Shubra Hall

About

Shubra Hall is a heritage-listed former semi-rural suburban estate and mansion residence and now administration building for school purposes at Boundary Street in the Sydney suburb of Croydon, Municipality of Burwood, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Albert Bond and built from 1869 to 1888 in the Victorian Second Empire architectural style. It is also known as Presbyterian Ladies' College, PLC Croydon and Hordernville. The property is owned by the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney and was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 19 December 2014.

Shubra Hall is located on part of 304 hectares (750 acres) granted to Captain Thomas Rowley on 9 August 1803 ( Burwood Estate) and on part of 40 hectares (100 acres) granted to Augustus Alt, Surveyor General to the Colony ( Ashfield Park Estate). These two grants covered most of Burwood and Croydon.

Thirteen acres and two roods of land were consolidated under a single Certificate of Title on 4 August 1868 in the name of Anthony Horden III, draper, in the City of Sydney. Tertius, as he was known, owned the fabulous Hordern department store in Sydney with his brother Samuel. Their father noted that Tertius "has bought a farm at Ashfield for A£ 1200 – he has agreed to pay £500 cash, the rest on mortgage." He moved out of his cottage near his father's home at Darling Point and lived initially in the stables at Croydon 'in order to supervise the work more closely' including the fencing of 10 hectares (25 acres) of land. This suggests that the stables pre-date the main house; however, there are no known original design drawings for house, stables or garden.

The design of "Shubra Hall" has been attributed to architect Albert Bond, who achieved prominence as City Architect between 1873 and 1877, and was long associated with the Hordern brothers. He designed the Anthony Hordern and Sons department store building in the Haymarket and their New Palace Emporium on Brickfield Hill, as well as Sam's home at Bowral. He also designed the school buildings adjoining Shubra Hall for PLC in 1889–90.

Shubra Hall was a "Villa Garden", based on the notion of "a country mansion built together with farm-buildings and occupied by a person of some position and wealth". The architectural style of the residence is identifiable as "Victorian Second Empire" and unusual for being found in a domestic residence. H. G. Woffenden discussed the design in his PhD on nineteenth-century architecture in NSW:

'Two ornate Sydney suburban villas may be regarded as heralds of the Boom Style that reached a climax in the mid-eighties. The larger (Shubra Park) built for Anthony Hordern at Croydon, reflected the influence of second empire style, popular at the time in Sydney public buildings... Although the tower with its steep, fish-scale patterned roof was nominally second-empire, the lavish decoration applied to the entire exterior as s a three dimensional non-structural layer was a mixture of crude Romanesque and Byzantine. Plaster ornaments, chamfers, blind arcading, polygonal columns and strange capitals in the entrance, as well as balconies and verandahs bedecked with cast-iron-admittedly limited in extent-these made an exotic display. Excesses of this kind prompted the comment attributed to Professor Leslie Wilkinson, that architecture at the time "added ten percent for pomp".'

Anthony III named his new home "Shubra Hall" for reasons that are now obscure; "Shubra" was also used as a middle name for members of the Hordern family at that time. the place was also known as Shubra Park and Hordernville in the Sands Directory. The house appears to have been completed by September 1869 when the birth of a son to Mrs. Anthony Hordern III "at her residence, Shubra Park, Ashfield" was announced in The Sydney Morning Herald. A short time before, Hordern had put his signature on a counter petition opposing the formation of Burwood Municipal Council, identifying himself as a resident of the district.

The Hordern family "created many celebrated gardens around their residences". Anthony ('Tertius') Hordern III's Shubra Hall is described by Tanner and Britton in their entry on the family's gardens in The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens as'a high-Victorian villa on a landscaped hilltop (now Presbyterian Ladies' College) at Croydon'. There is also mention of his father Anthony Hordern's Retford Hall at Darling Point and country seat Retford Park in Bowral, his brother Samuel Hordern 's Babworth House at Darling Point, and other close relatives, Anthony Hordern's Milton Park at Bowral, Lebbeus Hordern's Hopewood House, Edward Carr Hordern's Chislehurst at Chatswood and Alfred Hordern's Highlands house designed by John Horbury Hunt at Wahroonga.

Within three years of purchasing the land in 1868, Hordern undertook the first subdivision of his property. A proposed second subdivision of his property, "Hawthordern Estate" was cancelled in December 1880. Shubra Hall was located on the largest parcel Anthony Hordern advertised for an auction sale on 14 April 1882, where it was described as "that delightfully situated and tastefully designed family mansion on the hill, north of Croydon Railway Station, comprising a magnificent mansion and improved grounds; area about 5 acres". The advertisement contained a detailed description of the house and grounds. Tertius appears to have remained in occupation of Shubra Hall until September when he advertised the auction sale of "the whole of his very elegant and recherche household furniture and effects... in consequence of his projected departure for England". The Mutual Provident Land Investing and Building Society (Limited) sold Shubra Hall and grounds (comprising four acres and three roods) in December 1882 to John Coghlan of Pitt Street, Sydney, Diamond Drill owner, for a sum of £6,489.

John Coghlan and his family had moved into Shubra Hall by June 1884. The Australian Town and Country Journal published an illustrated feature article in which Shubra Hall was depicted with the following description:

- 'Mr. Coglan's (sic) residence, situated in one of the highest parts of the town or surroundings, and a really fine mass of architecture, and a lofty tower at the back caps the pile... A fine view of the surrounding country is obtained from here.'

Coghlan was an active member of the Croydon community. In May 1886 he attended a large public meeting of residents and property-holders to demand the Government provide better station accommodation, formation of a goods siding and purchase of a public park at Croydon. He was elected to the executive committee which was formed at this meeting. In the same year a notice appeared reporting the birth of a daughter to Mrs J. Coghlan of Shubra Hall, Croydon. Coghlan experienced severe financial stress in 1889, on the eve of the 1890s depression, and was unable to sustain the mortgage payments on Shubra Hall. Coghlan and family moved to Glebe Point where he died in July 1896 aged 61, leaving behind a widow and seven children.

The auction sale of Shubra Hall was advertised on 3 September 1889, and it sold to John Hay Goodlet, Alexander Dean and James Balfour Elphinstone, guarantors of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales, for the reported sum of £7,500.

Presbyterian Ladies' College and Shubra Hall

In 1883 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales resolved to locate a site, obtain funds and establish a Ladies' College in New South Wales. In 1887 several gentlemen from the Presbyterian Church signed a lease on a gentleman's residence at Ashfield, "Femlea", commencing on 7 January 1888. The General Assembly appointed Dr John Marden principal of the College and he and his family took up temporary residence there while seeking a permanent site for the school.

Within the first month there were 30 students enrolled in the Presbyterian Ladies' College (PLC), of which 15 were boarders. By year's end student numbers had increased rapidly and accommodation for boarders was stretched. The church continued looking for permanent accommodation for the school. About this time Shubra Hall at Croydon was advertised for sale, and was duly purchased at auction by Church representatives, Goodlet, Dean and Elphinstone. Following the acquisition, a committee was formed in November to decide upon the requirements for additional school buildings needed on the site and select an architect. Documentation confirms that Albert Bond was appointed architect for the extension (even if it cannot be confirmed that he was the original architect of Shubra Hall). 'By the beginning of the school year of 1891 the new site was complete and ready to commence functioning as the permanent home of P.L.C. The total cost of the new buildings and renovations was £25,000.'

The new Presbyterian Ladies' College at Croydon was officially opened in March 1891 by the Governor of New South Wales. The main college building, comprising Boarding House, Dining Room and College Hall, "adjoins the residence of the principal, Dr John Marden" (Shubra Hall) and stands "in the midst of a spacious block of ground, six acres in extent, which is being laid out in lawn tennis courts, gardens, etc, in an elevated position, it forms, with its tower 26 metres (84 ft) high, a very conspicuous feature in the landscape".

The Australian Dictionary of Biography entry on "John Marden" mentions that he trained as a lawyer but was "keenly interested in horticulture" and "laid out beautiful gardens and playing fields" for the Croydon campus. He did the same again when he moved to Pymble in 1916 after 20 hectares (50 acres) were purchased for an additional campus for the school. An anonymous historical account describing the fostering of science at PLC in part through the nurturing of the gardens explains:

- 'An ex-student of PLC remembers Dr Marden as a keen horticulturist who was responsible for planning the gardens at Croydon. He directed that both native and exotic shrubs and trees be planted to help the young ladies in the practical aspects of botany. Many photographs capture these early plantings which very quickly replaced the grapevines which had originally occupied the area directly in front of Shubra Hall. In the 1894 collage which shows the grapevines, it is also possible to discern a bush-house or a large bird-cage in the garden near the tennis courts. Photographs from 1905 show changes in the growth patterns of the gardens; the pines are noticeably taller, new fruit trees have replaced the grape vines and palms are flourishing near the science wing (now the archive). Albert Evans was employed as Head Gardener. He stayed in that position for 43 years and, for part of that time, lived in the stable loft (above the archive and the shop)... It became popular in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s to hold garden parties, plays and pageants in the gardens. The 50th Anniversary of the college was celebrated in 1938 by the staging of a pageant, "Under this Gum Tree" written by Flora Eldershaw as the item to close the celebrations. The entire school performed the garden below the great white gum.'

An anonymous short history of Shubra Hall dating from around 1986 describes the different uses of the mansion within the school: