Lidcombe Heritage Risk After Games Hordes Depart
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday September 29, 2000
Reprieve for a threatened Seidler house ... a quirky look at Sydney ... moves to save a pub facade, and ...
WHEN the hundreds of demountables housing Olympic media disappear from the Lidcombe Hospital site at the end of the Games, another 750 permanent townhouses are to be built there.
In use as a hospital since 1893, the site once comprised 1,300 acres, including fields of grain up by the Hume Highway from which the hospital kitchens made their own bread.
Four hectares in the north-east corner of the site, near Rookwood Cemetery, have already been developed for housing and the Lidcombe Heritage Group is concerned that the further development will block vistas through the site and cause the loss of many mature trees.
But according to the group's Raema Walker, ``the big question is who will be responsible for the heritage buildings when the Olympic Co-ordination Authority vacates the site?"
Beginning in 1893 as the Rookwood Asylum for the Aged and Infirm, the hospital grew over the succeeding 100 years. Original buildings are now incorporated in the heritage precinct, including nine pavilion wards designed in 1906 by Walter Liberty Vernon flanking a ``village green", a two-storey superintendent's cottage and a 1912 purpose-built nurses' home. Some buildings valued by the group were demolished by the OCA, Mrs Walker said, though the authority also preserved others by removing two intrusive, modern canteen buildings and repairing the roof of the 1913 Vernon-designed sandstone gatehouse which used to front Joseph Street.
A spokesman for the NSW Heritage Office told Urban Eyes that after the Olympics, the OCA will be required to compile a register of heritage buildings under its control and the site could possibly be included on the State Heritage Register.
Development decision deferred
Willoughby City Council has deferred its decision on a proposal to extensively alter and enlarge the former Waks house at Northbridge, Harry Seidler's first completed house in Australia.
Although the house is not included on Willoughby's heritage list, council officers recommended refusal of the application, because of the bulk and scale of the proposed redevelopment and its failure to comply with a number of controls.
Greg Foster, the council's development planning manager, said the proposal involved ``substantial" alterations and additions ``so that very little of the existing fabric would remain".
It would also substantially increase the footprint of the house and mean the loss of a number of trees. Penelope Seidler said this week that the house had been commissioned by the Waks family (parents of cellist Nathan Waks) before their marriage and was completed in 1949. Because of postwar restrictions, it was a modest 12 squares.
``People lived more modestly then," she said, ``but of course it has wonderful harbour views ... We're not sure what's happening with it but we hope, we hope. There are few other Seidler houses in the area."
Mr Foster said councillors would inspect the site on October 3 before any final decision.
Sydney through artists' eyes
Forget the tacky mascots, one of the better souvenirs of Sydney to hit the shops during the Olympics is Peter Emmett's book, Sydney: Metropolis, Suburb, Harbour (RRP $42.90, phone 9692 8366). Based on his three exhibitions of the same titles at the Museum of Sydney (where Harbour is still showing), the book showcases Sydney of the last two centuries through the eyes of some of its most celebrated artists.
But Emmett's choice, as Peter Watts's foreword says, is ``personal, coming from his own experiences of living in Sydney for 50 years, studying its history and contributing in many different ways to its cultural life. It is an eclectic mix of images, quirky and idiosyncratic even ... They are not necessarily the best-known images, nor the predictable ones ... But together they explore some of the many dimensions, both historic and contemporary, that make up the character of Sydney."
Another Historic Houses Trust publication, Fibro House to Opera House, edited by Sheridan Burke, looks at the particular problems of conserving mid-20th century heritage, which were the subject of a major conference last year: which places should we keep, who decides what we keep, is the Opera House adequately protected (despite its nomination for World Heritage listing) and should we preserve places such as the fibro childhood home of Paul Keating. (RRP $32.95. Phone 9692 8366).
History on tap
South Sydney Council is poised to take legal action over the replacement of heritage tiles on Newtown's Marlborough Hotel. The pub, on the corner of King Street and Missenden Road, had applied for permission to replace its ``cracking" heritage tiles.
Permission was duly granted, with the proviso that the cracked tiles were replaced in heritage style.
But when floor tiles started appearing on the exterior, and other unauthorised works came to light, the council instituted court action.
Mayor John Fowler, whose uncle worked for the breweries, said Reschs and Tooths had employed many more brickies and tilers during the Depression, creating elaborate facades for pubs to keep men in work.
``It's an important part of our 20th century heritage," he said, ``and council will defend the heritage value of that building."
gobrien@mail.fairfax.com.au
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald