This is a grab-bag of newspaper clippings I've come across about Sydney's big old houses and what became of them. Some were cut up into rooms, some were stripped, and a lot were simply pulled down. Between the wars the grand family homes of the harbourside suburbs were worth more as land than as houses, and the clippings show it.
In 1937 “Grantham” at Potts Point – once Granthamville, and before that Dangar Castle, standing on Judge-Advocate John Wylde's 1822 grant – was sold for demolition for £530. The Daily Telegraph in 1939 counted how few Sydney homes were still worth £20,000, and mentions that Edgecliff House, the old Terry home, had already gone. There's also a 1931 story from the Kyogle Examiner about thieves stripping a mansion at Onion's Point, Hunters Hill. And from The Age in 1946, homeless ex-servicemen move into a 20-room mansion at Kings Cross. At the other end of the scale, the Daily Standard in 1935 found 30 people living in one house at Paddington.
Related posts on this blog: Demolished Sydney · Demolished Buildings Of Sydney · Tusculum Part 2 – 1–3 Manning Street – Potts Point
Image: Unknown photographer, Manning family album (State Library of NSW) – via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Source
Assorted Demolished Mansions In Sydney & Surrounds
30 Live In One House – Atrocious Overcrowding In Sydney
The Daily Standard – Tuesday 1st October 1935 – Page 2
30 Live in One House
ATROCIOUS OVERCROWDING IN SYDNEY
Stables "Converted"
SYDNEY, Monday.
Thirty people living in one house, 10 eating and sleeping in one room, stables converted into "residential chambers," stair-wells used as kitchenettes, and a kitchen that also served as a laundry and bathroom—these were mentioned by Martin Gallagher, health inspector, of Paddington Council, in describing the housing conditions in Paddington at Cost of Living Inquiry to-day.
MOST of the houses in the Paddington district had been converted into residential chambers, he [illegible] and there were from two to six [illegible] seven families in each house. In [illegible] street he had inspected 16 houses, and found that in 10 cases single rooms were occupied for sleeping and eating, sometimes by the whole family.
The rentals of these rooms were from 10s to 12s 6d. For 5s one could get a converted woodshed, 6ft by 6ft, with a height of only 7ft between floor and ceiling, he added.
Mr. Justice Cantor: You regard that as unhealthy?
Witness: It is an awful state of affairs. The situation has got right out of control. We can't find place for people to go.
Mr. Justice Cantor: In Paddington but how about elsewhere?
Witness: It's a job to get them to go out of Paddington. It's so handy, and in some cases their parents before them have lived there.
3000 New Homes Needed.
Witness said that to provide decent housing in Paddington at least 3000 new houses would be required. But there was no room to build them.
The President (Mr. Justice Browne): What about flats?
Witness: Yes, the only way would be to build up in the air.
The big houses, he said, were the worst. In one old "mansion," which was now being demolished, 30 people had been living in it a week ago. There was only one bathroom, and the rooms were subdivided by curtains.
In another house, he said, we found a stable with two stalls, which had been converted, and they were let to two old age pensioners at 5s a week.
"The ventilation in such homes is bad," Gallagher said, "the stench, particularly of cooking, being awful. In some places it would turn your stomach sick."
Few Sydney Homes Worth £20,000
The Daily Telegraph – Sunday 26th November 1939 – Page 7
FEW SYDNEY HOMES WORTH £20,000
Sydney estate agents agreed yesterday that there were probably fewer than 20 homes in Sydney worth £20,000.
On Friday, Mr. A. W. Olbers, Rosedale Road, Gordon, bid £20,000 for Woolcott Forbes' home in Gordon.
The bid was refused.
"There are only two Sydney homes in the £100,000 class," one leading city agent said.
They are:—
"Mr. Frank Albert's home, Boomerang, Billyard-avenue, Elizabeth Bay.
Mr. Robert Dixan's [sic] home, Elwaton, Castle Hill."
Other Owners
Owners of homes worth £20,000 or more, other agents said, include:
MR. ANTHONY HORDERN, Retford Hall, Darling Point.
CAPTAIN PATRICK, Darling Point.
MR. E. RESCH, Darling Point.
MR. WARWICK FAIRFAX, Bellevue Hill.
LADY FAIRFAX, Bellevue Hill.
MR. ALEXIS ALBERT, Vaucluse.
SIR SYDNEY SNOW, Bonnie Brae, Wahroonga.
SIR FREDERICK STEWART, Dundas.
The home at Turramurra of Mr. Eric Campbell, former organiser of the New Guard, is probably worth about £15,000.
Effect of Sub-division
Mr. L. J. Hooker, another leading agent, said that the Woolcott Forbes home cost from £35,000 to £40,000 to build.
"Subdivision of the property would largely spoil its value," he said, "but it might take a year or more to sell it otherwise.
"One old home in Macleay Street, bought not long ago for £24,000, realised from £30,000 to £35,000 on subdivision.
"The old Terry home, Edgecliff House, Edgecliff, brought £18,000. It was demolished to provide sites for luxury homes."
CASTLE OWNER BIDS FOR MANSION
Here [pointing hand] is Mr. Adolph W. Albers, of Rosedale Road, Gordon, who owns the famous castle on the [pointing hand] heights at Mona Vale. On Friday he bid £20,000 for Woolcott-Forbes's Gordon home (lower picture.)
Read Mark Time, Page 6, Col. 7.
[Photographs: Mr. Albers; the castle at Mona Vale; the Woolcott-Forbes home at Gordon. No captions printed.]
Historic Home Sold For Demolition
The Sydney Morning Herald – Saturday 16th January 1937 – Page 18
HISTORIC HOME
Sold for Demolition.
One of the old homes of Sydney, Grantham, in St. Neot-avenue, Potts Point, is to be demolished. Yesterday, the mansion was offered at auction by Richardson and Wrench, Ltd., for demolition and removal, and was sold for £530.
After its removal, the grounds will be subdivided and submitted at auction.
Grantham was previously known as Granthamville and Dangar Castle. The site originally formed part of a grant of 11 acres made in 1822 to the Judge Advocate, Mr John Wylde who later received a knighthood.
The first house on the property was built about 1835 by Caleb Wilson, an ironmonger, and all that remains of the original building is the present tower and kitchen quarters. Wilson's house was known as Caleb Castle but it was referred to jocularly as "Frying Pan Castle of Woolloomooloo."
Mr. F Parbury later owned it, and named it Granthamville. He was one of the port's best-known wharf proprietors. Parbury's wharves accommodated in their time many of the early wool ships which helped to develop the port of Sydney.
Whereas Caleb Wilson had paid £405 for 4½ acres of ground, Mr. Donald Larnach, who later owned it, paid £5000 for the house and the 4½ acres. This was later subdivided, and part was resold in 1853 to Mr. Henry Dangar for £6000. After his death in 1861, his widow occupied the house, and left it in her will to Mr. H. C. Dangar in 1869. He lived there until 1917. Since then the house has been owned by several persons.
Mr. H. C. Dangar rebuilt the home to his own design, and followed the Norman style of architecture. The palatial home, as it was known to most people, 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 in 1870, Mr. Dangar renamed the house Grantham.
To-day, the house has cedar fittings throughout, and contains 22 bedrooms and five bathrooms.
Homeless Occupy Sydney Mansion
The Age – Friday 22nd March 1946 – Page 8
HOMELESS OCCUPY SYDNEY MANSION
Council Begins Demolition
SYDNEY, Thursday.—A court order has been served on the Sydney city council by one of the ex-servicemen who forcibly entered and occupied a 20-roomed mansion at King's Cross last night. The order calls upon the town clerk to show cause why the house should not be let to him as an ex-serviceman.
The case is listed for hearing to-morrow in Paddington court.
When the council learned this morning of the occupation, workmen were sent to commence demolition of the building.
The council was to-day ordered by the Minister for Labor (Mr. Hamilton Knight) not to demolish the premises.
"I will not allow any building capable of housing people in decency to be demolished while the present housing shortage exists unless some very good reason is advanced," Mr. Knight added.
Under the terms of the late owner's will the mansions are to be demolished to provide an extension to Fitzroy Park.
Work Of Thieves – Mansion Demolished
Kyogle Examiner – Tuesday 22nd December 1931 – Page 1
Work of Thieves.
MANSION DEMOLISHED.
A beautiful old mansion at Onion's Point, on the Parramatta River, has almost been demolished as the result of persons stealing portions of the building, according to Sergeant Elliott, at the Hunter's Hill Court, when Percy Carruthers and Bernard Moran, laborers, were charged with having window frames in their possession suspected of having been stolen (says the Sydney Sun).
He said that the flooring, windows, roof, doors, and even some of the bricks and stone had been carried away because the place was unoccupied.
Each defendant was fined £[illegible].