Page 122 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Sydney

120  SY DNEY AREA B Y AREA

Street-by-Street: Potts Point

The substantial Victorian houses filling the streets of this
old suburb are excellent examples of the 19th-century
concern with architectural harmony. New building pro jects
were designed to enhance rather than contradict the
surrounding buildings and general streetscape. Monumental
structures and fine details of moulded stuccoed parapets,
cornices and friezes, even the spandrels in herringbone
pattern, are all integral parts of a grand suburban plan.
(This plan included an 1831 order that all houses cost at The McElhone Stairs were
least £1,000.) The gentrification of this part of the suburb, pre ceded by a wooden ladder
that linked Woolloomooloo Hill,
with its pretty, tree-lined streets and air of sophistication, as Kings Cross was known,
earned it the enduring moniker, “The Paris End of Potts Point”. to the estate far below.

Horderns Stairs
These villas, from
the Georgian and
Victorian eras, can
be broadly labelled V I C T O R I A S T R E E T
as Classical Revival
and are fronted by
leafy gardens.

Kings
Cross Station T U S C U L U M S T R E E T M A N N I N G S T R E E T
2. Victoria Street
From 1972 to 1974, residents of this M A C L E A Y S T R E E T
historic street fought a sometimes
violent battle against developers
wanting to build high-rise towers, H U G H E S S T R E E T
motels and blocks of flats. C R I C K S T R E E T

M A C L E A Y S T R E E T G R E E N K N O W E A V E N U E

Werrington, a mostly
serious and streamlined
building, also has
flamboyant Art Deco E L I Z A B E T H B A Y R O A D
detailing, which is now Tusculum Villa was just one of a
hidden under brown paint. number of 1830s houses sub ject
to “villa conditions”. All had to face
Government House, be of a high
monetary value and be built
within three years.

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