Terraces/Harbour Rocks Hotel

Statement of Significance

View spatial data in

Description

Assessed significance: State

Item type: Built

Current use: Pub / Hotel

Former use: Pub / Hotel

Group: Commercial

Category: Hotel

Designer/Maker:

Builder/Maker:

Construction Years: 1873 - 1875

Physical Description: Nos 42-52 Harrington Street is a row of six two storey terrace houses stepped up Harrington Street of rendered brickwork. The steeply pitched roofs are of corrugated iron, the windows are double hung of twelve panes with sandstone sills. There is a characteristic Georgian flattened brick arch over the windows. (Collingridge 1978) In the conversion to a hotel in 1989, the two front rooms on the ground and first floors have been retained as individual suites, with access passageways built to the rear. An opening has been made in the walls between the rooms, and the bathrooms have been created in the rear room.In 1989, work was completed on the conversion of the Stores and the adjoining terraces at 42-52 Harrington Street, with shops, bars and restaurants facing Nurses Walk to the rear. (SCRA Annual Report 1989: 31)Style: Georgian; Storeys: Two; Facade: Brick; Roof Cladding: ?

Property Description

Address

Historic Notes and Themes

Historical notes: The site was originally part of the hospital gardens.The land is shown on 1834 map (Robert Russell Survey of Allotments, 1934) as reserved for Presbyterian Church. In 1841 is shown as 'Open space as left by Government'.It was not until 1871 that a deed of grant was issued for the land and five months later the Presbyterian Church sold the land to Henry Bradburn Dobson, Louis Jacobs and Sydney Jacobs. Just over a year later they sold the land to Walter Bradley, an auctioneer from whom Henry Dobson repurchased the land in his own right. Dobson was a Sydney builder, but the Jacobs were importers and it seems likely that their role was as Dobsons temporary financers.The 1873 sale plan shows the allotment divided into four lots each with a frontage of 20 feet to Harrington St but when Dobson built on the land he constructed six terraces fronting Harrington St with another six built at a lower level behind them. These houses had frontages to the land left vacant by the government in the original subdivision which was reached by Reynold's Lane. Finance for the construction of the houses was provided by a series of mortgages from Edward Terry in 1873, the auctioneers Edward Raynes and Josiah Richard Treeve in April 1874 and George Thornton in February 1875. The houses were built during this period and were described as 'recently-erected' when put up for aution in May 1875 by Raynes, Treeve & Co. James McClellan, a teacher, purchased the the houses. Sobson had borrowed heavily on the properties and went into voluntuntary insolvency being unable to meet his repayments to the Bank of New South Wales.McClelland, who seems to have got something of a bargain remained the owner of the twelve houses until 1885. The sales notices indicated that the houses attracted respectable tenants, tradesmen rather than labourers, and they enjoyed considerable period of occupancy. Unlike the terraces next door, all the houses had backyards and the necessary outbuildings. The property changed hands four times in the period from 1885 until resumption in 1900 but there were no major breaks in tenancies.After the government resumed the properties in 1900, the six houses at the rear facing Harrington Lane were demolished between 1911 and 1914. The condition of the remaining houses on Harrington St seems to have been rather rudimentry and the City Council issued several orders for the houses to be repaied and renovated in the 1920s and 30s. Electricity was provided in the late 1930s provided the tenants agreed to an increase in their rent. Although many of the tenants remained in the same houses for years, rent arrears were quiet common and the Maritime Services Board appears to have been comparatively relaxed about this situation. Over a period of 30 years from the 1920s to the 1950s the rent increased from 1 pound a week to 1.7shillings, by the 1970s when the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority acquired the houses the rent increased between 1971 from $8.40 to $20 by 1975.For a short period in the 1920s Joplins Manufacturing Company in the adjacent stores also rented two of the terraces reducing the number of residences to four, but they gave up no 44 in 1927. The date that the houses became vacant is not known but from the late 1980s the decision to amalgamate the terraces with developments on the adjacent site to provide a viable commerical premises resulted in their redevelopment as part of a new hotel, a consideralbe move 'up market' from their origins. The submission by the Tara Hotel Group was recommended to the Minister on financial and architectural grounds. The proposal was for a budget hotel using the stores and terraces with new construction at the rear. The new development took place in 1988 and the Harbour Rocks Hotel was opened in 1989. Since then changes for disabled access, the rearrangement of the restaurant and bar areas and the provision of balconies at the rear have occurred.

Historical significance: The site of the terraces is of historical significance as part of the original hospital garden and of subsequent buildings from 1850 until the construction of the terraces between 1873 and 75. They meet the criterion at a State level.

Historical association: The terraces do not meet this criterion

Aesthetic significance: The terraces have aesthetic significance as it forms part of a strong visual precinct with the former stores building at Nos 34-40 and Nos 55-71 on the other side of the street and also relates to the buildings at 39-47 Argyle St. The terraces make an important contribution to the streetscape. The terraces meet this criterion at State level.

Social significance: The terraces do not meet this criterion

Research significance: Any remains associated with the hospital garden, artefact deposits or features association with the hospital building or auxiliary structures such as kitchens or wells, have the potential to retain information about a number of themes, such as alienation of the place after 1788, provision of early health facilities and the on-going development of the site.

Rare assessment: The terraces do not meet this criterion as there a number of other examples of their kind, some better preservd internally within the local area

Representative assessment: The terrace at 42-52 Harrington St is representative of the terrace housing constructed for the working classes throughout The Rocks area and other parts of Sydney in the late nineteenth century and visible in many historic photos. The plainess of the exterior is more likely to relfect economy rather than style. The terraces meet this criterion at local level.

Intact assessment: Below ground archaeological remains could exist in the form of wells or cesspits.

Physical condition: Archaeology Assessment Condition:Below ground archaeological remain in the form of wells or cesspits may remain

Listings

References

Type	Author	Year	Title
Management Plan	Orwell & Peter Phillips	2007	Conservation management plan, Evans Stores 34-40 Harrington St & Terraces 42-52 Harrington St
Written	SCA	1995	Historical Information (Susan Duyker) - see Building Data Sheet HP/30

IMAGES

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge