Sydney Art Deco Heritage

Southport is one of the oldest areas on the Gold Coast and as such has several beautiful Art Deco buildings built during the 1930's. A stroll down Nerang street reveals several excellent examples. The best of these is the old Town Hall located at 47 Nerang Street which is now the Council Chambers. Built in 1935 this important example of an Art Deco influenced building replaced the earlier timber Town Hall building on the site. It was designed by Hall and Phillips who designed many other Art Deco influenced buildings in south east Queensland. The Art Deco ornamentation both inside and out has survived making this a rare example of this style of public building. It has social significance as a centrally located civic building which has been open for public purposes for over sixty years. Detailed view of the central facade View of the original Art Deco leadlight windows Sources: Gold Coast Local Heritage Listings Your Brisbane - Past and Present

The Mascot Inn at 952 Botany Road, Mascot, was previously known as the Tennyson Hotel. It was designed by Sidney Warden who was the most prolific of the several architects who designed hotels for Tooth & Co. Other architects who worked for Tooth & Co - Sidney Ancher, Sam Lipson, Rudder & Grout - were better known, but none designed so many hotels or so many well-known hotels as Sidney Warden. By his own count, Warden's work encompassed 392 hotels including familiar structures such as the Clare, the Lansdowne, the Broadway, the Henson Park, the Marrickville, the Star, the Native Rose, the Chatswood, the Mayfair, the Oxford, the Light Brigade .... a pub crawl of Warden's hotels would be a lengthy session! Sources: Powerhouse Museum Archives

The Botany View Hotel is located at 597 King Street, Newtown, and was established in 1868 and has always been known as the Botany View Hotel. Although not strictly an Art Deco hotel the front corner treatment above the awning is nice and has a deco feel. View of the hotel in 1930. View of the hotel in 1938 after getting an updated facade. There has been little change to the facade over the except for a coat of paint. Sources: Sydney Heritage Listings ANU Open Research Library

The Union Hotel at 576 King Street, Newtowm, is a good example of an interwar Functionalist style hotel, which dates from the key period of hotel rebuilding by the major breweries in NSW. The Union Hotel is part of an important group of Inter War Hotels located on King Street, which also includes the Marlborough Hotel and the Town Hall Hotel. The building was designed by prominent hotel architechts, Rudder and Grout, who were responsible for many hotels in NSW during the 1920s and 1930s. It was established in 1946 with the license from the former Union Inn, corner of Iredale and Union Streets. Union Hotel facade detail Sources: Sydney Heritage Listings

The Petersham Inn at 386 Parramatta Road in Petersham is a fine interwar hotel was designed by Rudder and Grout to replace the existing hotel on the site which had been purchased by Tooth and Company in the 1930s. In 1940 a major extension to the Phillip street side was built called the Western Lounge. It featured a dramatic Art Deco tower designed by Leslie Soden and remains a local landmark today. A small plaque to the right of the tower notes this information. In 2001 the site was redeveloped to include 92 luxury apartments and studios while maintaining the hotel's original heritage. Petersham Inn facade detail Petersham Inn side entrance Commemorative plague outside side entrance Front Entrance doors Sources: Sydney Heritage Listings Citadel Property Group newsletter

The Alfred Hotel at 51 Missenden Road, Camperdown, was originally established in 1861 as the Grose Farm Hotel and later O’Kanes Grose Farm Hotel. It was renamed The Alfred Hotel in the 1980s. The unique horseshoe-shaped bar and art deco features give the pub its warm and friendly character. The Alfred Hotel is of aesthetic significance as a 1939 hotel design by Copeman, Lemont & Keesing, and as a representative of an interwar Art Deco style hotel. The Alfred Hotel is stylistically similar to the Australian Hotel in Chippendale and features the same tiled façade cladding and is listed on the RAIA register of significant 20th century buildings. Alfred Hotel facade detail Sources: Sydney Heritage Listings

The Lakes Hotel at 307 Gardiners Road in Mascot is a handsome interwar period Functionalist style suburban hotel designed by Architect J Dalziel for Tooth & Co. The builder was CE Paynter and Co. and it was completed on August 1st 1938 The curved wall corners in the upstairs verandah provide an expansive feeling to the building and balance well with the stepped roof line from the main front facade. It has excellent live jazz weekends. Facade detail Upstairs verandah detail Public bar when it first opened Tooths & Co had a formulaic approach to their hotels which is why there is such a similarity between them all. A modern example would be Westfields. No matter which one you go to there is a familiar format that makes you feel quite at home. Of course getting you to spend big (or drink big?) is a great way to make a fortune. Sources: ANU Open Research Library

Located at 267 & 269-271 Cleveland Street Redfern the former Demco Machinery buildings occupy a site on the corner of Great Buckingham and Cleveland Streets adjacent to the Surrey Club Hotel. The earlier building, at 271 Cleveland Street, was constructed circa 1911 as the Sydney Tobacco Co Store which subsequently became John Barlow - Tea Merchants. Demco Machinery occupied the building from 1930. The later building at 267 Cleveland St (cnr Great Buckingham) was constructed on the site of the former St Margaret's Hospital for Women Dispensary around 1940. Another view of the building The entrance to the building is highlighted by a stepped parapet and wedge shaped frontispiece containing the building name -"Demco, flanked by ribbed rainwater heads, vertical glass panels on the stairwell, a projecting concrete awning and ribbed render columns that frame the entrance. The Buckingham Street building is a four storey interwar Functionalist style commercial building

The Global Self Storage building is located at 602 Botany Road, Rosebery. The building has no heritage listing but has interesting Art Deco brickwork on the front facade albeit a bit garishly painted now.

The Knickerbocker Hotel located in Bathurst at 110 William Street is a famous Bathurst interwar Functionalist hotel was built in 1938. The Knickerbocker hotel is listed in the RAIA Registry of Significant 20th Century Buildings. Another view of the hotel An interesting feature is the glass brick feature up the building stairwell which allows natural lighting of what would otherwise be a dark and dingy stairway to the second floor guest rooms. The use of glass bricks was a very common practice among architects of the time.

Although not a true carillon (there is no dynamic control over the striking of the bells - they are struck remotely with equal force) the Bathust carillon is counted as one of three carillons located in Australia. The others are in Canberra and the University of Sydney. It has 35 bells and was constructed in 1933 as a memorial to the men of Bathurst and District who served in World War One. Doors commemorating both World Wars provide entry to an interior featuring an eternal flame of remembrance. It was first played regularly by local piano techician, Hector Lupp, who was the official carillonist up until 1945. He also continued to maintain the mechanism for many years until his death in 1989. Bathust carillon base detail Top detail Sources: Register of War Memorials Hector Lupp - A Son of Bathurst Exhibition 2008-09 SYdney University Carillon

The Burley Griffin Incinerator at 47-53 Forsyth Street in Glebe was designed by Walter Burley Griffin as a municipal incinerator, much smaller and simpler in design than the examples at Pyrmont and Willoughby. A large Semi-circular stone structure nearby is in the same style as the stone base of incinerator. It was built 1933. Facade detail It is a very inviting entrance. Abandon all hope ye who enter! Sources: Sydney Heritage Listings