Sydney Harbour Panarama Magazine

Sydney Harbour Panarama Magazine

 

Old Sydney - 'Old Chum' - The Truth Newspapers

I've been gathering up the old “Old Sydney” columns from the Truth newspaper for a while now, and this post brings a handful of them together in one spot. The man behind the pen-name “Old Chum” was Joseph Michael Forde, born in May 1841, who died at Hazelbrook in the Blue Mountains on 3 May 1929. He wrote about the Sydney of his youth for decades, and the columns ran into the hundreds – the 1912 piece below is No. 235 and the 1927 one is No. 1050.

The clippings wander all over the old town: houses coming down in 1912, Dr John Dunmore Lang and the Scots Church, the innkeepers of Governor Brisbane's day, the Quaker chemist John Tawell, an early judge's mansion, and the 1927 sale of “Tusculum” in Macleay Street. On Tusculum, Old Chum credits William Long, mine host of the Commercial Tavern, with building the house in 1835. The State Heritage Register tells it a little differently – built between 1831 and 1837 to a design by John Verge for Alexander Brodie Spark, and let to Bishop Broughton from 1836 to 1851 – so it pays to read the old-timers with a pinch of salt.

I've finished with C. H. Bertie's 1939 plea in The Sun to save Sydney's old buildings, and a photograph of the Wexford Street clean-up during the 1900 plague – two reminders of how much of this town has been lost.

Related posts on this blog: Tusculum Part 2 – 1–3 Manning Street – Potts Point · Old Sydney – The Truth Newspaper Perth – 12 September 1914 · Old Sydney Demolished – Truth – 20 April 1912 · Juniper Hall – Paddington

Rev. Dr John Dunmore Lang, founder of the Scots Church, Sydney (portrait published 1888, National Library of Australia)
Image: Unknown artist (digitised by the National Library of Australia) – via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Source

“Tusculum”, Macleay Street, Potts Point, photographed by William Sargent c. 1886–1888 (State Library of NSW, SPF/721)
Image: William Sargent – via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Source

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Old Sydney Newspaper Articles – Truth Newspaper

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Old Sydney Demolished – The Truth – Saturday 20th April 1912 – Page 10
(By “Old Chum” – No. 235)

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Old Sydney Demolished – The Truth – Saturday 20th April 1912 – Page 10 – Parts 1–5
(The same article again, complete with Part 5)

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Old Sydney – Historic Mansion Sold – The Truth – Sunday 25th December 1927 – Page 15
(By “Old Chum” – No. 1050 – “Tusculum”, Macleay Street)

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Old Sydney – Old Chum – The Truth – Sunday 12th February 1911 – Page 11
(John Tawell)

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The Story Of An Early Judge – The Sun – Wednesday 15th January 1913 – Page 2

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Old Sydney – Scots Church & Dr Lang – Truth – Saturday 2nd January 1909 – Page 4
(Parts 2–4 – Part 1 not included)

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Old Sydney – Truth – Sunday 30th March 1902 – Page 3

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Changing Sydney – Plea For Old Buildings – The Sun – Friday 10th November 1939 – Page 7

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Wexford Street – Cleansing During The Bubonic Plague – 1900

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Old Sydney Demolished - The Truth - Saturday 20th April 1912 - Page 10

This is one of Old Chum's rambling “Old Sydney” columns from the Truth – No. 235 – and it starts with two old houses in Pitt Street and one in George Street that were being pulled down in 1912. From there he's off and away, the way the old-timers always were.

The best of it for me is the early story of the Deaf and Dumb Institution. He tells how it was founded on 1 October 1861 with seven pupils, worked out of houses in Castlereagh Street and then Pitt Street, and in 1868 moved into Ormonde House at Paddington – the mansion distiller Robert Cooper had built and named Juniper Hall. A department for the blind was added there, and in 1872 the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind moved out to the Newtown road.

Along the way you get the pioneer pubs – the Sportsman's Arms, the Red Lion, the Rum Puncheon and the Blue Anchor – plus James Oatley, M.L.A. and Mayor, the champion sculler Richard Green, and where Isaac Nichols lived. The same clipping also turns up in my bigger Old Chum post, linked below.

Related posts on this blog: Old Sydney – “Old Chum” – The Truth Newspapers · Juniper Hall – Paddington

The Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, Sydney, in 1912 – the year this column appeared (G. W. Wilson & Co.)
Image: G. W. Wilson & Co. – via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Source

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Old Sydney Demolished – The Truth – Saturday 20th April 1912 – Page 10
(By “Old Chum” – No. 235)

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Another Landmark Removed - Evening News - Friday 10th September 1909 - Page 10

Mary Salmon wrote a string of “Old Sydney” pieces for the Evening News, and this one caught Horbury Terrace in Macquarie Street, on the corner of Hunter Street, as the wreckers were pulling it down in September 1909. She fills it with the people who had lived there – Robert Lowe (later Viscount Sherbrooke) and his wife Georgina, Charles Fairfax of the Herald, and a crowd of doctors, dentists and singers – plus a good yarn about the Quaker chemist John Tawell.

Mary couldn't work out where the name Horbury came from. The Dictionary of Sydney clears it up: the row of eight three-storey terraces was built in 1842 for Ouseley Condell, and Thomas Holt bought it in 1843 and named it after his birthplace, Horbury in Yorkshire. Isaac Nathan, Robert Lowe and Edward Broadhurst were among the tenants in 1845. The terraces were demolished bit by bit – the last in the 1930s – but two survive today as Horbury House at 171–173 Macquarie Street, which carries a Royal Australian Historical Society green plaque.

One small correction to the article: Mary has Tawell hanged at Newgate, but he was tried at Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire in March 1845 for poisoning Sarah Hart at Salt Hill, near Slough. He was also the first person caught thanks to the electric telegraph.

I've typed out the full article below the photograph, keeping the paper's own spelling, with the original clipping underneath.

Related posts on this blog: Macquarie Street And Associated Landmarks · Sydney Hospital – The Rum Hospital

Robert Lowe, later Viscount Sherbrooke, who lived in Horbury Terrace on his arrival in Sydney – caricature by “Ape” (Carlo Pellegrini), Vanity Fair, 27 February 1869
Image: Carlo Pellegrini (“Ape”), Vanity Fair – via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Source

John Tawell, the Quaker chemist who is said to have lived in the Hunter Street cottage – sketched at his trial (The Sunday Times, London, 30 March 1845)
Image: The Sunday Times (London), 30 March 1845 – via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Source

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Another Landmark Removed – Evening News – Friday 10th September 1909 – Page 10

Horbury Terrace, at the corner of Macquarie and Hunter streets, in the course of demolition.

OLD SYDNEY.
ANOTHER LAND MARK REMOVED.
HORBURY TERRACE IN MACQUARIE-STREET.
BY MARY SALMON.

An interesting part of old Sydney has just been demolished, viz., the four houses standing on to the pavement in Macquarie-street, and having a side entrance into Hunter-street, City. These have come into the possession of Mr. J. Cooling, under contract to have the ground cleared within 21 days, or to pay five times the amount he gave for the old building material.

Horbury Terrace, Macquarie-street, has, until very recently, been occupied by doctors, dentists, and other professional men, including Signor Steffani, but one could only describe the rooms as little better than pigeon-holes of late, for they were divided and subdivided to meet the requirements of fashionable boarding-house keepers, whose clients were glad to secure any accommodation provided it was within the high-class vicinity of Macquarie-street.

At one time the widow of Governor Fitzroy's secretary had a boarding-house in the terrace, where lodged some of Sydney's most upper crust families. Horbury Terrace may justly claim to be historic, for in one of these houses lived Robert Lowe, afterwards Viscount Sherbrooke, and his wife Georgina, on their arrival in Australia. In a published letter to her husband's mother, Mrs. Lowe mentions the rent, £130 a year.

During Governor Macquarie's time, various allotments along what is now Macquarie-street were leased to different old colonists. These do not appear to have been intended as grants, although in many cases they have been claimed as such. The land at the corner of Hunter and Macquarie streets was owned by Isaac Wood, and on his death his heirs claimed a grant of the same. Archibald Wood then came into possession, and held the land in the thirties, during which time there was no building from Hunter to Bent streets along Macquarie-street. William Hutchinson owned one-half the frontage and the Woods the other half, and early in the forties the terrace of four or more houses was built and denominated Horbury Terrace.

It has been said that here the indomitable Lady Franklin lodged after her overland journey from Port Phillip when she came on a visit to Bishop Broughton, during the time when the fate of her husband, the great explorer, Sir John Franklin, was uncertain. In order to put in the time from the starting of the first search ships until the ice broke for their return, she journeyed to Australia, where her happy married life had been spent in Tasmania during his Governorship of the island.

The name Horbury Terrace appears to have been given from some place in England, as there was no family known of that name. That was the explanation given by the late Mr. Horbury Hunt, the architect, when asked if his family had any connection with the property.

When Mr. Hollingdale, the well-known city jeweller, was a boy, his father owned the three corner houses, having bought them from Mr. Hurley, an alderman of Sydney. Mr. Raphael, of Raphael's Buildings, Young-street, also tried to secure them, but failed to effect the purchase of property which has now assumed an immense value. In the fifties Dr. Holzel, the Jewish minister, lived in the terrace, and later on Mr. Charles Fairfax, of the "Herald," occupied one of the houses. During the seventies, Signor Ferari Barraty, the singer, lived in the corner house, adjoining the old "Starkey" cottage, which had, until quite recently, a bit of garden with trees round it, and faced Hunter-street. At one time it was a boys' school, carried on by Mr. Blackmore, and later was occupied by professionals.

As is the case with many of the old houses round Sydney, tragedy has attached itself to this spot. The mention of an unfortunate circumstance is not very desirable, perhaps, while a building is standing, though the present generation have long learned to pooh-pooh ghosts. The demolition of the terrace, however, allows of the fact being recalled that it was out of the side window of the end house that, on May 28, 1869, the Spanish Consul threw himself, the verdict being that of suicide. He was interred in the old Petersham Roman Catholic cemetery.

One can scarcely associate Macquarie-street with the aboriginals, but old-time people say that in very early days, according to tradition, the ridge, which was afterwards the highway, was a favorite spot for the cremation after death of the gins by their "cobras" (husbands).

Immediately opposite to Horbury Terrace was the "School of Industry," taking in parts of what is the Domain, then only a series of nearly wild paddocks, where boys played cricket, and where, at the first review of the Volunteers, a general rout occurred of the newly-made soldiers by a herd of wild cattle that "charged" into the ranks. The School of Industry was first started at Parramatta by Lady Darling, 1822; but was in the thirties removed to Sydney, Mrs. Kendall being matron while the institute was in Macquarie-street. Several romantic stories are told of the fate of some of the child inmates, one being considered authentic, of the adoption of a pretty little girleen by a British peer and his wife, who travelled to this side of the world to find an heiress. She afterwards became a countess.

Mr. S. Lyons owned part of the row of houses which made up the terrace, and, it is said that here the retired early Sydney auctioneer died at a very advanced age. It will be remembered that the Hon. Mr. Dalley and the Hon. Mr. Burdett Smith lived for many years in Macquarie-street, between Hunter and King streets; while old Mrs. Burdekin occupied a cottage that was entered by a lane at the side of the late Sydney Burdekin's mansion. An old-timer says, "Perhaps the quaintest little carriage ever seen was that used by a party of little children in old Macquarie-street. It was like an actual little chariot, and was drawn by four strong young goats."

The "Rum" Hospital was a low, one-storey building, known as the Infirmary, now replaced by the fine Sydney Hospital. Parliament House alone remains with but little change since the days when, 50 years ago, it was even then a fashionable old street. The old Presbyterian iron church used as Jewish Synagogue, then as lending branch, Public Library, and afterwards as a clothing factory, now is the church and library at Rookwood Old Men's Asylum."

Where Starkey's cottage stood will shortly be occupied by a motor garage; while a skyscraper to accommodate doctors and dentists will take up the place of the old residential terrace.

The demolished cottage in Hunter-street is also said to have been the residence of early apothecary and Quaker, John Tawell, though there is an opinion that he lived in a cottage replaced by a large terrace next to the Starkey house. The story of Tawell is that of one of the most remarkable criminals on record, and proves the saying that "if a man is born to be hanged he must eventually come to the gallows." Judge Therry, who lived opposite in Hunter-street, speaks of seeing Tawell every day with his wide-brimmed Quaker hat and pious appearance. He escaped hanging in the first instance, because his prosecutors for forgery were of his religious persuasion, and, therefore, antagonistic to capital punishment; but after a very exemplary career on this side of the world, in which his only crime seems to have been the waste of 600 gallons of good rum, by emptying it from a vessel into the harbor to show his tee-total principles, he was finally hanged in Newgate for the murder of a woman named Sarah Hart.

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The Original Clipping – Evening News – Friday 10th September 1909 – Page 10

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An Old Cemetery

There are two old newspaper articles in this post. The first is Mary Salmon's piece from the Evening News of September 1908, written while the Round Tower House – the last house standing in Wexford Street – was being knocked down. It's full of the voices of the people who lived around the Haymarket end of town: the Irish widow who kept the lodging-house for forty-eight years, Mark Barnett with his memories of the Belmore Markets and a balloon that exploded in the square, “Billy the Bow”, and Dr William Bland visiting the poor.

Wexford Street ran through what's now the Wentworth Avenue corridor. After the 1900 plague the City Council was given power to resume land under the Sydney Corporation Amendment Act 1905. It started with Wexford Street in 1906, and the street was replaced by Wentworth Avenue. City historian Shirley Fitzgerald estimated that 724 people lost their homes, in a neighbourhood that had been home to many Chinese Australian families.

The second article is Old Chum's column No. 1061 from the Truth in March 1928, headed “An Old Cemetery”. It opens with a reader's letter about St Thomas' cemetery in West Street, North Sydney, where Commodore James Graham Goodenough of H.M.S. Pearl is buried – he died in 1875 of tetanus from poisoned-arrow wounds received in the Santa Cruz Islands. Alexander Berry gave the land for the cemetery in 1845, and it has been St Thomas Rest Park since 1974. Old Chum then moves on to Harrington Street and Sir John Jamison of Regentville.

I've typed out both articles in full, keeping the papers' own spelling, and put the original clippings after each one.

Related posts on this blog: Wexford Street – Before the Creation of Wentworth Avenue · St Thomas' Anglican Church, North Sydney · Regentville – Home of Sir John Jamison · Paddy's Markets – Campbell Street – Haymarket

Exeter Place, off Wexford Street, during the plague cleansing operations of 1900 – photographed by John Degotardi jnr (State Library of NSW, PX*D 91)
Image: John Degotardi jnr (State Library of NSW) – via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Source

Commodore James Graham Goodenough, R.N. (1830–1875), buried in St Thomas' cemetery, North Sydney
Image: Unknown photographer – via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Source

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Early Sydney – Clearing Wexford Street – Evening News – Saturday 12th September 1908 – Page 3

EARLY SYDNEY.
CLEARING WEXFORD-STREET.
THE ROUND TOWER HOUSE.
INTERESTING RETROSPECT.
BY MARY SALMON.

The principal house in Wexford-street, Sydney, is now being demolished. Its stones are so firmly cemented, and so strong and resisting that it has taken three times as long to pull it down as a mere modern house of many times the size would have required.

The old Round Tower House has been a sort of shrine during the past few weeks to which many a pilgrimage has been made to see if the old walls still stand, being the last house left standing in departed Wexford-street.

For forty-eight years the same little Irish widow kept the front door wide open, day and night, for her lodgers, who rented rooms from her, and who could each safely lock themselves in their own apartments, leaving the stone passages and stair cases to protect themselves.

There have been some sad tears shed by old ladies who have lived ten, sixteen, and in one case twenty years under the same roof. To them the Tower House has been "Home, sweet home" as much, or more, than the rich man's mansion is to him; the fact that every substantially walled room had its open fireplace, and every fine cedar door could be secured, being a great attraction to the room-dweller.

Of late years many old-age pensioners had a comfortable and independent home there, and as one old lady said, "It has almost killed me to have to move out of a house in which I know every stone."

Many people expressed wonder at such a finely built house containing almost a dozen rooms in the main building, being in a street where the rest of the houses were of a very inferior order, but there is every proof that this really was the first residence erected in the locality, nearly a hundred years ago, it is said, by a Mr. Duncan Campbell, whose family retained possession until it came within the resumed area.

The spiral stone staircase leading into a sort of round tower at the rear of the building, was a piece of masonry that in early days was said to be very much admired, and at the present time, though the stones are worn into hollows from the many feet that have trod upon them, masons look upon the workmanship that was bestowed upon them as remarkably fine for its day. Labor could have had little value when so much was thus expended, and freestone could then be had anywhere for the quarrying.

There are old timers who assert that they remember the upper part of Wexford-street as a market garden, extending to Macquarie-street South (now called Commonwealth-street), and even having a frontage into George-street. Campbell's property, including the Tower House, came next; and, in all probability, extended as far as what is now Campbell-street. In the early fifties, however, its days of glory had passed, and it became a temporary lodging-house, a Mr. William Carr keeping it in '52; and for 50 years it has held a little colony of the room dwelling class, which has in this country of "ups and downs," included several names of members of notable Australian families.

Sydney, the city of romance and tragedy, has always had its nooks and corners into which those who wished to do so might vanish from the ordinary social life, as completely as though they had "melted into thin air."

Market Lane, afterwards Little Market-street, had only three houses in it when the landlady of the Tower first went into possession. "We had nothing but paddocks around," she said, "until Mr. Ben. James, the builder, put up cottages, rows of them, and it was through him the name was changed to Wexford-street. The first man to allow a Chinaman into a house was a Mr. Quick, not but what the Chinamen were a hard-working, quiet lot of people, and a great improvement upon some of the lowest white people around." Where the old part of the Belmore Markets now is, was, in old days, the public pound, a great square in front and beyond being where the hay carts from Windsor, the Parramatta district, and other parts, drew up for their unloading.

Mr. Mark Barnett has many recollections of the district. He remembers it previously to the advent of Belmore Markets, which, he says, were, in 1868, established to relieve the market gardeners who could not find a comfortable stand at the George-street markets.

"Very early in the morning," he says, "the carts would draw up in George-street and the booths would be spread out, the earliest comers having the best of it. Then there was so much harassing of the traders that the new markets were hailed as a great advance. The name Belmore was given in honor of the Governor, though some people assert it was because his head gardener sold produce out of the Governor's garden in open competition. The Earl of Belmore may have known of it—or he may not.

The coming down of a balloon in the open square where the new part of "Paddy's" Market now stands is included in Mr. Barnett's recollections: "I well remember one afternoon the balloon making a descent and, fortunately, alighting just in the square. When the gas was escaping, some stupid fellow struck a match, and there was a great flare and explosion. Many present lost their hair and their whiskers, but, fortunately, there was no one killed."

Everyone in Sydney has heard of Durand's Alley, or lane, which was in the locality, a narrow right-of-way, with a turn at right angle, and opening into several streets. It was the "Field-lane" (the worst part of old London) of Sydney, and at one time might almost be said to defy the police. No one man dare attempt to enter, and thieves made it their chief stronghold. The types of old women and men, who might be seen, day and night, squatting on the door steps, smoking (women as well as men) blackened clay pipes, have quite died out of the city's low life. In Castlereagh-street, where is now the Commonwealth Chocolate Factory, was a sort of close, with houses, or rather cottages, facing one another, and in the fifties people crowded into small spaces in Sydney, as close as in the poorest parts of old cities.

There was little or no municipal oversight, and people herded together as if there was not room and space around. In an outhouse in one of the alleys lived "Billy the Bow," and his wife. He was an unfortunate man, who had lost both his legs; and he had made himself a sort of wooden basin, in which he sat, and in which he could move along, principally into George-street. Here people gave him coins out of compassion.

Mr. Barnett speaks of Dr. William Bland, who used to come and visit the poor. "He had an absolutely angelic face," he remarked, "kind, benevolent, and unforgettable."

Those who have passed by the entrance to the lane that runs by the side of the People's Palace (the old Natatorium in Pitt-street) may any day for the past 50 years have noticed the projection of a piece of iron, which is in reality the mouth of an old cannon of the description, one would think, of those that the heroic Nelson had on board the Victory.

The true story of how this piece of artillery got into its present position even the oldest inhabitant is loth to tell, but there are many old-timers who have regularly taken pilgrimages to the spot to see if it still holds its place of "dis-honor."

Mr. Potter, Superintendent of Detectives, asserts that he has seen it in the same position for 50 years, but how it was placed there he does not know, except perhaps that it may have been on the principle of the lady in one of Charles Dickens' stories, who put the kettle lid on one of the curtain-holders in the drawing-room just because it shouldn't be there.

It has often been asked where were the brick kilns from where Brickfield Hill got its name. The location of these has been given as in a space between Albion-street and Gipps-street, and an old-timer asserts he has seen the old kilns and the ponds of water round, where, in early times, boys used to go for "bogies." These were really deep waterholes, more like wells, and were extremely dangerous.

"There was," says Mr. Barnett, "a deep creek, that in the early days formed a bed, where is now Hay-street, and the water from the harbor, choked up by refuse of all kinds, used to surge up into George-street. Most houses had cellars, and these were, in very wet weather, full of slime and water, even the ground floors being flooded."

An old resident of Wexford-street says she remembers two great floods there, "but," she added, "in early days we just put up with inconveniences, and never thought of complaining, as people do now, to our landlords or the authorities."

The poor style of house that was built in the neighborhood was said to be because a sort of early land boom had caused many speculators to buy up property and build small places suitable to the classes of person who had to live in the city; and for the small tenements quite high rents were charged. The story of the condition of the people in these localities, under well-to-do landlords, is still fresh in people's minds, from the revelations at plague time. Cellars, with absolutely no light from above, were utilised as living-rooms; and the thorough investigations, which resulted in the demolition of the Wexford-street area, brought to light a terrible condition of things, the passing out of which no one could regret.

"The 'Blind Alley' was a notorious gambling-saloon, kept by two worn-out pugilists," says someone who knew the district well. "It was a small, two-storey building in Engine-street, looking in the day time like a produce store, but at night, even Sunday, it was the worst gambling-den in the city. If one went in casually, there would be a certain number of men engaged innocently enough at draughts, cards, etc. These were kept in evidence in case the "school" were raided. All hands repaired presently to a large ring in the centre of the hall, and the true business was entered upon. The proprietors took commission from whoever won, so they cared little, but it would not have been safe for anyone to try to get away with a large sum of winnings." Goulburn, Wexford, and Campbell streets have been so long associated with fan-tan, pak-a-pu, lottery, and other worse vices, that there is little regret at the whole nature of the locality being about to be changed.

At the same time one comes across numbers of people who have found it convenient to live there for nearly a lifetime; and also many who knew the place when it was almost bordering on a rural part of Sydney's outskirts.

A Mr. Gregory Board had a large estate in the neighborhood, which was subdivided and sold; terraces, shops, and small cottages being built on the ground. Aaron Matthews, the blind man, whom old timers will remember selling papers in the streets, lived in Wexford-street, and the little, rosy-cheeked Scotch lady, who vended pins, needles, and laces. "It is so convenient both for buying and selling," was her remark.

An old resident remembered the time there were no ovens in any of the little houses. "We all sent our dinners, especially of a Sunday, to the bakehouse, and as there had been a good many disputes over the wrong dish being handed over to a customer, the baker got a sort of skewer with a tag to it, which he stuck in the meat, and he gave us each a round counter which we had to produce to get our dinner back. Each was numbered, so that there could be no more mistakes. People used to say that the man at the bakehouse got rich by never having to buy a dinner for himself. It was a potato out of this dish, and a slice of meat out of that. It wasn't looked upon as stealing; only taking "perks," as they called it."

Where Anthony Hordern's present large emporium stands in George-street, there is said to have been, in early times, a guard-room, and, when the buildings were commenced, upon the vacant space was an old cedar tree, which showed that at some time there must have been a garden there. In Pitt-street one may still see, within a stone's throw of the great buildings, an old gabled house that looks as if it had once been a gentleman's residence. It was, people assert, the family home of the Bond family, of which the well-known architect was a member.

Mr. Barnett says that at the corner of Elizabeth and Liverpool streets, where Mr. Mark Foy's new buildings are being erected, was once a fine house, standing in its own grounds, lived in at one time by a Mr. Emmanuel, M.L.A. for Goulburn. Levy, the lawyer, had a house in Elizabeth-street, one of those standing still, with verandah and small front garden, reached by steps cut in the natural stone.

Goulburn-street, called after the early Colonial Secretary, Mr. Frederick Goulburn, had some very good private houses in it early in the fifties, when it was looked upon as belonging more to the suburbs than to the city.

Among old hotels in the locality was the now passed out Welcome Inn, and the St. Patrick's Inn, in Goulburn-street, opposite Anthony Hordern's. Where the Macquarie Hotel now is was a large pond, where the boys used to bathe within the memory of the old-timers. Some people say the Macquarie-street South Public School was on the site where there was once a lock-up.

The Original Clipping – Evening News – Saturday 12th September 1908 – Page 3

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Old Sydney – An Old Cemetery – The Truth – Sunday 18th March 1928 – Page 20

(By “OLD CHUM”—No. 1061—ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
An Old Cemetery — Sir John Jamieson — Founder of Sydney Turf Club.

THE following letter will be read with interest:—

"Dear 'Old Chum',—Reference by you in 'Truth,' 21/8/27, to Commander James Goahan Goodenough, R.N., C.B., C.M.G., prompts me to write and say that he is buried in St. Thomas' cemetery, West Street, North Sydney. At the right and left of him rest Frederick Smale and Edward Rayner, two members of the crew of the 'Pearl.'

"The monument was erected by his widow, Victoria H. Goodenough, and the officers and crew of H.M.S. Pearl. The grave is one of the best kept in the cemetery, and should interest the gentleman whose inquiries you answered.

"St. Thomas' Cemetery contains quite a number of old colonists, some of whom I might recall to your memory—Alexander Berry, Edward Wollostonecroft, Ellis Bent, Judge Advocate; Major Ovens, A.D.C. to Governor Brisbane; William Lithgow, an early Auditor-General; Thomasina Fisher, daughter of William Charles Wentworth; G. P. F. Gregory, the first prothonotary of the Supreme Court of New South Wales; Captain Owen Stanley, of H.M.S. Rattlesnake; Conrad Martens, the artist; Sir George Dibbs, and quite a number of others.

"Now, I should like to ask you a few questions re 'Old Sydney.'

"There has lately been demolished in Harrington Street, City, next door to the Marists' Brothers School, an old residence which bore the name of Harrington House. Can you tell me if it had any connection with the member of the family of that name prominent in the Colonial Service in the early days?

"There are some broken steps further northward in Harrington-street beyond the Government Stores Department. One of the stone supports of the iron railings bears the inscription, 'Harts.' Do you know anything of this? Thanking you in anticipation, I am, etc., Native, North Sydney."

I have no doubt but that Harrington House was built as the residence of Mr. Thomas Cudbert Harrington, who was Assistant Under-Secretary, New South Wales Colonial Secretary's Department in about 1830. I have no doubt he built Harrington House, and hence the name of the street.

Alexander McLeay was Secretary and Registrar of Records, Mr. Harrington being his secretary. The steps from the Rocks to George-street, were known as "Harts," and some thirty years ago we had an alderman representing a city ward named Hart, who had property on the Rocks.

Sir John Jamison was mentioned recently in these columns. The "Australian Encyclopaedia" (Angus and Robertson) gives him some attention. He was the son of Thomas Jamison, who was surgeon's first mate on H.M.S. Sirius, and afterwards 1802-9, Surgeon-General to the Colony.

"Sir John was born in 1776, educated for the medical profession, and afterwards Surgeon in the Navy. While serving in the Baltic in 1807 he was decorated with the order of Gustavas Vasa by Charles XIII. of Sweden, for his aid during an outbreak of cholera in the Swedish Army; hence the title 'Sir' which was thenceforth given him was not really valid in British possessions.

"When his father died in 1811, he inherited a good deal of property in New South Wales, and came to the colony to take it over, reaching Sydney in July, 1814. Almost immediately he demanded an additional grant of land, on the ground that his inherited estate at Regentville, near Penrith, was too small for his stock; Governor Macquarie, though he refused him the grant, held him in great favor, and took him on the journey to Bathurst over Cox's new road in 1815.

"It was not until 1837 that he became a member of the Council, the appointment ceasing with the proclamation of a new Constitution in 1843. Sir John died at Regentville, June 29, 1844.

"His connection with the public life of the Colony was thus intermittent and not very important. It was as an agriculturist and squatter that he did valuable work which was publicly recognised by grant in 1829 of the gold medal of the London Society for the encouragement of Art and Manufacture.

He was also a good racing man, and founder and president of the Sydney Turf Club (1825-7) and the Australian Racing and Jockey Club (1828) and onwards.

"His town house was a fine mansion in George-street. Jamison-street about marks the site. On his estate at Regentville, Henry Parkes was a laborer, and Thomas Bent (of Victoria) was born in 1835.

(To be Continued.)

The Original Clipping – The Truth – Sunday 18th March 1928 – Page 20

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Assorted Drawings Of Old Colonial Sydney Town 

2 Figures At Head Of Stairs - Victoria Street
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A Corroberree Of The Natives in Australia 1844 - After Charles Stanforth Hext
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A Family Of NSW - 1793 - William Blake - After Phillip Gidley King

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A Street In Sydney - After Louis Auguste de Sainson
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A View Of Sydney - NSW - John Lewin

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A Western View Of Sydney Cove - 1790 - James Heath

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Abbotsleigh - Private Girls School - Wahroonga - 1982 - Austin Platt

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Admiralty House - From Dawes Pt - Alfred coffey

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Agar Steps - The Rocks - Carlson Terrace - Cedric Emanuel

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Annersley - Bowral - Cedric Emanuel

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Argyle Cut - The Rocks - Sydney - Alfred Coffey

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Argyle Cut - The Rocks -1927 - Alfred Warner Ernest

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Argyle Cut From The Rear - 1917 - Lionel Lindsay

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Ashmore House - Kent St - Sydney - Lionel Lindsay 1874-1961

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At The Glebe - Rosalie Ann Thorne  - After Conrad Martins

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Back Of House - Gloucestor St - Alfred Coffey - 1919

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Baptist Church - Newtown - 1905

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Barracks From George St - Wynyard Square - John Carmichael

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Beare Island Fort - Botany Bay - Cedric Emanuel

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Bible Hall - Sydney - S T Gill

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Black Wallad House - Cumberland St - Lionel Lindsay

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Boat Sheds With Old Dock - 1930s - Cedric Emanel

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boatshed - Cremorne - John Barclay Godson

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booloominbah - Residence Of F R White - Armidale NSW

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Botany Bay - 1930's - Douglas Pratt

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Botany Bay - NSW - Joseph Lycett 

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Bowdans Corner - 1925 - Lionel Lindsay

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Bridge St - Sydney - 1930 - David Baker

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Bridge Street - 1931 - Alfred Edward Warner Ernest

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Building Of The War Memorial - Hyde Park - 1932 - Cedric Emanuel

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Building Of Wynyard Station - Sydney -  Could Be - Kathleen Butler

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Building Sydney Harbour Bridge - 1929 - A H Fullwood

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Building Sydney Harbour Bridge - 1929 - A H Fullwood

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Bungaree - chief Of Broken Bay Tribe - 1830 - Charles Rodius

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Burdekin House - 1923 - A H Fullwood

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Burdekin House - 1934 - Macquarie Street - Gayfield Shaw 

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Burdekin House - 1934 - Macquarie Street - Gayfield Shaw

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Campbells Wharf - 1930 - Geoffrey C Ingleton

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Captain Arthur Phillip - Engraved Henry Macbeth-Raeburn After Francis Wheatley

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Castlereagh Street - 1897 - Hall Thorpe

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Castlereagh Street  - 1916 Gayfield Shaw

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Central Station - 1933 - Number 2 - Robert Emerson Curtis

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Central Station - 1933 - Robert Emerson Curtis

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Ceremony - Turning the First Sod For Railway in Australia - 1870's - After john Rae

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Circular Quay - 1856 - Samuel Thomas Gill

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Circular Quay - 1915 - Sydney Ure Smith

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Circular Quay - 1926 - Sydney Long

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Circular Quay - Phillip Stephan Photo Lithograph - 1890s

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Circular Quay - Sydney - Scenery - Samuel Thomas Gill

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Circular Quay East - 1932 - Alfred Edward Ernest

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Circular Quay With Moored Sailing Ships - Sydney Ure Smith

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City Railway Terminus - 1856 - S T Gill

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Claremont - Rose Bay - Rosalie Ann Thorne

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Clyde St - The Rocks - Old Sydney - Alfred Coffey

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Cnr Liverpool & Victoria Place - 1945 - Gayfield Shaw

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Cnr Oxford & College St - Sydney - 1935 - Gayfield Shaw

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Competition Design For Sydney Trades Hall - Unknown Artist

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Concert Hall - Sydney Opera House Under Construction - Robert Emerson Curtis

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coogee Bay - W H Raworth

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Coogee Beach - After Edward Combes -

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Corroborree Of Aborignals - 1856 - After Samuel Colvert

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Cranbrook - 1934 - Sydney - NSW - Sydney Long

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Cricket Match - Military Barracks - 1845 - After Charles Stanforth Hext

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Cumberland St - The Rocks - George Collingbridge

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Cumberland St - The Rocks - J B Henderson

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Darling Point - 1930s - Douglas Pratt

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Dawes Battery - Sydney Harbour - 1917 - Sydney Ure Smith

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Dawes Point - 1924 - A H Fullwood

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Design for Industrial Home For Blind Women - NSW - Artist Unknown

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Design Of The GPO - Sydney - 1888

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Distant View Of Sydney From South Head NSW - 1824 - joseph Lycett

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Doorway - Freemans Journal - 1916 - Sydney Ure Smith

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Old Pyrmont Bridge - Alfred Coffey

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Old Queen Victoria Markets - Sydney - Julian Ashton

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Old Steps - Sydney - 1930 - Donald Friend

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Old Sydney Boys High School - 1926 - Austin Platt -

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Old Sydney Girls High School - Lionel Lindsay

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On The Slips - Rushcutters Bay - 1930's

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On The Slips - Rushcutters Bay - 1930's

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Oriental Bank - Pitt St - 1851 - Sydney - Samuel Thomas Gill

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Panorama - Liverpool Shewing & Moorebank Estate From Church Tower

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Panorama Of Sydney - 1820's - After Robert BurforD

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Parbury's Bond - Ure Smith

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Parliament House - Sydney - 1920's - Edward Warner

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Parramatta - Joseph Lycett

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Parramatta Bridge - Parramatta River - After Louis Auguste de Sainson

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Pastoral  Scene - Rosalie Ann Thorne - After Conrad Martins

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Phillip St  - Sydney - 1932 - Alfred Edward Warner Ernrest

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Picton - NSW -  W H Raworth -

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pinchgut Island - Fort Denison - Sydney Harbour - Vincent Woodthorpe

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Plan La Ville De Sydney - 1811 - After Charles Alexander Lesueur - French

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Plan Of 42 Allotments On The Point Piper Road - Sydney -

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Plan Of Prince Alfred Park Showing Sydney Agricultural Exhibition

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PLC Croydon - 1930s - Douglas Pratt

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Point Piper Near Rose Bay - Rosalie Ann Thorne - After Conrad Martins

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Port Jackson - View on Vaucluse Road - George E Peacock

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Port Jackson from Dawes battery - 1842 - John Skinner Prout

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Port Jackson Harbour - Taken From South head - After John Eyre - Walter Preston

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Port Jackson Views - Conrad Martins - Number 1

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Port Jackson Views - Conrad Martins - Number 2

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Port Jackson Views - Conrad Martins - Number 3

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Port Jackson With Garden Island From The Church - Darling Pt - Conrd Martins

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Portico - Sydney Town Hall - 1934 - Sydney - Gayfield Shaw

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portrait Of An Aboriginal Woman - 1910 - john Mather

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Portrait Of John Plunkettr - 1847 - charles Rodius

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Presbyterian Church - Nuetral Bay - NSW

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Presbyterian Ladies College - Croyden - 1934 - Gayfield Shaw

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Probable Effects Of Female Emigration - 1850s - George Cruikshank

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Proposed Wharfage Improvemenmts - Sydney - NSW - After A C Cooke

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Proposed Workers Flats - Harris St - Ultimo

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Pyrmont Bridge - 1925 - John Goodchild

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Queens Square - Cedric Emanuel

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Queens Square - Sydney - 1945 - Austin Platt

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Raby - Farm Of Alexander Riley Esq - 1824 - Joseph Lycett

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Royal Yacht Club - 1920's - Edward A Warner

SCEGS - Darlinghurst - 1930 - Edward Warner

Scenery In & Around Sydney - S T Gill - Number 1

Scenery In & Around Sydney - S T Gill - Number 2

Scenery In & Around Sydney - S T Gill - Number 3

Scenery In & Around Sydney - S T Gill - Number 4

School Of Arts - Pitt Street - S T Gill

Select Views Of Sydney NSW - John Carmichael - Number 1

Select Views Of Sydney NSW - John Carmichael - Number 2

Select Views Of Sydney NSW - John Carmichael - Number 6

Select Views Of Sydney NSW - John Carmichael - Number 4

Scenery In & Around Sydney - S T Gill - Number 3

Select Views Of Sydney NSW - John Carmichael - Number 6

Select Views Of Sydney NSW - John Carmichael - Number 7

Ship Builder - Darling Harbour - 1838

Ships Near Fort Denison - Frederick James Elliot

shore School - North Sydney - 1924 - Ernest Warner

Sketch Of Sydney Cove - 1789 - NSW - William Dawes

South Head Road - Sydney - 1890s - Phillip Stephan

South Head Road - Sydney - 1890s - Phillip Stephan

St James Church - Sydney - 1856 - Samuel Thomas Gill

St Marys Cathedral - Sydney - 1925 - Edward Warner

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