open house richmond 2024

Open House Richmond was a one-off Open House event held in February 2024 as part of the Richmond Bicentenary.

Located on the land of the Mumirimina people of the Oyster Bay Nation, Richmond hosted a number of events between December 2023 and February 2024 to commemorate the history of the town.

Having attended many Open House Hobart events in the past, my sister and I decided it was well past time that we volunteered at one of these weekends, so we put our hands up to help out on the Saturday morning.

You can read about what we did here.

I finally got to hold a clipboard! (NB not the building I was volunteering at) Photo by Carryl M.

We were allocated to the St John the Evangelist Church precinct for three hours on Saturday. Our job was to tally the number of visitors and ask them for their postcodes. If you’ve been to Open House events before, you’ll know this drill.

St John the Evangelist Church

The church (dating back to 1835) and the old school house (1843) were open to the public. The 1959 presbytery wasn’t open, but visitors were invited to walk around and admire its modernist excellence.

Wesley Stacey Exhibition

Before we headed off to the church, we took a look at the Wesley Stacey photo exhibition of Richmond in the 1960s. Wes Stacey (1941-2023) was an Australian architectural and documentary photographer who came to Richmond in 1968 to document the town.

Wesley Stacey 1968 Richmond

The exhibition notes tell us

Wes was in Richmond for a few days in 1968 during which he brought an artist’s eye to the town just prior to its emergence from a century in the doldrums. Bypassed by roads, rail and causeways, Richmond settled into a period of reduced relevance and quietude, which saved it from unsympathetic development. Wes’ photographs record a very locally-focussed Richmond and present a perspective on the village just prior to its reinvention as a heritage tourism hot spot.

It was cool to see this photo of the church we were about to visit.

Wesley Stacey’s 1968 photo of St John the Evangelist Church

The exhibition was curated by Richmond Bicentenary Creative Director, Noel Frankham. The photographs form part of the “Wes Stacey archive of architectural photographs, 1968-1972”, held by the National Library of Australia.

It’s an amazing collection of almost 3,000 photos.

St John the Evangelist Precinct

Three hours was a lot of time to explore the area in between visitors. Here’s some photos.

Old Catholic School House (1843)

Old School House

Old School House

Old School House

Old School House

St John the Evangelist Church (1835)

Church toppers

Church seen from the road

The church and the presbytery

The Presbytery

The original church presbytery (date unknown) eventually become a convent and was subsequently replaced by in the 1930s by a new catholic school and convent. In 1929, the old school house was converted into a presbytery, presumably temporarily.

The current presbytery was designed by Paul Fox in 1957. The newly appointed parish priest, Rev Fr JB Reed had the design approved by the Archbishop Most Rev G Young DD, and it was completed in 1959 by the builder Mr E H Hewitt of Lindisfarne.

Presbytery front door

It’s a two-bedroom house with, we were told, an ensuite bathroom, which was apparently very uncommon in the 1950s.

Presbytery seen from the old school house

At the building’s blessing and opening on 15 March 1959, The Mercury observed that, ‘although modern in design, the presbytery has been built so that it in no way interferes with the antiquity of the church’.

A pair of crosses

Windows

The end

Detail

Lines

Strong verticals

More strong verticals

I had a lovely morning exploring what I could of this wonderful building and meeting and greeting visitors to the school house. It was interesting to hear some of the stories people shared.

I think part of the fun of Open House is to meet people with common interests (or even uncommon interests!) and to learn interesting things about our built heritage.

And the day wouldn’t be complete without . . .

The Richmond Tourist Amenities

This was presented as an example of ‘contemporary architecture within a historic setting’. 

 The complex was commended in the 2004 and 2005 Tasmanian architecture awards:

“This building deserves recognition because it seeks to contextualise, within an historic setting. Through means other than imitation of historic forms. It is a well-considered approach, which reworks components of the familiar without pastiche. It also provides an innovative plan for an often maligned building type.”

From 1+2 Architecture

Thanks to everyone who made this weekend possible, especially Katie and Jen from Open House HQ, who do an amazing job of putting the program together.

exploring the suburbs (january 2024)

the suburb and the sky

industrial colours

black and white

scenes from the street

open house hobart 2023—some houses

2023 Open House Hobart posts

• Architectural Drawing
• Signs of Hobart
• Crisp & Gunn (The Forestry Dome)
• The Railway Roundabout Fountain
• The ABC Building
• The New Spirit of Modernism (Part 1)
• The New Spirit of Modernism (Part 2)

Some amazing homes

Featured buildings – Woolton Place, Alt-Na-Craig, The Barn, 540 Churchill Avenue.

Woolton Place

It’s mandatory on Open House weekend to visit at least one building desigined by Esmond Dorney. Don’t ask me why. It just is.

Lil Sis and I had been to the house at Fort Nelson commonly referred to as The Dorney House a couple of weeks earlier when we attended Paddy Dorney’s launch of his book about his father’s work. (You can read about it in the second part of this post.) We didn’t have time this weekend to fit it in, but we were very keen to see one of Esmond’s houses (which hadn’t been open before) in Woolton Place, Sandy Bay.

It was built in 1958 and has had some sympathetic changes to the kitchen and bathroom in 2014.

The stone open fireplace in Esmond Dorney’s Woolton Place house

It is, as you’d expect, beautiful, with so much natural light and beautiful curved features.

Exit to the deck

The owners said that they’d so far been unable to find plans for this house and they believed they might have been among the many papers that were lost when Esmond’s office was burned down. As a result, it isn’t in Paddy’s book and we don’t know much about it.

Windows for everyone!

The entire street is full of gems like this and I need to come back and be one of those people who walks around and photographs other people’s houses.

Wall and ceiling collide

Alt-Na-Craig

This is a tiny apartment in Lenah Valley, designed by Ray Heffernan in 1964.

Open House tells us the apartment is only 37 square metres. It’s north-facing and it “showcases the principles of good design that can improve human experience, including floor-to-ceiling glass windows that keep the apartment warm in winter and cool in summer”.

Al-Na-Craig is on Augusta Road.

Al-Na-Craig Apartments on August Road

That’s not 6 Alt-Na-Craig Avenue.

But it says Alt-Na-Craig on the side of it.

But it’s not 6 Alt-Na-Craig Avenue . . .

Ohhhh . . . we have to walk up this hill . . .

Indeed we do, and we get to a gorgeous block of units overlooking Lenah Valley. Here, we meet Helen, the owner of the tiny apartment.

The apartments we came to see

Really.

Tiny.

It has a tiny kitchen (imagine Mr Tall in there, says Lil Sis), and a slightly bigger bathroom, which begs the question why is the bathroom bigger than the kitchen?.

Helen has cleverly moved the hot water cylinder out of the bathroom into the kitchen so she can fit a washing machine in there. I meant to ask where the washing machine would have been in 1964. Maybe they went to the laundromat.

The cool brickwork on the side

The rest of the apartment is one room, with the bedroom section (with built-ins) separated from the living area with a floating glass screen wall, which allows enough blockage for the bedroom to be its own space but also lets light in and keeps the place light and airy, which you really need in such a tiny space. Helen says of all the apartments, hers is the only one to have retained this feature.

The living room side of the floating glass wall. Look at all that timber!

The living and bedroom area is slightly off-north facing and the windows are designed so that in winter, when the sun is lower, light (and warmth) comes a good distance into the space to keep it warmer; and in summer, it comes in just far enough for light but it doesn’t overheat. It’s very clever use of space.

Of course, I couldn’t live there because there are no book cases. I’d need to buy the apartment next door too, just to house my books.

I don’t think Helen’s selling though!

Stone Flower/The Barn

This renovated barn in West Hobart was our last stop on Saturday.

20 Forest Road and a car

The owners say the dilapidated old barn behind the main house was the main reason they decided to buy the property.

The Barn behind the house . . . and what is that giant pole for?

It took over seven years to create the project, from exploring the possibilities, to engaging an architect and working through council and heritage issues and finally construction.

They say they reused as much timber as possible in the design, with the table being built out of left over timbers. All of the original stone has been retained.

Retaining stone and timber

It’s a lovely space.

The wall hanging in the bedroom

540 Churchill Avenue

By the time we’d finished the modernism walking tour on Sunday afternoon, we were running our of time to get back to Sandy Bay to see the last house on our itinerary.

540 Churchill Avenue was designed in 1957 by Barry Fisher. It is a stunning home!

Stair detail, 540 Churchill Avenue

We pulled up outside at 3.49 pm, just as the volunteers were packing up the signs. Please can we have a look? we asked, and Helen (who we’d met at Al-Na-Craig on Saturday) said okay but we had to be quick. And quick we were!

We got a very fast but thorough tour of this gorgeous house, a couple of doors down from Esmond Dorney’s Butterfly House that we’d seen in 2021.

The living room . . . and the amazing light fitting in the background

This house was designed for Mr H H (Bert) Smart, Master Warden of the Marine Board from 1957 to 1983.

There is exquisite attention to detail everywhere, down to the horizontal banister on the entrance stairs. It’s another of those beautifully light homes that take in the views of timtumili minanya/River Derwent, with timber fittings throughout.

And this light fitting.

Amazing light fitting

The kitchen is gorgeous.

There have been some recent renovations and extensions, especially downstairs, which are sympathetic to the original design. It is an absolutely beautiful home and I’m so glad we were able to see it.

Timber, amazing windows and a stripy mat

And that was the end of our Open House Weekend. I still have one more post to slot in somewhere though!

south hobart & dynnyrne

In my other life, I’m preparing for the Point to Pinnacle walk to the summit of kunanyi/Mt wellington.

It’s a 21 km walk, which means I need to go out and walk a lot. Preferably up hills.

Last Saturday, I found myself in South Hobart so I took the opportunity to explore and climb hills. Well, one hill.

I only had my phone camera with me but I got some photo ideas as I made my way to Sandy Bay via Dynnyrne.

Macquarie Street

Macquarie Street

Macquarie Street

I’m walking up that mountain in 6 weeks time

Waterworks Quarry

Something that’s been in the news recently

This is cool

Hiding away

I love the typeface of the HEC substations

This caught my eye walking past

Former Braithwaite’s Bakery (c. 1940) messed up a bit with more modern brickwork

randwick 20th century

I’m not quite done with Randwick yet!

The Art Deco Walk was a great introduction to the 20th century architecture of the area, and I discovered a lot more as I was walking round.

Here are some more.

Day Avenue & Anzac Parade, Kensington

High Street, Randwick

Don Juan Avenue, Randwick

Mears Avenue, Randwick

Altadena, Botany Street, Randwick

Belmore Road, Randwick

Arthur Lane, Randwick

Corner of Bradley Street & Alison Road

Silver Street & Elizabeth Lane, Randwick

Avoca Street, Randwick

Belmore Road ,Randwick

Arthur Lane, Randwick

coogee

I didn’t realise until after I’d got back home from the Sydney trip that there was a companion to the Randwick Art Deco walk for the neighbouring suburb of Coogee.

That’s cool. I have somewhere new to explore next time I’m in the area.

I spent only a couple of hours in Coogee this time. It involved a walk down Coogee Bay Road, fish and chips on the beach, and the return walk up a back road that ended up in St Pauls Street in Randwick.

I was going to explore more the next day but the rain put an end to that idea.

Sunburst Music on Coogee Bay Road

Sunburst Music on Coogee Bay Road

173 Coogee Bay Road

This shop + flats on Coogee Bay Road is in the Coogee Walk. Constructed c. 1933.

Coogee Beach Rainbow Walkway (opened February 2021)

John LeMarseny Boatshed, Coogee Beach

Coogee Beach

The wall supporting the walkway

sydney: circular quay meandering

On my recent Sydney trip, along with the Randwick Art Deco Walk brochure and the Brutalist Sydney Map, I had with me the Footpath Guides Sydney Architectural Walking Guides. I have their Melbourne Mid Century 1950-1970 book and on one of my Melbourne trips I followed the route suggested in that book and photographed all 25 buildings. This had involved a couple of early morning starts staying in Melbourne CBD.

I decided I wasn’t going to do the full walks set out in either the Sydney Inter-war (1915-1940) or Sydney Modern (1950-1990) books but would pick out places that interested me. There was only one building that was on my “I must see this or the whole trip is ruined” list. I was going to find the others if I got the chance because I’d planned to spend most of the week in and around Randwick rather than in the CBD.

The Sydney Modern book mentioned the Sirius apartment building and the AMP building, both of which were around the Circular Quay area. I’d heard of both of them, so I made that my first stop on my CBD day. Circular Quay is a convenient light rail ride from either Randwick or Kensington so I had no trouble getting there.

The first structure that caught my eye (apart from the gargantuan cruise ship) was the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay (W.H. Withers & W.D.H. Baxter, 1952)

It was previously the Maritime Services Board building and replaced a much older building. It was planned in 1939 but was delayed because of shortages of labour and materials during the war. Work restarted in 1946 but further delays meant it wasn’t completed until 1952, by which time its design as considered somewhat dated.

Museum of Contemporary Art

The entrances are framed with pink Rob Roy granite, which came from quarries in Sodwalls, near Lithgow. The carved sandstone decorations under the clock tower (you can’t see them here) include a ship’s propeller, wheel and anchor signifying respectively the “driving force, guiding force and stability” of the Maritime Services Board.

Also, what visit to Circular Quay would be complete without a photo of the Sydney Opera House?

Sydney Opera House (Jorn Utzon, 1973)

I wasn’t there to see either of those structures! Circular Quay was packed with unmasked people and I didn’t want to stay there, so my search for Sirius began. It’s on Cumberland Street, which would be easy for anyone who isn’t as geographically challenged as I am to get to from Circular Quay.

According to Sydney Modern, the NSW Housing Commission built the Sirius apartment complex over the period 1975-1980 to re-house public tenants who were displaced during redevelopment of The Rocks. It included a total of 79 apartments of various sizes, and catered for 250 aged and family residents.

Its architect was Tao Gofers, who was a Housing Commission architect at the time. He originally wanted to paint it white, but they ran out of money so (I think, thankfully) that never happened.

A “rare and fine example” of Brutalist architecture (according to the NSW Heritage Council), Sirius looked like this:

Sirius (image by Katherine Lu. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.)

I knew it was in danger.

If I hadn’t already known, the bomb symbol next to the words “UNDER THREAT Demolition is imminent” in Sydney Modern (published in 2017) was difficult to miss.

The NSW government had announced in 2014 it would be selling the site to be redeveloped into luxury apartments. I hadn’t followed the story very closely but this was obviously very distressing for the residents of the complex, along with the broader community. They formed the Save Our Sirius Foundation to fight to save the complex.

In 2016 the NSW Heritage Minister refused to have Sirius listed as a heritage site, apparently because its heritage value was outweighed by its financial value to the government. The NSW Land & Environment Court didn’t agree.

By the end of 2017, however, Myra Demetriou was the only resident left at Sirius, and she moved out in February 2018 after the government finally put the complex up for sale. Myra passed away in 2021.

I’d heard there were plans to redevelop it into fancy boutique apartments rather than demolishing it but I hadn’t realised the work was actually underway until I (eventually) got there.

Sirius reimagined

That was disappointing, and I’m sad I never got to see it as it was.

Because I’d taken the long way round, by the time I found Sirius, I’d walked under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Continuing along Cumberland Street, past the bridge climb office, I found a random lift that went up to the bridge itself. I didn’t know you could walk on the bridge, so I went up to have a look.

Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932)

The bridge construction started in 1924 and was completed in 1932. I found the bridge plaque, which mentions the firm Dorman Long and Company, who were the contractors for design and construction. My great grandfather worked for that company in the 1920s and my mother says he was involved in the bridge design. I have no reason to disbelieve this. He was a structural engineer who specialised in bridges. He moved to Tasmania in 1925, so his involvement must have been only at the very early stages. (Or he wasn’t involved at all and it’s just a family urban legend!)

Sydney Harbour Bridge plaque

I decided not to take the lift to the top of the pylon. The view was pretty good from where I was.

Sydney Opera House from the Harbour Bridge

I didn’t want to go all the way across the bridge because I had other things to see. I’d been able to see a scaffold-clad building from the bridge and desperately hoped it wasn’t the AMP building which was also on my list to see . . .

I found this cool building on the way back. I have no idea what it is.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Coming off the bridge back down to The Rocks is the Cahill Walk, which accompanies the Cahill Expressway. I wondered if I was going to find myself in this Jeffrey Smart painting, but that’s further around the expressway.

I could see just one part of Siruis that hadn’t been covered over by the redevelopment work.

Sirius reimagined

The lone block made me think of Myra’s story, and what it might have been like for her to be the last person living in the complex.

There was a cool view of the skyline.

Sydney from the Harbour Bridge

Postscript for Sirius: I was at the Art Gallery of NSW later in the week and found a book about the struggle to save Sirius in the bookshop. It tells the history of the complex, from the Green Bans placed on The Rocks in the 1970s until the 2017 court ruling.

Sirius by John Dunn, Ben Peake & Amiera Piscopo

randwick art deco part 3

Continuing on the Randwick Art Deco Walk, today’s photos are from the last section of the walk including Alison Road, Bradley Street and Cook Street.

6 Botany Street. “Possible conversion from an old cottage (“Goodwood”) to a block of Art Deco Flats”

125 Alison Road (right).

Rothsay (c.1938) 132 Alison Road

Redlands (c.1934) 2a Bradley Street

Redlands (c.1934) 2a Bradley Street

Redlands (c. 1934) 2a Bradley Street

Redlands (c.1934) 2a Bradley Street

Indapur (c.1939) 3 Bradley Street

Belhaven, 52 Cook Street

Juverna (c.1925) 50 Cook Street

Juverna (c.1925) 50 Cook Street

Juverna (c.1925) 50 Cook Street

Winston, 17 Cook Street

Winston, 17 Cook Street

randwick art deco part 2: belmore road

Continuing on the Randwick Art Deco Walk, today’s photos are from around Belmore Road, which is the main business area of Randwick.

64-68 Belmore Road (corner of Waratah Street)

Babinda (c.1938) 60 Belmore Road

Babinda (c.1938) 60 Belmore Road

Babinda (c.1938) 60 Belmore Road

Babinda (c.1938) 60 Belmore Road

Alkoomie (c.1927) Corner Silver Street & Belmore Road

35-43 Belmore Road, listed as the “Asteroid Building” from 1939

35-43 Belmore Road

Babinda (Waratah Avenue side)

Carinya, 25 Waratah Avenue

Carinya, 25 Waratah Avenue

randwick art deco (part 1)

I recently spent a week in Randwick, NSW. I’d never been there before but discovered, thanks to Randwick City Council, that it has a lot of art deco architecture.

In the 1920s-1940s, there was a massive increase in residential building across Greater Sydney, including Randwick, to accommodate the population boom between the world wars. It figures that, as the art deco style was popular in that period, there are a lot of buildings of that style in the area. 

The Ritz Cinema (1937), St Pauls Street

Randwick City Council held an exhibition  of photos by resident Alan Lloyd, who had documented a lot of the buildings, in 2013. This became two walking tours of Randwick and Coogee, which were so popular they developed self-guided versions for each suburb.

The Ritz (1937)

I’d found the Randwick one a few years ago but hadn’t realised there was a Coogee one as well!

The Ritz interior

My goal for the week was to find all 20 buildings on the Randwick walk and photograph them.

It was easier said than done, mainly because, due to my early morning starts, I ended up with a lot of uneven light. And there were photos I definitely could have used a tripod for.

I also missed one because the walk brochure didn’t give the actual address of the building I was looking for and I got distracted by a more modern building . . .

Don Juan Avenue. Not what I was looking for but I like it.

It took me three days to find all the buildings, and I discovered some other cool buildings along the way. So this is going to be a series of several posts of my week in Randwick and other places around Sydney. (I also wrote a travel blog about my week in Sydney at my personal blog.)

Today’s photos are the first six buildings from the art deco walk, which starts at St Pauls Road at an area called The Spot, which is a small shopping centre with a lot of cafes and restaurants.

Salvios Shop (pre-1925), 34 St Pauls Street

The Spot (c. 1920), 46-50 Perouse Road

The Spot (c. 1920), 46-50 Perouse Road

The Spot (c. 1920) 46-50 Perouse Road

Gower Galtees (1940), 8-10 Coogee Bay Road

Gower Galtees (1940), 8-10 Coogee Bay Road

Ada Street flats