stated in Leichhardt: Urban Con­ Journal ~~g Historical Society, 22-24 October servation Report, National Trust of 1976, pp5-9. Australia (NSW), Sydney, 1979. ( l - --- .J A Note on Contributors Gwen Ashton is a writer who remembers Annandale fondly; Alan Roberts is the Field and Research Officer of the Royal Australian Historical Society; Barrie Dyster lectures in Economic History at the University of New South Wales; and Peter Reynolds lectures in Architecture at the same University. Cover The original boatshed of the Glebe Rowing Club, at the foot of Ferry Road Glebe, was opened on 5 July 1879. It was completely destroyed by fire on 16 February 1897. The new club house pictured here, being 61 feet long and 28 feet wide, was designed by an old member, architect Dick Shute, and erected on the same site as the old boatshed at a cost of b300. This photograph was taken at the official opening on 12 June 1897 - just \unJ.ntlalc Balmain (;lcbl· Ll'ichhartll Lil1fidtl Ro1dle four months after the fire. Tragically, almost 56 years later on 1 May 1953, Glebe oarsmen lost their second boatshed when it was again gutted by fire. Max Solling 2 Leichhardt Historical Journal No 11 1982 Once my sister Kathleen and I had been led inside, we came upon our great-aunt re­ Recollections of clining on a brocade-upholstered rosewood chaise-longue (the timber of her decorating choice). She was covered by what I took to 34 Johnston Street, be a leopard-skin rug, but which I was later to learn was ocelet. her silver hair was high-piled above a face noted for a pair of Annandale keen grey-blue eyes and small, well-shaped features. The pea-sized diamonds on her ear­ Gwen Ashton lobes had me frankly goggling, for I had never before seen genuine stones of that More than half a century has passed since size. Around her neck was a string of per­ I first visited the home of my great-aunt, fectly matched milk opals. Mrs Elise Francis, at that address. It was a time when Johnston Street was lined along its broad length by eminently desirable houses of elaborate late-Victorian architecture. When first I walked a trifle apprehensiv­ ely through the wrought-iron gate and up the tiled approaches to the imposing front door I was a schoolgirl of fifteen, and this was to be my earliest meeting with my mother's aunt. The house was set well back from the street, and I felt that the windows of the upper floor wore an expression of polite disapprov­ al at what was beginning to happen to that once impregnable domain of the privileged and well-to-do. To the front and side of this splendid two-storied house spread buffalo-grass lawns flanked by clumps of daphne, camellias and strellitzias. A second tiled path led to the wooden summer-house, a retreat I was to know well over the years, and further to the left a red gravel drive made its ordered way to a series of galvanized-iron-roofed structures which in earlier days had housed my great­ aunt's coach-and-pair and provided living quarters for the groom, To the rear of the house itself, as I was later to discover, was a stone-flagged ver­ Elise Francis andah and laundry with its big fuel-fired copper, pair of concrete tubs equipped with On this memorable day, Aunt Francis (as washing-board and wringer, and a monstrous she bid us call her) had taken my sister's black iron mangle, all the undisputed prov­ face between her hands and critically app­ ince of Hilda the Washerwoman. This great raised her good bone structure. "Yes", she red-fisted woman, built on authentic Clydes­ had decided almost at once, "you will be able dale lines, regularly fed the mangle a diet to wear furs." of snowy Marcella bedspreads, sheets, and Whether or not it was this potential as blankets. If she had a surname, I was never future fur-wearers that swayed her, or the to learn of it, for I fancied that my great­ fact that we were indeed the grandchildren of aunt believed that surnames for people such her long dead, much loved sister Lucy, was as Hilda the Washerwoman should be used only never a~tually spelled out. Perhaps it may on Sundays - if at all. have been that we were presentable, intellig­ The year was 1926, and my great-aunt had ent, well-spoken and, above all, knew our just been widowed by the sudden death of her manners. Who can say? Or then again it husband, Henry Burdett Francis, the first could have been our interest in classical general-manager of the Riverstone Meat Comp­ music that influenced her, for even then my any. I had never met him; what I knew of him sister Kathleen was a violinist of more than then came from a silver-framed photograph and average talent, and I was studying the piano reminiscenses passed to me by my cousins, who (and destined soon to study singing at the called him Papa.