Cliffbrook

About

Cliffbrook is a heritage-listed former residence, school and government building and now university research, administration building and university press located at 45-51 Beach Street, Coogee, New South Wales, an eastern suburb of Sydney, Australia. Built in 1921, its design is attributed to John Kirkpatrick. The building is owned by the University of New South Wales. The property was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

pre-1780s - local Aboriginal people in the area used the site for fishing and cultural activities - rock engravings, grinding grooves and middens remain in evidence. 1789 - Governor Philip referred to "a long bay", which became known as Long Bay. Aboriginal people are believed to have inhabited the Sydney region for at least 20,000 years. The population of Aboriginal people between Palm Beach and Botany Bay in 1788 has been estimated to have been 1500. Those living south of Port Jackson to Botany Bay were the Cadigal people who spoke Dharug, while the local clan name of Maroubra people was "Muru-ora-dial". By the mid nineteenth century the traditional owners of this land had typically either moved inland in search of food and shelter, or had died as the result of European disease or confrontation with British colonisers.

One of the earliest land grants in this area was made in 1824 to Captain Francis Marsh, who received 12 acres bounded by the present Botany and High Streets, Alison and Belmore Roads. In 1839 William Newcombe acquired the land north-west of the present town hall in Avoca Street.

Randwick takes its name from the town of Randwick, Gloucestershire, England. The name was suggested by Simeon Pearce (1821–86) and his brother James. Simeon was born in the English Randwick and the brothers were responsible for the early development of both Randwick and its neighbour, Coogee. Simeon had come to the colony in 1841as a 21 year old surveyor. He built his Blenheim House on the 4 acres he bought from Marsh, and called his property "Randwick". The brothers bought and sold land profitably in the area and elsewhere. Simeon campaigned for construction of a road from the city to Coogee (achieved in 1853) and promoted the incorporation of the suburb. Pearce sought construction of a church modelled on the church of St. John in his birthplace. In 1857 the first St Jude's stood on the site of the present post office, at the corner of the present Alison Road and Avoca Street.

Randwick was slow to progress. The village was isolated from Sydney by swamps and sandhills, and although a horse-bus was operated by a man named Grice from the late 1850s, the journey was more a test of nerves than a pleasure jaunt. Wind blew sand over the track, and the bus sometimes became bogged, so that passengers had to get out and push it free. From its early days Randwick had a divided society. The wealthy lived elegantly in large houses built when Pearce promoted Randwick and Coogee as a fashionable area. But the market gardens, orchards and piggeries that continued alongside the large estates were the lot of the working class. Even on the later estates that became racing empires, many jockeys and stablehands lived in huts or even under canvas. An even poorer group were the immigrants who existed on the periphery of Randwick in a place called Irishtown, in the area now known as The Spot, around the junction of St.Paul's Street and Perouse Road. Here families lived in makeshift houses, taking on the most menial tasks in their struggle to survive.

In 1858 when the NSW Government passed the Municipalities Act, enabling formation of municipal districts empowered to collect rates and borrow money to improve their suburb, Randwick was the first suburb to apply for the status of a municipality. It was approved in February 1859, and its first Council was elected in March 1859.

Randwick had been the venue for sporting events, as well as duels and illegal sports, from the early days in the colony's history. Its first racecourse, the Sandy Racecourse or Old Sand Track, had been a hazardous track over hills and gullies since 1860. When a move was made in 1863 by John Tait, to establish Randwick Racecourse, Simeon Pearce was furious, especially when he heard that Tait also intended to move into Byron Lodge. Tait's venture prospered, however and he became the first person in Australia to organise racing as a commercial sport. The racecourse made a big difference to the progress of Randwick. The horse-bus gave way to trams that linked the suburb to Sydney and civilisation. Randwick soon became a prosperous and lively place, and it still retains a busy residential, professional and commercial life.

Today, some of the houses have been replaced by home units. Many European migrants have made their homes in the area, along with students and workers at the nearby University of NSW and the Prince of Wales Hospital.

The existing property Cliffbrook presently stands on part of an original estate named "Cliff-Brook" which comprised three parcels of crown land granted between 1845 - 1846 to Lewis Gordon, a State Government Surveyor.

The original land grant was for four acres 1 rood and was followed a year later by two further parcels, one 1 acre 3 roods 30 perches. The Cliffbrook estate today stands on part of the latter parcel. Extensive changes to the boundaries' of the estate have occurred through time.

Lewis Gordon apparently erected a house on the estate, however, no record of it can be found today. Between 1846 and 1856 the estate was sold in full to M. H. Lewis and subsequently to O. M. Lewis.

It was sold again in 1859 to Australian footballer, John Thompson. By this time, the "Cliff-Brook" estate included a further parcel of land. The grounds were "over 5.7 hectares (14 acres) then, and included the sheltered bay" - Gordon's Bay. John Thompson was a local businessman who became Mayor of Randwick in 1873. Thompson is believed to have built the original Cliff-Brook mansion in the 1860s.

Designed in the Victorian Italianate style: "the main walls of the house were solid stone quarried from the site. the balustrades to the verandahs and parapet walls were brickwork rendered in cement. The whole of the external walls and cement mouldings were given a lime and cement wash to give the building a uniform colour. The large verandah on the upper floor was laid in Italian mosaic imported from Rome, the main entrance hall floor was tiled. There was a stone lodge at the main entrance gates. large stone stables with four horse stalls. coach house, harness room and man's quarters."

The stone buildings were located on the northern end of the estate where the current mansion stands. The property was again sold in 1889 to George Hill. The later additions to the mansion, including the towers are believed to have been carried out by George Hill.

Hill was "a squatter and a horse-player and we may never know which sent him broke" but in 1899 he was declared bankrupt and the property was repossessed by the Bank of New South Wales in payment of debts owing to the Bank. The Bank employed a caretaker to look after the house and grounds which were apparently used as a poultry farm. After spending "some (Pounds)600 clearing up the house and garden, the caretaker was finally dismissed.

In 1905 Sir Denison Miller, then assistant to the general Manager of the Bank of New South Wales, was asked to occupy the mansion, rent free. Six years later, Miller now first Governor of the Commonwealth Bank, purchased the estate. "He paid A£8,000 for the land and house and later sold the foreshores of Thompson's Bay" to Randwick Municipal Council for A£ 3,000. The present Cliffbrook mansion was built in 1921, according to the Randwick Historical Society's documentation, designed by architect John Kirkpatrick in the Federation Free Classical style. The original stone buildings were demolished to accommodate the residence.

Kirkpatrick had established himself as a prominent architect in Sydney by the late 1880s. He was the architect for several important surviving buildings in the City including the Colonial Mutual Life Building, Martin Place (1894) the Commonwealth Bank, Pitt Street (1914). Although Thomas Rowe won the competition for the Sydney Hospital Buildings on Macquarie Street, Kirkpatrick was commissioned by the government to finish the project. The design of the operating Theatre and Chapel at the rear is attributed to Kirkpatrick. He was also architect for grandstands at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The authorship of the design remains unresolved. The lack of primary source references in secondary sources consulted suggests that a resolution of this question will require much more research. Uncorroborated oral evidence provided in an inquiry to the Australian Heritage Commission suggested a strong friendship between Sir Denison Miller and Kirkpatrick, perhaps connected with Mlller's Governorship of the Commonwealth Bank from 1911 and Kirkpatrick's commission for the Pitt Street Bank Building completed in 1914.

Peter McCallum, who is currently a Principal of E. A. and T. M. Scott, has advised that he recalls the firm's archives were destroyed in 1958. E. A. Scott established his practice in 1888: after World War I the firm was E. A. Scott, Green and Scott: and after 1949 the name E. A. and T. M. Scott was adopted. McCallum is not able to connect Cliffbrook with the firm but did note that E. A. Scott designed many houses in Lang Road, Centennial Park, often recognised because of his use of "plum-coloured" bricks.

The present evidence is circumstantial. Cliffbrook may have been designed by Kirkpatrick, or E. A. Scott, or (a third possibility) by Kirkpatrick in association with E. A. Scott. This theory is based on the presumption that Kirkpatrick, late in his career, may have undertaken part of the commission and sought assistance from a younger architect - or may have, for reasons as yet unknown, been unable to complete the commission which was then taken over by E. A. Scott