Sydney Art Deco Heritage

Originally known as Askeys and then as Caseys until March 1940, the Century Hotel was purchased by Tooth & Company in July 1923. Located at 389 George Street Sydney it was originally only two storeys. On completion of rebuilding in January 1941 the Century Hotel was a six storey brick structure, with a malthoid roof and a fully tiled ground floor exterior. The architectural style is known as P. & O. Ship style because of its similarities to ocean liner forms. It is historically significant as part of a group of hotels like the Great Southern Hotel further along George Street, and the Hotel Broadway. It was an important building in the professional career of the architectural partnership of Rudder and Grout, most noted for their hotel designs. It is aesthetically significant as a rare and outstanding example of a highly intact original Art Deco Hotel with an exterior and some intact interiors of high quality design. The Liverpool street facade is shown below I...

There are five buildings that make up the complex still popularly known as James Smith's. The main corner building was designed by architects Penty and Blake, and was constructed in 1907 for George Winder, an ironmonger and importer who had owned the land since 1898. The location was formally known as "Winder's Corner". James Smith purchased the site in 1921 and, in 1932, architects King and Dawson supervised a complete refurbishment of the building, including a new facade. The heavy Edwardian character of the original building can still be guessed at in the arrangement of windows, particularly in the paired round-headed windows of the top (fourth) floor. Otherwise the style is now Art Deco, with emphatic vertical piers, stepped skyline, fluted frieze at parapet level, and typical 1930s lettering that runs vertically down the central column on the Cuba Street/Manners Street corner. This character follows through into the interior spaces. A picture of an interi...

St Paul's Anglican Catherdral on the corner of Molesworth and Hill Streets in Wellington, New Zealand, was designed by Cecil Wood, appointed by the Wellington Diocese as the architect of the new cathedral in 1938. Cecil Wood died in 1947 and though he never lived to see the Cathedral so much as begun, the building today is still very much as he envisaged it. The first stage of the new Cathedral, finished in 1964, was considerably shorter than its present exterior length of 88 metres. 1998 saw the dedication of the completed Cathedral by Bishop Thomas John Brown, 10th Bishop of Wellington, on May 31st. In 2001 the Cathedral was consecrated on the 15th of October by Bishop Thomas Brown, 10th Bishop of Wellington. On the 24th of February 2002 Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, unveiled the Consecration stone, her planned visit in October 2001 having been postponed because of security concerns after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. Sources: Wellington Cathedral webs...

The charming Challenger House is located in the New Zealand capital of Wellington at 136 The Terrace. Dwarfed by its neigbours, most at least thirty years younger, Edmund Ancombe's fine 1938 Art Deco apartment block has survived because of its quality. Originally and best known as Franconia, this building has had several names over the years including ‘Lintas House’, ‘Invincible House’ and ‘Challenger House’. It is six storeys high, the ground floor plinth surmounted by four principal floors and a top level, with the lift machine room projecting above the main roof. It is solidly constructed in reinforced concrete with a rendered finish and is trimmed out with steel windows and doors, balcony rails and the like. Although the interior has been progressively modified over the years, its outward appearance has changed little since its construction in 1938. Edmund Ancombe designed many Art Deco buildings in Wellington including the Post and Telegraph building in Herd Street. During...

The heritage listed AGM Glass Factory at 851 South Dowling Street in Moore Park was constructed in 1938 to the design of Mitchell Henry Potter, an AGM Company Engineer. It was completed in 1940. The building is of aesthetic significance as a highly intact outstanding example of a landmark industrial building of the Interwar Functionalist style. It totally dominates the corner site opposite the Moore Park Super Centre. It “was regarded as the architectural flagship of the Company as the building encompassed a modern stylishness and efficient image.” (Godden Mackay Logan) Below shows some detail of the South Dowling street facade while the other photo indicates the dominance the building has looking from the Super Centre corner. Sources: Sydney Heritage Listings Do.co,mo.mo-Australia

The Hotel St George, situated at 124 Willis Street, is one of several outstanding examples of the Art Deco style located in Wellington. In the 1850s the Union Bank of Australia built a branch here. In 1877 the bank building was bought by the famous early settler and businessman John Plimmer who converted it into one of Wellington’s most celebrated hotels. On the facade were the carved impressions, in timber, of the faces of prominent Wellingtonians of the time, including Plimmer himself. In 1929 the property was bought by the Grand Central Buildings Ltd who demolished the hotel. The hotel was designed by William Prouse and its vertical proportions enhance its townscape significance. The Hotel St George opened in December 1930 to considerable fanfare. THe photo on the right shows the hotel not long after it opened. It operated as a hotel for the following 65 years, although it was seconded for use as a base by American marines during World War II. Probably its most famous gues...

The Commonwealth Bank Leichardt branch was located at 6-8 Norton Street in Leichardt. Following the purchase of land in 1910 the GSB of NSW erected a double storey brick building with downstairs banking chamber and an upstairs Manager’s residence. The premises were erected by builders Messrs Schofield and Wilson under the supervision of prominent Sydney architects, Messrs H E Ross and Rowe. It was first occupied on 29 May 1911. In 1949 extensive renovations were carried out internally but no mention is made of the facade. I haven't been able to find out if the Art Deco facade had already been built and if the original building had been modified or rebuilt with the new facade. The photo below of the bank in the 1960s shows it with no awning. The later addition of the awning spoils the look of the building in my opinion. In February 2009 the Leichhardt branch was relocated to new refurbished premises at 18 Norton Street. The original building has been put up for lease (includi...

The Commonwealth Bank Paddington branch at 259 Oxford Street in Paddington is not the most interesting example of an interwar bank branch but it is still being used as the Paddington branch of the bank today. Paddington branch in 1958 Sources: Commonwealth Bank Archives department

Located at 191 Cuba Street on the corner Vivian Street in Wellington, New Zealand, Reid House was designed in 1930 by the Wellington architectural firm Atkins and Mitchell and built for the draper, D.S. Patrick. The contractor was Fletcher Construction Co. The corner was named Patrick's Corner, and the original proprietor, Patrick, had traded on the site since 1910. This three storey-building makes excellent use of its corner site, with five distinct portions folding around the triangular site. It is not symmetrical either, with two bays of Spanish Mission style on Cuba Street a contrast with the busy Art Deco decoration on the other four sides. Reid House itself is remembered by many Wellingtonians as a music venue, particularly the Bluenote. These days the property is home to Bad Grannies pub, takeaway food vendors and two and a half floors of refurbished office space upstairs. The building was up for sale in 2016 but wasn't sold until 2019 when it went for $5 million...

The land at 79-81 Pacific Highway, Roseville, was purchased by the Commonwealth Bank in 1924 and it wasn't until 1938 that the new two storey building was constructed. A feature of this Commonwealth Bank branch was the curved corner entrance vestibule. Banking operations were transferred to the new premises on Tuesday, 17 January 1939. The former Commonwealth Bank bank and attached shops/dwellings in Roseville is an excellent representative example of the class of building constructed by the Commonwealth Bank during the 1930s. It was characterised by the exemplary and consistent application of the Art Deco style of architecture to its suburban branches which conveyed the image the Commonwealth Bank wanted to promote for itself at the time. They followed the lead of Tooth & Co who adopted the Art Deco style in their massive hotel building spree during the Interwar period in NSW. The Commonwealth Bank closed the Roseville branch in March 1998. Picture of the bank in 19...

The old Turramurra Commonwealth Bank is located at 1356 Pacific Highway in Turramurra. It was built by the Commonwealth Bank during the 1930's in the then popular Art Deco style. Banking institutions of the period commonly used a pool of architectural firms to design their premises and adopted popular and distinctive architectural styles to promote their operations and corporate image. The Art Deco monumental style suited the image the Bank wanted to promote at the time and they have left a great legacy with many excellent buildings still extant. With the advent of modern banking the Commonwealth Bank closed many of its suburban branches. When the Turramurra branch was closed it was acquired by Gillian Adams in 1994. She converted it into a beauty salon and spa which is still operating today in Turramurra. Front door detail Sources: Commonwealth historical archives