Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Exploring Sydney's Architecture
While European settlement in
Sydney has a relatively short history,
architectural styles have rapidly
evolved from provincial British buildings
and the simplicity of convict structures. From
the mid-19th century until the present day,
architectural innovations have borrowed
from a range of international trends to create vernac-
ular styles more suited to local materials and conditions.
The signs of affluence and austerity, from gold rush to
depression, are also manifested in bricks and mortar.
Federation era
stained glass
AUSTRALIAN REGENCY
Just as the Colonial style was
reaching its zenith, the city's
increasingly moneyed society
abandoned it as undignified
and unfashionable. London's
residential architecture, exem-
plified by John Soane under
the Prince Regent's patronage,
was in favour from the 1830s
to the 1850s. Fine examples of
this shift towards Regency are
John Verge's stylish town
houses at
39-41 Lower Fort
Street
(1834-6), The Rocks,
and the adjoining
Bligh House
built for a wealthy merchant
in 1833 in High Colonial style
complete with Greek Classical
Doric veranda columns.
Regency-style homes often
had Grecian, French and Italian
details.
Elizabeth Bay House
(1835-8), internally the finest
of all John Verge's works, is
particularly noted for its can-
tilevered staircase rising to the
arcaded gallery. The cast-iron
Ionic-columned
Tusculum
Villa
(1831) by the same archi-
tect at Potts Point
(see p118)
is
unusual in that it is encircled
by a double-storeyed veranda,
now partially enclosed.
Entrance detail from the Victorian
St Patrick's Seminary in Manly
VICTORIAN
Façade of the Colonial Susannah
Place, with corner shop window
This prosperous era featured
confident business people
and merchants who designed
their own premises. Tracts of
the city west of York Street and
south of Bathurst Street are
testimony to these self-assured
projects. The cast-iron and
glass
Strand Arcade
(1891) by
JB Spencer originally included
a gas and electricity system,
and hydraulic lifts.
Government architect James
Barnet's best work includes the
“Venetian Renaissance” style
General Post Office
, Martin
Place (1864-87), and the ex-
travagant
Lands Department
Building
(1877-90) with its
four iron staircases and, origin-
ally, patent lifts operated by
water power. The
Great Syna-
gogue
(1878),
St Mary's
Cathedral
(1882),
St Patrick's
Seminary
(1885),
Sydney
Town Hall
and
Paddington
Street
are also of this period.
COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE
Little remains of the Colonial
buildings from 1790-1830.
The few structures still stand-
ing have a simple robustness
and unassuming dignity. They
rely more on form, proportion
and mass than on detail.
The Rocks area has one of
the best collections of early
Colonial buildings:
Cadman's
Cottage
(1816), the
Argyle
Stores
(1826) and
Susannah
Place Museum
(1844). The
Georgian
Hyde Park Barracks
(1819) and
St James Church
(1820), by Francis Greenway
(see p114)
, as well as the Greek
Revival
Darlinghurst Court
House
(1835) and
Victoria
Barracks
(1841-8) are excel-
lent examples of this period.
AMERICAN REVIVALISM
After federation in 1901,
architects looked to styles
such as Edwardian, American
Romanesque and Beaux Arts
from overseas for commercial
buildings. The former
National
Mutual Building
(1892) by
Edward Raht set the change of
direction, followed by ware-
house buildings in Sussex and
Kent Streets. The Romanesque
Queen Victoria Building
The Australian Regency-style Bligh House in Dawes Point
