Studebaker trials - Cambridge Street.

So I am not surprising anyone who knows Cambridge Street to admit that it is a little steep.  What I didn't realise is that Cambridge Street's steepness would be newsworthy.  The below article from the Sydney Sunday Times of 6 January 1929 relates how the Managing Director of Studebaker took out the journo to show him how the car handled some of the well known steepest hills in Sydney.  

It looks like Arden Street in Coogee was the big one back in the day but Cambridge and Cascade street represented Paddington. The Studebaker climbed Cambridge Street "easily from both approaches"!

Shay Docking

Shay Docking was shortlisted for the Woollahra Council local history plaque scheme in 2013.  As a result, the Council has a very detailed biography on their website, link is here.  Shay was an important Australian artist and Cambridge Street resident.

Shay went to art school in Melbourne and lived in Newcastle, New Zealand and Paddington. She was a prolific artist and her works have found homes in many public institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of NSW, many regional galleries (notably the Newcastle Gallery) and in New Zealand.  Her work has been the subject of two books, "The Landscape as Metaphor" by Ursula Prunster and "Shay Docking Drawings" by Lou Klepac. A portrait of Shay Docking, painted by Margaret Ackland, was a finalist in the Archibald Prize for 1987.

Known primarily for her landscapes, Shay's paintings have a distinctive abstract feel.  The work on top is from the AGNSW collection, "Echidna Country" from 1963. Her drawings are more naturalistic, the drawing above depicts one of her favourite subjects, an angophora tree.  Again this is from the AGNSW, a 1975 work entitled "Angophoras and Hawkesbury".

Shay lived at 69 Cambridge Street.  With her husband Gil, the Docking's purchased the terrace in the 1960's and renovated it. They moved to New Zealand in 1965 for Gil's work as Head of the Auckland City Art Gallery, returning to Paddington in 1972 when Gil took up a position at the AGNSW. Shay was to remain in Paddington until her death in 1998.  The above image is a pencil sketch from 1972 entitled "View from Studio Window at Paddington".  Shay's studio was the front room on the first floor (what would be the master bedroom in a standard terrace layout).  Given the outlook of the Docking's terrace I would guess that the roofs pictured are maybe 46 & 48 Cambridge Street.  One giveaway that you are in an artist's house is the strange slit in the roof of the entrance corridor.  Gil Docking cut a long trapdoor in the studio above, about 2m by 10cm so that larger works could be merely dropped through the floor and out the front door rather than being carried down the stairs.

Christopher Brennan plaque ...

We've previously posted about this famous Cambridge Street resident (see link here).  And here is his plaque!  Sadly this is not on Cambridge Street, we are still working on the Woollahra Council plaque scheme.  This is plaque is part of the NSW Writers Walk down at Circular Quay / the Rocks.  The walk includes about 50 plaques celebrating the works of writers associated with Sydney.  These people either visited Sydney, wrote about Sydney, or lived in Sydney (and Cambridge St!).

Apart from Christopher Brennan, some other plaques commemorate Joseph Conrad, Charles Darwin, Arthur Conan Doyle, Clive James, Ruth Park, Mark Twain and Patrick White amongst others.  So you can see it is quite the eclectic selection.  I took this photo a few months ago so can't recall its exact location but it is on the Opera House side.  Have fun finding it when you're next down there ...

Paddington Town Hall clock ...

A diversion off Cambridge Street today to look at the Paddington Town Hall clocktower.  The Town Hall was built in around the same time as most of the residences on Cambridge Street, officially opening in 1891.  The clock tower came later.  In 1902, the Empire had a new king (Edward VII) and the residents of Paddington thought it fitting that they honour him in a clock tower (as you do).  Here is a link to the SMH article of the day (link to Trove here) where the residents discuss the scheme.  As you can see from the article the two suggestions discussed at the public meeting were "Edward the VII" and "Edwardus 1902" - both of these fine suggestions having 12 letters each.  The council ended up cleverly going with "Edwardus The VII" which is 14 letters except that they made the VII actually correspond to the 7 o'clock.  You can see the detail in the above photo with the E for Edwardus starting at the 8 o'clock.  This is the side that faces Oxford Street.  

The clock was started on 30 August 1905 by the Premier of NSW.  From the comments attributed him by the SMH of the day (again, link to Trove here) he was most excited that the residents had paid for this themselves and not relied on his Government.  He also thought that the day on which peace had been declared between Russia and Japan (ending the Russo-Japanese War) was a fitting time to set it in motion and hoped there would be peace and goodwill on earth as long as the clock continued to go.  Someone tell Sydney Council to stop stopping it!

Duxford Estate - the pick of Glenmore Rd.

Above is a copy of the original subdivision of the Duxford Estate into Cambridge.  The sale took place in March 1885.  I think its a great interesting piece and I would love to locate an original to get a better image (this is a photo of a b&w photocopy that was in an old title search).

The highlights for me are:
- Duxford House is shown to the south of Gurner St (this was the house of John Gurner and gave the its name to the 'estate'.  We've covered John before here). Interesting to see that the main house stayed going for a few more years occupying what would become Norfolk Street and Suffolk Street.  It'd be a pretty amazing place if they'd kept it!
- Cambridge lane runs all the way down to Glenmore Road, and the lots at what is now 71 to 81 Cambridge Street actually face Glenmore Road.  These were the last houses built on the street (in 1895) so I assume the person who bought all those lots decided to squeeze more houses on the Cambridge Street side and also put a terrace (Hartley - the one that is all by itself) on Glenmore Road instead of where the lane should've gone.
- Similarly, the east side of the street shows far fewer lots than there are houses now, hinting at more developer subdivision.  I'll have to come back to this map later.
- I also like that this is when the Glenmore Road lots were subdivided as I have wondered about that house that has an 1875 on it.  Probably an exaggeration!
- Glenmore Road School is there.  As everyone knows with the 130th celebrations in 2013 that the school was established in 1883 and so pre-dated Cambridge Street (which I guess is why it is called Glenmore Road School rather than Cambridge Street School despite the fact most of the entrances front Cambridge Street!).
- The Anglican Church at 5 Ways isn't there yet, the Anglican Church obviously fronting up to the auction to get their lots.

79 Cambridge Street ...

Gee it looks like June is selling month on Cambridge Street.  Number 47 selling today (& the McGrath agent door-knocking the street to let us all know the eye-watering price it sold for) and now 79 is up for grabs.  Marketed by Belle Property who are good on the styling but probably need to brush up on the Sands Directory, describing this 1895 terrace as 'turn of the century'.  I've been through this terrace before so the open house was an opportunity to see if there's been any renovations apart from the new grey paintjob to the exterior.  I think they are sensibly leaving it to the new owner to decide!

I've included a shot of the 1895 Sands Directory above.  This is 79's first appearance so it looks like Joseph Chamberlain was the original inhabitant.  Not much on Joseph in the archives but a resident of 79 Cambridge in the early 1900s shot to fame with a few wins in the Sydney Sunday Times quizzes.  S. Robberds picked up 5 shillings for the monogram on a quite a few occasions!  That was about it for Trove but this house has also featured on the blog's art section, with a nice pencil drawing appearing in the book the Paddington Pictures.  Link here.

47 Cambridge Street ...

47 Cambridge Street is on the market.  Scheduled for auction on the 21st we did what every self-respecting Paddington resident does ... swung by the open house for a sticky beak around.  This is marketed by McGrath, breaking the streak that Di Jones had on the street lately.  They had quite a bit to say about this "Grand Paddington terrace of unique proportions".

"Distinguished by its substantial tri-level layout and unique street presence, this grand 'Westbury' terrace is graced with a selection of casual/formal interiors blah, blah." Some of the highlights were that it is "located on one of Paddington's most sought after streets" (well, I believe that, but I am sure they say that about any street in Paddo), and its "elegant formal lounge and dining rooms with period details" as well as its "four original marble fireplaces, high ceilings, alarm system" (presumably the alarm is not original).

Before going I tried to do a little bit of historical research.  Not many hits.  We've mentioned Westbury once before in some internet miscellany here.  A former resident used to complain about blasting at the Cascade quarry causing his ceiling to collapse (note to McGrath - the fireplaces might be original but the ceilings are repro!).

Off to the inspection then.  I wasn't surprised by the sense of calm I had in this very large terrace.  Turns out this was the first venue of the Paddington Meditation Centre back in 2001!  (I know, terribly unfunny transition but hey, you have to work with what you've got).  My favourite historical details were the corbels, and if we were moving across the road I'd want to work out a way onto that widows walk above the date!

Homes of Paddington blog

We just stumbled across a great photography blog dedicated to the homes of Paddington.  Not surprisingly called 'Homes of Paddington' you can find it here.  This is run by a local photographer who is taking some great shots of some great Paddington terraces.  As you'd expect for the distinguished street that is Cambridge there have been a few featured views.  Here is Waipa, Hawea and Arawa ...

One of my favourite sections of this blog is its 'time lapse gallery' where William matches up an old photo with the new.  This is what I try to do from time to time but it is done very well here.  Go have a look for yourself.  The screenshot below is 52 Cambridge ...

Cambridge Street at Gallipoli.

25 April, aka Anzac Day, commemorating the landings at Gallipoli and now accepted as the day we recognise those who served.  An appropriate time to remember those who served from Cambridge Street.  Here is the embarkation roll for HMAT Themistocles which left Melbourne on 22 December 1914 and was taking the 1st Reinforcements for the 2nd Battalion.  On board were two residents of Cambridge Street: John Madden (of 57 Cambridge Street) and Francis O'Malley (of 14 Cambridge Street).

You can download the full service records of any veteran from the national archives (link here)  Both John and Francis survived WW1.  From the records it looks like Francis was in the first wave to Gallipoli on 25 April with John arriving on the 8th of May.  John (service # 1152) saw further action in Europe.  Francis (service # 1168) didn't see much more battle beyond Gallipoli although he obviously saw some action in Malta as he spent the rest of the war in and out of hospital for syphilis and other venereal diseases! His file has a letter from his mother worried about why he is in hospital and how he was injured ...

Rebecca Cooper

For those who saw the TV show ("Who's been sleeping in my house") you would have heard of the story of Rebecca Cooper.  She owned nos. 46 - 52 Cambridge for about 50 years.  Turns out she also owned about 220 other properties according to this obituary from the Fairfax press in 28 January 1985. Her foundation exists to this day (link here).  This also includes a fuller biography of her.  

Waipa, Hawea and Arawa.

I've always walked past 33-37 Cambridge Street and wondered what the inspiration behind the names was.  Speaking to one of the residents I had heard they were New Zealand lakes.  Let's see if we can confirm that.

I first decided to google the three names at once to see if anything came up.  One hit was the Journal of the Polynesian Society, which confirmed the NZ connection.  Some interesting findings but nothing that really links them all together:

• Waipa is a river in the Waikato area, and also does have some wetlands and a peat lake.  It was also an electorate in NZ which existed for various periods from 1876 to 1996.  
• Hawea were considered the earliest inhabitants of the South Island, but it is also a lake near Wanaka; and 
• Arawa is, according to Maori tradition, the name of one of the great canoes that was used in the migrations to Aotearoa (aka NZ).  

The second link was more promising.  This was an old newspaper from the NZ national library.  It was the shipping news from the port of Lyttelton on 19 January 1885.  Turns out that those were also names of steam ships running the inter-colonial trade back in the day (& maybe not so coincidentally, when these houses were constructed).

Now given the prominence of shipping matters back in Sydney in the 1880s/90s (and the couple of Ships Captains living on the street) I think it is quite likely that the builder / owner / developer of 33-37 just might have taken some inspiration from the Shipping News in the local press.  Anyway, that is my theory.  Now let's look at some pictures of old boats ...

Above is an old photo of the clipper-type steamship Arawa.  This photo is from 1885 and was taken in Otago harbour.   This was a pretty big boat for the day (over 5,000 tons) and worked the UK - NZ run.  Here is a link with some more info.

Next off the rank is the Waipa.  Originally constructed as a fully rigged vessel but then converted to a barque (not that I really know what any of that means).  Apologies for the grainy image but this is the best the internet I could find.  This 1,000 ton vessel was built in 1875 by Palmer's Iron Shipbuilding Company at Newcastle upon Tyne for the New Zealand Shipping Company (the same company that ran the Arawa).  This ship also ran the UK - NZ run.  More on this ship in this link.

Finally we have the Hawea.   The top photo dates from the 1880s so was certainly the ship getting around when Cambridge Street was built.  It was built in about 1875 and was 720 tons.  Small compared to the Arawa but apparently still big for the time, especially for the coastal trade.  It was part of the Union Steam Ship Co. which had the most of the Trans-Tasman trade.  The bottom image is from 1908 when this ship (or its successor) had the unfortunate circumstance to run ashore at the entrance to the Grey River in Greymouth.

Emma Chisett?

This post isn't on Cambridge Street but about another interesting little building not far from here.  The above is 81 Cameron Street.  This corner building has tonnes of character and I love the handpainted house name on the apex of the corner.  But who was Emma Chisett and why is this house named for her?  Time to bust out the history detective skills ...

There are quite a few references and old photos of this place.  Not surprising given how notable it is architecturally.  The image above is meant to be from the 1960's and shows it as a corner store.  The internet tells me (most likely from the Sands Directory) that this had long been a corner store.  Bridget Wines was running a grocery store from 81 Cameron Street since the 1880s.  Still that isn't Emma.

Here's another photo, this one from the collection of the Powerhouse Museum.  This is part of the collection of David Mist who was a fashion photographer back in the day.  This image is from a book of his published in 'Sydney: A book of photographs' published in 1969.  Still no Emma.

Aha.  Here we go.  Emma Chisett in the house!  And this photo dates from 1974 according to the State Library.  It is interesting to see how this building has deteriorated in a decade.  From quite neat and tidy to a bit grimy with the balcony half falling off.

And in this shot the balcony is totally gone.   But what of the name?  Well the story is that this became a second hand furniture / bric a brac shop and the shop was itself called Emma Chisett.  This is based on some Australian slang introduced in 1964 by visiting UK author Monica Dickens (see more here).  The story is that she was doing a book signing and an Australian lady came up in a broad ocker accent and asked "how much is it?" about the book.  Monica didn't miss a beat and inscribed the tome 'Emma Chisit'.  This story was apparently picked up by the Sydney Morning Herald and the rest is history.  I don't know how the proprietors decided on Chisett rather than Chisit, perhaps they had just heard the story.  Anyway, well done on the renovation and top marks for the sign.

Christmas on Cambridge Street ...

Merry Christmas to all and we hope you all have a happy 2014.  Here's some photos for posterity showing a couple of Cambridge Street terraces all dressed up for the Christmas season ...

Santa was even spotted at number 11 ...

Some great work.  I think it may have been topped by a house on Hargrave Street that went totally over the top but at least we did get a shout out in the Wentworth Courier!