34 Cambridge Street

34 Cambridge Street is currently on the market so of course we went to have a look at the layout on this great terrace house.  It is marketed by Di Jones who describe it is "architecturally recreated, featuring an expertly conceived layout designed to accommodate a family's changing needs, this custom-finished terrace enjoys an elevated setting on one of Paddington's best streets". We agree with Di on the street! My favourite feature was definitely the finished basement wine cellar, a great use of space.

We have had a quick look to see if we could turn up any interesting historical things about this house. According to the Paddington Rate Books, the group of terraces from 22 to 34 were all owned by a JH Rowe and appear to be constructed c.1890.  These were the last group of houses to be built on the west side of the street. Its neighbour at 36 Cambridge was built c. 1888, you can see quite clearly the "double wall" on the right hand side of the property in the above photo where the two terrace groups meet. These group of terraces were built to be rentals, some advertisements in the 1896 Sydney Morning Herald describe 34 Cambridge Street as having "6 rooms, folding doors, bathroom, washhouse and every convenience, asphalt yard, nice locality, sanitation perfect, harbour view, near school and a minute to Hargrave St bus" (the tram came, and went, later).

Of course we will try to answer the question of "Who's been sleeping in my house?" for the future owners. Being a rental there were quite a few tenants through here back in the day according to the Sands Directory. One such tenant from the 1890s was listed as "Lane B. J., artist" so we tried his details on Trove and came up with an interesting article (link here). Benjamin James Lane certainly lived a full life, born in 1846 in Great Yarmouth he lived into his 90s before passing away in Hobart in 1939. He originally moved out to New Zealand before arriving in Sydney in 1890 where he took up a position as an artist on the Illustrated Sydney News (which was published up to 1894). In 1894 he moved down to Hobart where, except for a stint at the Melbourne Zoo, he remained until his death. He and his wife had 12 kids, I am not sure how many were living with him and his wife whilst they were at 34 Cambridge but it does show you can fit a big family there! The photo below is from the Hobart Mercury when he was 89.

Another random hit was that 34 Cambridge Street was one of 50 two bedroom houses which were allotted to former WWII servicemen by ballot in November 1946. Over 5,000 former servicemen applied for the houses and Seamen William Henry Dexter, who had served on HMAS Napier in 1943 whilst it protected convoys on the Africa - Bombay route, was lucky enough to score 34 Cambridge Street. There are some other random hits you get on other residents so have a look at some of the photos we've put in here from the Sands Directory if you want to try your own!