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Named by Gov. Macquarie in 1810 after George III, the reigning monarch. George Street developed from a rough track alongside the Tank Stream beaten out by the feet of water carriers taking water from the stream to the hospital in what is now The Rocks. Was known as Sgt. Majors Row and High Street before its present name was established. Since 1788 it has been Sydney's main thoroughfare. In the 1800s it became and still remains Sydney's premier shopping street, extending south from the Commissariat Stores at the King's Wharf, past the Gaol (Cnr Essex Street), the New Market and Post Office (Cnr Market Street), the Old Burial Ground and the new Town Hall (Cnr Druitt Street) to the old Toll-house at the beginning of Parramatta Road at the bottom of Brickfield Hill.



Metcalfe Bond Store
66-84 George Street, Dawes Point: as part of the early land grants to the merchant Robert Campbell, the Metcalfe Bond Stores site was part of the area in The Rocks that was resumed in 1901 by the NSW Government. Constructed in the 1910s, the Metcalfe Bond Stores are good representative examples of the Federation and late Federation style applied to warehouses. The buildings are also part of a group of nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings in George Street North and Hickson Road which have survived largely intact. The unique form of the site, characteristic of early quarrying and road excavation works in The Rocks, is also of significance. The private bond storage company, Upward & Co, commissioned the construction of the buildings and tenanted the buildings for over 60 years. Although the potential for archaeological relics is limited by later quarrying and excavation works, sections of quarried rockface and a rough faced ashlar retaining wall remain in the basements of the buildings along the George Street frontage and sections of these elements may date to the 1880s or earlier.

The Metcalfe Bond comprises two adjacent buildings, both simple bond stores in the functionalist tradition with timber post and beam interior construction. Exterior walls are of load bearing red brick with minimal darker brick outlines. 66-76 George Street. the older of the two buildings, was built in 1912, and comprises three storeys to George Street and five to Hickson Road, seven bays long with a stucco parapet. Openings on ground and second floors are semi-circular in shape. 78-84 George Street, located south of the earlier building and built in 1916, also has three storeys to George Street, five to Hickson Road but nine bays long.



Mercantile Hotel
25 George Street, Dawes Point: The Mercantile Hotel is situated on a triangular shaped block on George Street, backing onto the sandstone escarpment which forms Gloucester Walk. The site of the hotel comprised of a series of rocky ledges with a ‘sharply angled rock wall snaking through it’. In 1834 it formed part of a land grant to Robert Campbell. It was then sold in 1848 to William Reilly. The site was largely undisturbed until 1872, when it came to be used a commercial storage and stabling yard due to its location between thoroughfares. Between 1872 and 1914 it was levelled, sandstone may have been quarried from the rock wall and the sandstone retaining wall that is still present on the site was constructed.

The Mercantile Hotel was constructed in 1914 as a replacement for the old Mercantile Rowing Club Hotel. That hotel had been built in 1878 at the George Street end of Gloucester Street, 200 metres from the present Mercantile Hotel, which was directly related to the Mercantile Rowing Club boathouse nearby. At the time of the Mercantile's construction, the disjointed rocky ledges of the study area were levelled and a cellar excavated into the sandstone bedrock. The building of this hotel was part of the expansionism of the major brewing firm, Tooth and Co. The three storey building, a restrained example of Federation Free Style, is of brick wall construction with timber floors and a malthoid roof.



Sergeant Majors Row
29-41 George Street: The Sergeant Major's Row are heritage-listed former terrace houses and now shops and offices located in a row at 33-41 George Street. This property is part of the land originally granted to Robert Campbell senior by Crown grant under the hand of Sir Richard Bourke, formerly Governor of the Colony in 1834. Robert Campbell's will gave to each of his sons and daughters one sixth of his property. Edward Stanley Ebsworth commenced erection of five houses to this site. In 1881, the two story, seven roomed dwellings were described as being constructed of brick walls with roofs clad in "iron".

In December 1900 the Observatory Hill Resumption Act was gazetted and the Perpetual Trustee Company Ltd. released the property to the King and the Minister for Public Works in May 1903. In 1910 the Central City Mission used No. 41 George Street. From 1969 No. 35 was occupied by Nita McRae, one of the founders of the Rocks Residents' Group and Green Bans activist. Much of the background work to coordinate the residents' action to save The Rocks community took place in this house. A plaque was placed in her memory in 1996.


Union Bond Store (left) and Merchant's House (right)

Former Union Bond Store
47 George Street (1842): Three storey stone store with slate roof was erected for traders Martyn & Combes. Restored in the 1960s and refurbished as office space, it was at that time named the Union Bond Store, as it backed onto Union Street, now called Atherden Place. Architect: John Bibb.

Merchant's House
43-45 George Street (1848): A Greek Revival style merchant's town house and office consisting of five levels including basement kitchen, ground floor dining room, first floor drawing room, bedrooms and servants quarters. The planning is typical of a late Georgian period townhouse with kitchen, scullery, and cellars in the basement; ground floor dining room, parlour, and entrance hall; first floor drawing room with french doors onto a cantilevered balcony, and bedrooms on the upper two floors.



95-99 George Street, The Rocks
(1868): The site has been in continuous European usage since c. 1788 as it was part of the first hospital grounds. The hospital stood just to the south of the site and the residence and garden of the assistant surgeon covered part of the site. The hospital was relocated to Macquarie Street in 1816 when the Rum Hospital opened. The Assistant Surgeon's residence was occupied by Francis Greenway, the convict architect who had been transported for forging a building contract in 1814. Greenway remained in the house until he was forcibly evicted in July 1836.

In 1861, the buildings at 95-99 George Street were vacated and demolished. The land remained vacant until c. 1867 when the present building was constructed, possibly to a pattern book design, by William Bradridge. The council rates of 1871 describe the new terrace of shops and dwellings as each of two storeys of five rooms of brick construction with an iron roof. They were occupied by 1868, with a butcher in No. 95 and a grocer in No. 99, these buildings continued to be used for those businesses for many years. 99 George Street was continually used as a grocers and run by a number of tenants until the 1970s.



Former Ambulance Station
73 George Street (front facade 1847, rest of building 1927-28): Originally a public house built by Matthias Hooper, called the 'Kings Head'. The three storey building containing ten rooms was constructed with brick walls and a slated roof.



Unwin's Stores
77-85 George Street (1843-1846). Believed to be the longest continually occupied row of shops in Sydney and Australia, they played an integral role in the development of Sydney's first commercial area. These five sandstone buildings, originally built as shops and dwellings, were erected by Frederick Wright Unwin between 1843 and 1846. They were constructed during a depression in the Colony's economy, in the decade prior to the discovery of gold, hence their relative austerity. The land on which Unwin's stores stand was originally part of Sydney's first hospital and gardens.



Old Bushells Factory, 86-88 George Street
(1886): The Old Bushells Factory is a heritage-listed former Bushells Tea factory and warehouse, now used as shops, offices and an art gallery. No. 86 was designed by Walter Liberty Vernon; and both buildings were built from 1886 to 1912. No. 88, was built in 1886 by Virgoe Son and Chapman, Importers and Merchants. Originally of three floors and basement, No. 88 is a fine example of the late Victorian Free Classical style. In 1904 Bushells Ltd., tea merchants, leased the building. In 1912, No. 88 was reduced in depth by 10 metres to make way for the construction of Hickson Road, and an extra floor was added. Bushells later vacated the premises, and from 1924 the buildings were used as stores for the Departments of Education and Labour and Industry.

In 1788 the site was leased to Captain Henry Waterhouse, in 1800 Robert Campbell took over the lease. There was no substantial building here in the first half of the 19th century because of its steep and rocky nature. In 1877 Robert Campbells land and wharfage facilities were sold to the Australasian Steam Navigation Company, (ASN Coy) when the site appears to have been used as a rock quarry. Shortly after the ASN Coy purchased the land it was sold to Cliff and Clark who erected a number of small stores.



The Rawson Institute for Seamen
100 George Street (1857, 1909, 1927). The Sydney chapel of the Bethel Mission was the sandstone Mariner's Church (1857) designed by architect John Bibb, which comprises the older part of the former Seaman's Institute building. Built on land granted for that purpose by Gov. Denison. By 1900, 70,000 merchant seamen visited Sydney each year and the Mission provided free of charge a clubroom with games facilities, a chapel which could seat up to 700 people and a reading room. Under Gov. Sir Harold Rawson, himself a British Naval Officer and chairman of the Mission, extensions to the Mission were built in 1909 and 1927, which hid from view the original chapel and gave the Mission a new facade on George Street and a new name, The Rawson Institute For Seamen. This Mission moved to Flying Angel House in Macquarie Street some years after the property was acquired by the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority in 1970. The rear facade of the original 1857 chapel can be seen from Circular Quay West.



Former Coroner's Court
102-04 George Street (1906). A morgue was built at the northern end of the Government Dockyard in 1833. In 1906 the Coroner's Court building was erected near it on land reclaimed by narrowing Bethel Street to a laneway. The new building was designed by Government Architect, Walter Liberty Vernon (1846-1914) in Federation Free Style which incorporated aspects of the Arts and Crafts domestic architectural style. In this case, these were the use of contrasting materials, namely bring and sandstone string courses, windows in a mix of shapes and sizes, a tapering roof-top ventilator and tall chimneys. The building was home to the Coroner's Court until 1972 when it was taken over by the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority. At that time the Coroner's Court moved to new premises in Glebe and their former premises underwent extensive modification and restoration as the new home of The Rocks Visitors Centre. The centre was relocated to the larger Sailor's Home building a few doors down in 1994.



Sailor's Home
106 George Street (1864): Built in 1864 as lodgings for visiting sailors as an alternative to the seedy inns and brothels which proliferated in the The Rocks at that time. The L-shaped wing facing George Street was added in 1926. It was used as a sailor's home until 1980. The building now houses The Rocks Visitors Centre. It was built of stucco faced brick and sandstone with rows of round arched windows which typify the Victorian Romanesque style. The building was to be the northern wing of a much larger building planned for the site but the lack of funds left the project unfinished. Fundraising events were regularly held for the Home. At one such an event, a picnic at Clontarf Beach on 12th August 1868, the guest of honour, Queen Victoria's second son, Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh (1844-95) was the subject of an assassination attempt. The Prince miraculously survived the incident when the bullet fired at him lodged in his clothing after being pushed away from the assailant by the President of the Sailors Home.
The Home was extended with an L-shaped wing in 1926. It was paid for by the sale of the Kogarah property of Ms. Carss of Carss Park who left the property in her will to the Sailor's Home. Known as the Carss Wing, it still has its stuccoed George Street facade featuring a ship's wheel.
It was the planned redevelopment of this site and others alongside it on the waterfront with 10 office towers of fifty and thirty storeys that led to the Green Bans of the 1970s in which the unions joined forces with the historical societies to protect this historic precinct from demolition. A new era of awareness of the city's heritage was ushered in and the preservation and rehabilitation rather than demolition and redevelopment of historical sites became Government policy.

The site of The Sydney Gazette Office
Cnr. Alfred Street: A small printing press was sent out with the First Fleet and early government orders were printed by George Hughes. George Howe started Sydney's first newspaper which was 'printed by authority', that is, it had to receive the Governor's approval for all matters published. Pieces of type were found in excavations at the First Government House site where George Howe, the government printer, first put together the Sydney Gazette. Howe also published the first book in Australia the 'New South Wales General Standing Orders'. The site is identified by a Green Plaque historic marker.



Orient Hotel
87-89 George Street (1843-1844, 1920 and 1931): Typical late Colonial Georgian corner sited three storey building, constructed of stuccoed brick walls, timber floors, roof and joinery. Originally called the Marine Hotel. This site was in the original grounds of Sydney's first hospital complex and later was enclosed by fencing to become a part of the Surgeon General's residence. In June 1828, the allotment was part of a land grant made to Captain John Piper. By the time of the survey the allotment was in the ownership of the merchant Frederick Wright Unwin. Unwin had acquired the property from Mary Reibey in November 1828.

The land was surevyed as two separate town lots in the 1830s. The pair of allotments were bought by the carcass butcher James Chapman in February 1842 for £1,101. It was Chapman who erected, probably in 1842, a three-storey residence of ten rooms and a neighbouring single storey shop, which were the first stage of what evolved over the nineteenth century into the Orient Hotel. The residence was one of the most valuable on George Street North on its completion.



Phillip's Foote Restaurant Building
101 George Street (1838): A plain two storey Georgian style brick shop and residence. Among convicts on board The Scarborough of the First Fleet was Joseph Tuzo whose descendant Howard Dredge helped establish Phillip's Foote in 1975. The building formerly housed a sailors bar, customs agent and stable prior to standing derelict for many years until the early 1970's when during Sydney's notorious Green Bans, Phillip's Foote emerged to become an informal eatery. The land was part of the first hospital in the colony. The Assistant Surgeons' house covered part of the site and was used by William Balmain, D'Arcy Wentworth and William Redfern and possibly others until the hospital moved in 1816. The house was later occupied by Francis Greenway as his home and office. In the early 1900's the building was an oyster saloon.



103 George Street
(1856). A fine three storey building in Victorian Regency style which combines with its neighbours to form a wonderfully picturesque Georgian/Regency streetscape. The building's proportions are pleasing with a formal symmetry in line with that of the Victorian Regency architecture in Britain. It was built in 1856 of stuccoed brick with articulated quoins and finely detailed stone architraves and cornices to first and second floors. As with a number of the buildings in this section of George Street, the shopfront is not original, it was was added in 1882 when Thomas Playfair, a butcher, purchased the property and added rear premises. By 1885 he had moved in. Playfair remained in the shop dispensing meat and small goods for some years. Nearby Playfair Street is named after him.



107-109 George Street
(1861): an early example of Victorian Free Classical, the buildings were constructed in 1861 by Patrick Freehill as a hotel, The Shipwrights Arms. The name changed to the Chicago Hotel in 1900. The rear section of the three-storey, plus basement and attic property incorporates the ground floor sandstone wall of a former two-storey stables/bakehouse. The buildings are constructed of sandstone on the George Street facade and unrendered brick at the rear.



Fortune of War Hotel
137 George Street (1922). The building employs robust brick architecture typical of the Inter-War, pre-Art Deco era, being similar to the Federation Free Style but with Californian Bungalow features in a commercial hotel building application. The Fortune of War Hotel is a 3 storey face brick building with stucco detailing. The hotel takes its name from a shop formerly on the site which by 1839 had become the Fortune of War hotel.



Former George Street North Police Station
127-131 George Street. The former Police Station is one of many similar buildings around Sydney designed by the office of Colonial Architect James Johnstone Barnet (1827-1904) during the Victorian era. It features an imposing sandstone facade which reflects Barnet's liking of the Italian Mannerist style of the 16th and 17th centuries. As the area immediately outside the station was a notorious haunt for street gangs known as "Pushes", Barnet added an arch keystone featuring a lion's head with a police baton in his mouth. This feature is also found on his gaols at Bathurst and Darlinghurst, signifying the power and authority of the British system of law and justice to all those who passed by. He also reinforced the front door of the station with iron studs, a precaution against the Pushes who often clashed with police as well as each other in George Street. The station was closed in 1974.



Russell Hotel 143-143a George Street (1887). A unique example of a nineteenth century Queen Anne Style hotel in the inner city, which features a picturesque Scottish baronial tower. The three storey hotel was built with roof shingles, rendered masonry external walls with decorative string courses and other mouldings. The site was once part of the original Sydney Hospital. The Patent Slip Inn was erected on it in 1853. This hotel was demolished in 1887 and new hotel was erected by Thomas Brennan who called it the Port Jackson Hotel.

Named Essex Lane by Gov. Macquarie in 1810. In 1900 its level was altered to link directly with Harrington Street (it is now linked with steps). The origin of the present name is not known.


Globe Street today

Cambridge Street, which runs south from Argyle Street opposite Argyle Steps, was named by Gov. Macquarie in 1910 after the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Adolphus, 1st Duke of Cambridge (Adolphus Frederick; 1774-1850). He was the tenth child and seventh son of George III and Queen Charlotte. He held the title of Duke of Cambridge from 1801 until his death. Cambridge Street first appeared on maps in 1807; on some early maps, Nurses Walk is also marked as Cambridge Street. In the 1870s, the grassy slopes of Cambridge Street was known as 'Drying Green' because of the rows and rows of clothes drying in the sun from a number of nearby Chinese laundries.

Named by Gov. Macquarie in 1810 after the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, The Prince Ernest Augustus (1771 1851), fifth son of George III, who became King of Hanover in 1837. Up until 1810 it had been known as Church Row. In the 1830s it was treated as an extension of York Street and began to be known by that name. In 1912, it was officially gazetted as York Street North, however its former name was re-adopted seven years later. Like many of the north-south streets in The Rocks/Millers Point area, Cumberland Street was once much hiller than it is today. During the mid 19th century, the crowns of many of the hills was shaved and the residue deposited in the dips to make the street more level. The photo above shows the original street level and current street level in one section of the street.



Argyle Cut Bridge
The bridge carries Cumberland Street over the Argyle Cut in The Rocks. Of interest are the abutments to the bridge with small obelisk shaped pylons on either side of the road (at the north and south approaches to the bridge), and intact original light fittings. The parapet of the part of the bridge directly over Argyle Street was replaced in the 1950s. The original parapet of the bridge can still be seen to the south of the southern abutments.



Cumberland Place
Comprising a series of flights of steps and landings, Cumberland Place is one of the oldest known pedestrian streets in The Rocks, and probably Australia, being continuously in use since at least 1808 when it was part of Cribbs Lane. The laneway may have existed earlier as a walking track, however its recorded history begins when convict butcher, George Cribb, purchased a house in 1809 that lay along the alignment of the laneway. By 1825, similar through lanes (e.g. Longs Lane), were well established, and their names recorded on contemporary maps. These maps indicate that the steps and landings that make climbing its steep grade easier were built between 1865 and 1887. The lane's name was changed in 1896 by the Sydney City Council. It is thought that significant archaeological relics may survive under the step's protective layers of concrete and asphalt.

As part of the improvements undertaken by the Sydney Harbour Trust, Gloucester and Cumberland Streets were realigned and the two road bridges over the Argyle Cut replaced by a single bridge at Cumberland Street in 1911-12. Cumberland Street had previously been located to the west of its current location. The Cumberland Street bridge replaced the lower Gloucester Street Bridge and the higher Cumberland Street Bridge over the Argyle Cut. The work also involved the demolition of 22-24 Gloucester Street, part of View Terrace (now 26-30 Gloucester Street), and construction of the abutments to the bridge and the Argyle Stairs.



Cumberland Place Steps
Cumberland Street, The Rocks. A public thoroughfare from Harrington to Cumberland Street, comprising a series of flights of steps and landings. The section of steps from Harrrington Street between Nos 55 and 57 with stone stone steps that are worn and uneven date from 1807.

Evidence suggests that the foot of Bethel Street is where the settlers from the First Fleet came ashore in 1788. A path which ran from the waters edge to what is now George Street became Bethel Street in 1860. Located at the northern end of the Government Dockyard site on Circular Quay, part of the land was set aside in 1797 for the residence of the Master Boat Builder, Thomas Moore, which was later converted to the Naval Office, the headquarters for the imposition of Customs. This use was transferred to the new Customs House (now the east store of the Argyle Stores) in 1827.

By 1832, this land had been divided into two by a path descending to the water, which later became Bethel Street. The name honours Sydney's Bethel Union, formed in 1822, as a multi denominational association of Christian seamen. Its chapel stands at 100 George Street. By the time the chapel was completed the whole of Bethel Street had become buried. Heritage conservation works in 2008 uncovered of the original stone kerbing, guttering and retaining walls, leading to the re-creation of Bethel Street.

Known as Union Street until 1875 because of the Union Bonds Stores that were built there. In 1834, Robert Campbell snr. was granted this section of land above his water front property. The land was sold to Fredrick Wright Unwin in 1841 and by 1847 it was reconveyed to the Trustees of Campbell's property. A portion of the land was purchased by Joshua Frey Josephson in 1848 and then conveyed to George Atherden, a wharfinger of Campbell's Wharf in 1852. Atherden subsequently built terraces at Nos 9-15 Atherden Street (originally numbered 5, 6, 7 and 8, now known as Avery Terrace) on the eastern portion of this land between 1852 and 1865. They are first depicted on the 1865 Trig Survey.



Playfair's Terrace is a row of four late Victorian terrace houses constructed c.1881 and featuring the form, layout and stylistic details that are common to the period. Playfair's Terrace was constructed under the ownership of local butcher and Alderman Thomas Playfair. Playfair was well known in the mid to late nineteenth century for his supply of meat to the maritime industry and his actions on the Sydney City Council to provide adequate services and improved sanitation throughout inner city residential areas.



Avery Terrace (2-4 Atherden Street) is a rare example of a bald-faced, Victorian Regency Style terrace and is one of a surviving group of this style. Avery Terrace is significant to the 19th and 20th century history of The Rocks as evidence of a small residential development commissioned by Edward Stanley Ebsworth in c.1881. It is one of a small number of residential buildings surviving the demolitions that followed land resumptions under the Public Purposes Acquisition Act (1900). The Avery family lived in Atherden Street from c.1914 and in Avery Terrace from c.1917 until 1993. In World War I more than 14 men from this family enlisted, including two brothers, William and Frank, and William s eldest son John. William and his wife Eva lived at 13 Atherden St with their seven children.

Convict burial site
A site used for the burial of seamen and marines was close to where Atherden Place is today in an area known as Campbell's Ridge at Dawes Point. It later became the garden of merchant Robert Campbell. It was here that Australia's oldest existing gravestone was erected. Its inscription reads: "In memory of George Graves late boatswain's yeoman of HMS Sirius who departed this life ye 10th July 178(8) aged 48 years". The headstone was dug out of the ground in the early 1870s and later found serving as a paving stone in Bethel Street, the lane between The Rocks Visitors Centre and the Old Coroner's Court in George Street North. The stone is now on display in the Coach House at Vaucluse House.

The name honours RP Hickson, who was Chairman of the Sydney Harbour Trust between 1901-12. During Hickson's term of office Millers Point and the whole of the Walsh Bay wharf areas were redeveloped. The roads and bridges of the area, including Hickson Road itself which was created in 1909, came into being at that time. Hickson Road begins at George Street in The Rocks, amd loops around under the Harbour Bridge, and along the shore of Darling Harbour until Napoleon Street, where it becomes Sussex Street.



ASN Building
This five storey warehouse building, designed by William Wardell, is a rare intact example of the Pre-Federation Anglo Dutch style. Its predominant features are its Flemish style gables and campanile topped with a tapered pyramid spire. It was built for the Australasian Steam Navigation Co. on land bought from merchant Robert Campbell. The company operated major ship building and repair facilities at Darling Island at Pyrmont. It only occupied the building for seven years before selling it to the government for use as an ordnance store.

Its fire sprinkler system is the oldest such system in Australia and the third oldest in the world. The building underwent a major refit in 1950 and became the last building to be acquired in The Rocks by the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority in 1989. Between 1991 and 1993 it was restored to its 1883 appearance, comprising of four open-plan warehouse bays and one of offices. 5 Hickson Road, The Rocks.



Park Hyatt Sydney
With a coveted harbour-front location between the world-famous Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, Park Hyatt Sydney offers guests an intimate, residential-style hotel with architecture, design and art that reflects the Australian landscape. Three rooftop suites, including the exclusive Sydney Suite with near-360 degree panoramic views of the harbour and a private outdoor terrace, cater for the most discerning traveller looking for glamorous leisure and convenience.



Arts Exchange Building
Former Sydney Geological and Mining Museum, 36-64 George Street, The Rocks (1902-09): An excellent example of the Federation Warehouse style with distinctive Romanesque and Art Nouveau detailing. It was designed by a very prominent Federation Period architect, Walter Liberty Vernon, who was the first NSW Government Architect.

Built originally as a single storey sandstone electrical power station, it is today a six storey brick building with a detached 61 metre high chimney stack, which has been recessed into the side of the rectangular plan of the building. It has a combination of sandstone, brick and rendered facades. Considerable bedrock had to be excavated from the former quarry site which had supplied the sandstone used to construct most of the early buildings in The Rocks. The George Street entrance is approximately three storeys above Hickson Road entrance.

The original plans of the George Street Electric Light Power Station building submitted by Walter Liberty Vernon was for a six level structure structure similar to the one we see today. The plans were down-sized first to two storeys, then a single storey building, which was the plan finally adopted.

The power station was built to supply power to the 1,000 dwellings in the Rocks /Millers Point area following resumptions of the whole area after the outbreak of the Bubonic Plague in 1900. Demand quickly outstripped supply and the power station was grossly inadequate. Furthermore, debate had been raging as to whether direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC) should be adopted as the world standard. In consequence to the leaning towards AC, a decision was made during its construction to change from DC to AC and the new station was not big enough to house the new equipment. Consequently, no machinery was ever installed, the chimney has never been used, the workshops were never completed and the shell was left roofless.

In June 1908, Vernon was asked to submit plans to convert the building into a mining museum and chemical laboratory. He reverted to his original plans, and recommended the addition of three extra floors similar in design to the large Federation woolstores and warehouses that were being built around Darling Harbour at the time. Vernon incorporated sandstone string courses into the dark red brickwork of the extensions with an attic level behind Romanesque style parapets and gabled roofs.

One of the major tourist streets in The Rocks, its name recalls the Mayor of Sydney of 1885, John Playfair. He was well known in the mid to late nineteenth century for his supply of meat to the maritime industry and his actions on the Sydney City Council to provide adequate services and improved sanitation throughout inner city residential areas. Playfairs Terrace, in Atherden Street, is a row of four late Victorian terrace houses constructed c.1881 and featuring the form, layout and stylistic details that are common to the period. Playfair's Terrace was constructed under the ownership of local butcher and Alderman Thomas Playfair.



Wedged between Gloucester Walk and the back of a row of terrace shops on Playfair Street, Foundation Park is the site of eight colonial housing ruins built on this sandstone cliff and rocky hill between 1874 and 1878. The site was one of the last to be developed in The Rocks because of its challenging topography. The houses were built cheaply and by the 1940s all had been demolished. The site was not built on again, and after careful archaeological excavation in the 1990s, was transformed into a park featuring archaeological remains and partially furnished rooms of long-vanished houses. The original dwellings were brought back to life with low dividing walls and steel furniture designed by renowned sculptor Peter D. Cole.



The three sided 'First Impressions' sculpture is a memorial to the three groups of people - the convicts, the settlers and the soldiers - who migrated from Britain in the late 19th century and made their home in the area they called The Rocks. It became Australia's first maritime village. 'First Impressions' was designed and sculpted by Bud Dumas during 1979, on commission from the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority.

Originally a street which ran steeply down to a ferry wharf, it was reshaped to the east in 1922 to take a different path. The origin of its present name is not known. There were several houses on each side of the original street and the Old Whalers Inn on the opposite corner.

What are known as the Parbury Ruins on the corner of Windmill and Pottinger Streets in the historic Millers Point, were unearthed in 2000. Archaeological investigation uncovered the footings of a 2 bedroom cottage built in the 1820s. Though now hiding beneath a residential complex, illuminated viewing windows provide a view into the archaeological site, complete with interpretation panels. The cottage's two main owners were ex-convicts Hugh Noble (born 1794) and Thomas Street (born 1790). Noble was transported for 14 years in 1817. Becoming a Commisariat clerk, he was again convicted of stealing in 1822 and sent briefly to Port Macquarie.

Noble purchased the site around 1820 and built the cottage soon after. He sold the property to Street in 1831, who purchased it as an investment. Street added the kitchen and basement to the cottage in 1835. Street's death sentence for larceny was commuted to 7 years transportation in 1810. In the colony he advanced steadily first as a storekeeper, then as publican and ship owner. Street died in England in 1855 and the cottage was abandoned and partly demolished by the late 1860's. It was finally built over by a service ramp for the adjacent Bond Stores in the 1870's. Today you can see the remains of a verandah and four basement rooms. Two rooms would have had harbour views.

In 1831 the body of a woman was found in well in Pottinger Street in a most decayed state. An inquest was held at the Red Bull Tavern, revealed that she had been murdered, dumped in the well, her body weighed down by a block of stone. The body is believed to have been that of John Walker's wife, Ann, who was known by multiple aliases, was a convict about to gain her ticket of leave. Their relationship was a rather loveless one. Many convict women arriving in Australia were forced into convict marriages with people they did not like. John Walker identified the corpse as wife by the shoes as he had repaired one of them. Walker claimed his wife was a habitual alcoholic who had the tendency to run off with anyone who had a drink. He suggested she had run off on a drinking binge with convict named Drew who worked in the stone quarries nearby, though it was known she and a cobbler named Owen Welsh had spent some time posing as man and wife under different aliases during one absence from Walker. The official inquiry came to the conclusion that they could not be certain of the identity of the women who had been found murdered by persons unknown.

Since the disappearance of Anne Walker and the finding of the woman's body in the well there have been many reported sightins of the a ghost at the well site, which is near the Parbury Ruins. The description of the ghost - a woman wearing a long dark cloak-like dress with a black bonnet - is almost the exact description of Ann Walker given at the inquest.

One of the streets created and named by Gov. Macquarie in 1910 when he did a major reorganisation of street and lane names when he came to office. The name honours British MP Lord Harrington, Earl of Stanhope. Harrington Lane once ran parallel to Harrington Street on the line of present day Harrington Lane, Nurses Walk and Kendall Lane. It was named on early maps as Anvil Place (because blacksmith William Reynolds operated from premises there) and Queen Street. Harrington Street was marked on some maps in the 1820s as Clarence Street though there is no evidence that this name was ever in common use.



Reynolds' Cottages
28-30 Harrington Street (1823-29): A two storey Georgian stone structure with a brick and skillion addition to the rear facade. Built for Thomas Ryan, these cottages, originally one room deep, are amongst the earliest remaining domestic buildings in The Rocks. They were purchased in October, 1830 by Irish convict and blacksmith, William Reynolds. In more recent times when it was home to the Gumnut Cafe, its proprietor was sorting boxes in the upstairs room when she became convinced someone was watching her even though she was the only one in the room. Several years later a customer saw a little girl in old-fashioned dress sitting on the stairs nursing a doll. It is believed the little girl is the daughter of William Reynolds.

Shop and Residence
32 Harrington Street (1834): Georgian style two storey brick shop with residence above. Built for blacksmith William Reynolds.



Site of Sydney's first execution
A Green Plaque historic marker on the Cnr. Essex and Harrington Streets marks the spot where Sydney's first execution took place. In 1788 convict Thomas Barrett stole butter, pease and pork from camp provisions. A gallows tree located here between the male and female convict camps was used for the deed. Barrett was buried at the site.

Sydney's first cemetery
During the early years of the colony, no official records were kept of deaths nor was land set aside for burying the dead until 1792, therefore the locations of all burial sites cannot be established with 100% accuracy. It is known that at least four sites were used during the colony's first four years. Two sites in The Rocks are known to have been used for this purpose by the first fleeters. Official records refer to a convict burial site "at the extremities of the lines (four rows of convict huts) where since our arrival the dead are buried". This description places it within the block bounded by Essex, Gloucester, Grosvenor and Harrington Streets.

Created and named by Gov. Macquarie in 1910, it honours Prince William, 2nd Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1776 1834). He was the only son of the 1st Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1743 1805), the third son of Frederick, Prince of Wales and brother of George III. Gloucester Street originally ran from Charlotte Place (Grosvenor Place) to George Street and was bent, but was shortened to its present length when the Bradfield Highway was built in the 1930s. Gloucester Walk follows the line of the northern section of the street.



Susannah Place
(1844): This terrace of four houses and a corner shop is one of the few surviving working class dwellings of its era, and is unique in having a history of domestic occupancy from its construction to 1990. Built for Edward and Mary Riley, who arrived from Ireland with their niece Susannah in 1838, the brick and sandstone houses feature basement kitchens and backyard outhouses. The buildings, which today house a museum on working-class history, have survived numerous demolition threats - in 1900 when Bubonic plague led to hundreds of neighbouring properties being razed; in the 1920s when a three street wide section of The Rocks was cleared to make way for the Harbour Bridge approaches, and the 1970's when "Green bans" imposed by the Builders Labourer's Federation halted numerous demolition and redevelopment projects which would have seen many historic sites such as this lost forever.


Foundation Park

Gloucester Walk
Gloucester Walk was once the northern section of Gloucester Street - the two sections were separated in the 1912 when the Cumberland Street bridge over the Argyle Cut was built. Now a quiet walkway, Gloucester Walk is one of the best places to view The Rocks from an elevated position, and to access one of The Rocks' hidden gems - Foundation Park.

Wedged between Gloucester Walk and the back of a row of shop houses on Playfair Street, the park is the site of eight colonial housing ruins built on this sandstone cliff and rocky hill between 1874 and 1878. In 1972, this site was transformed into a park featuring archaeological remains and partially furnished rooms of long-vanished houses.

Named by Gov. Macquarie after County Argyle, Scotland, the place where he grew up. In the early years of Sydney, The Rocks was a divided community separated by a rugged and steep rocky outcrop which forms the ridge of the peninsular to the west of Sydney Cove. Building had taken place on either side of the ridge, but people wishing to travel from one side to the other had to either go the long way around Dawes Point or climb a series of rickety stairs which joined the eastern and western sections of Argyle Street. Parts of Observation Hill near where Argyle Street intersects Kent Street was extensively quarried in the early 19th century.



The Argyle Cut
The Argyle Cut, 1901. This hand cut accessway through the peak of the ridge to the west of Sydney was a major engineering feat of its day. Up until the time the cut was completed, The Rocks was a divided community, separated by a rugged and steep rocky outcrop which forms the ridge of the peninsular to the west of Sydney Cove. Building had taken place on either side of the ridge, but people wishing to travel from one side to the other had to either go the long way around Dawes Point or climb a series of rickety stairs.

In 1816, Governor Macquarie floated the idea of cutting a passage through the rock face to join the east and west sides of The Rocks community. As complaints were being voiced both in England and Sydney that Macquarie was wasting precious funds on unnecessary public utilities, Macquarie attempted to raise finance from local business. The only person who showed any interest in the project was fellow Scotsman, James Campbell, the colony's most successful merchant who operated his business from premises in The Rocks. In spite of Campbell's enthusiasm, his funds were not forthcoming and Macquarie's attempts to borrow money from the newly formed Bank of New South Wales fell on deaf ears.

The program languished until 1843 when convict chain gangs began their assault on the rock face with whatever hand tool could be found. It was completed in 1864. The rubble from the cut was used to construct many of The Rock's stone buildings of the era including the Hero of Waterloo Hotel (1844), and in the reclamation and construction of the walls of Circular Quay. The Argyle Stairs were built as part of the Cut, which was widened to its present size on its western side around the turn of the 20th century.



The Argyle
18 Argyle Street (1826, 1839): A collection of sandstone bond stores, the first of which was constructed in 1826 for Captain John Piper. The unfinished building was confiscated and sold to Mary Reiby after Piper was arrested and convicted of embezzlement. Reiby sold it 5 months later to solicitor Frederick Wright Unwin who financed the finishing of the building to a modified design. In 1839, Unwin added two new stores, to the north and west, around a central courtyard and they became known as Unwin's Bonded Stores.

By the 1880s, the store was used to house goods such as spirits which had been confiscated for non payment of duties. These goods were periodically auctioned in the courtyard. After passing through a variety of owners, the stores were resumed by the Government after the outbreak of the Bubonic plague in 1900. They were then leased to various tenants and by the 1950s were known as the Cleland Bond Stores. They were restored and redeveloped as an Art Centre in 1977, then refurbished for their present use in 1994.


Greenway Lane

Site of Francis Greenway's House
Cnr. George and Argyle Street: Like so many other aspects of his life, Francis Greenway's occupancy of a house at the corner of George and Argyle Streets was contentious. Greenway, an architect who was transported to NSW for forgery, claimed that this land had been given to him by Governor Macquarie but no real proof could be found in government records.

A document produced by Greenway may have been a forgery. It was a temptation similar to such a crime, when hard pressed in his business affairs, that led to his transportation. Greenway was evicted but was then allowed to stay on in the building, to become more and more of an embarrassment to the Government. Eventually he left to join his family in the Hunter Valley, where he died. The site is identified by a Green Plaque historic marker.



Michael Gannon's House
La Renaissance Patisserie, 45-47 Argyle Street, (1839-40): A two storey structure located on land that had originally been part of the Hospital grounds, and then the site of the surgeons residence and garden. The two houses were built by Michael Gannon. Gannon's workshops (builder, manufacturer of coffins) and timber yard occupied the rear of the premises, as did a number of other tenants.



Argyle Stairs
As part of the improvements undertaken in The Rocks area by the Sydney Harbour Trust in 1911-12, Gloucester and Cumberland Streets were realigned, Argyle Cut was widened to 9 metres. Two road bridges over the Argyle Cut replaced by a single bridge at Cumberland Street, and the Argyle Stairs were constructed. They replaced an early wooden set of stairs that gave access to Bunker's Hill, which was a high class residential area which sprang up along the top of the ridge which disappeared with the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge's southern approaches.
Argyle Stairs today give access to Cahill Walk above Circular Quay beside the Cahill Expressway, and onto the walkway across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.