The Julian Ashton Art School is a heritage-listed former offices and now art school and retail store at 117-119 George Street in the inner city Sydney suburb of The Rocks, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by E. Lindsay Thompson and Spooner & Dixon. It is also known as Gallery and Shop. The property is owned by Property NSW, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It is currently tenanted by the Julian Ashton Art School. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 May 2002.
History Early land grant Prior to the subdivision of the site, today's 117-119 George Street was part of the hospital precinct. The three buildings forming the hospital followed the western side of George Street, along with Principal and Assistant Surgeons' quarters. These were set back from the street alignment with fenced kitchen gardens visible in illustrations.
Dalley was a convict who came to Australia in 1819 to serve a life sentence. Following the relocation of the Sydney Hospital from George Street he was granted a section of land. Within six years he had taken two adjoining parcels of land in The Rocks. The original allotment 9 of Section 84 of the Town of Sydney was granted to John Dalley on 20 August 1834. Part of Lot 10 which was to become 117-119 George Street, was granted but not registered in the General Register of Deeds on 20 May 1840. It was on Lot 10 that Dalley had built a five roomed house by . The retrospective granting of title was part of a more general problem in The Rocks where there were competing claims to ownership. A plan drawn two years later by John Russell shows clearly the extent of Dalley's granted land, being the two granted allotments 9 and 10. Buildings are present on both blocks, but with irregular outlines. It is possible that the building on Allotment 10 is earlier and straddles the surveyed grant. An interesting feature is that the rear of Allotment 9 is slightly indented and this was done to accommodate two small bluffs or outcrops of sandstone marked on the plan. This is the only accurate indication of the natural environment on the site.
Dalley's career as a convict eventually turned landowner and businessman was a relatively common one in NSW. The only significant variation to it is that he was the father of William Bede Dalley, a very successful barrister who became one of the most prominent NSW parliamentarians in the 1870s and 1880s. Born in 1831, it is probable that the young Dalley grew up on the site.
Occupancy for the second half of the nineteenth century is established through the Sands Directories; however, some allowance has had to be made for renumbering of the street. Initially 117–119 were numbered 119–121 George, the changeover to the present numbers taking place in 1880–1881.
The 1865 Trigonometric Survey shows in simple outline two identical-sized buildings with the narrow alleyway leading to unevenly sized rear yards. Another large building fronts Nurses Walk. An annotated drawing on the same base map shows a sanitation line running down the alleyway from about the centre of No. 119 to join with a sewer line running southwards along George Street which discharges as the Queens Wharf Sewer. This sewer was present in 1857.
The Percy Dove Plan of Sydney in 1880 shows the No. 119 marked as being as occupied by the British Flag Hotel adjoining the alleyway, and in No. 117 is O'Neil Outfitters. Johnson is the hotel's licensee. The alleyway leads to a yard behind No. 119, and No. 117 also has a small yard, with a clearly demarcated outbuilding. A substantial two-storey store occupies the back of the lot. Some years later in 1895 another plan identifies both buildings as being the Queensland Hotel. The rear arrangement is slightly different, with the alleyway continuing southwards in a kink to go around a probable building. The proportions of the yards are the same but there is now a brick structure in a slightly different position.
In 1900 the land was resumed by the Minister for Public Works as part of the more general resumption of the Observatory Hill Lands. A map prepared for this legal process provides excellent detail of the lot. The outline of the lot appears to be based on existing surveys, but it clearly shows the rear of the lot as being part of a dedicated laneway, even though it appears to have been encroached upon. The right of way again deflects from the main lot boundaries and turns to the south at the blocked laneway. No further information is available on the nature of the building at the rear of No. 119. A photograph is believed to show a two-storey building at the rear of No. 117, with the small dunny on the ground floor being the rectangle visible in the 1900 plan, with a slightly angled fence attached to its corner. It is not even clear whether it is an entirely industrial structure.
Oil, coal, and grease supplier John Fell & Co. was a Sydney supplier of oil, coal and grease for industrial purposes. They took over occupation of the site from 1902 based on Sands Directory information and appear to have occupied the entire site. The one reasonably clear image of the building during their occupation shows that the doorway entrances to both No. 117 and No. 119 are marked with the company name. The block occupied by John Fell & Co. was rectangular and measured 34'6 by 82'8 (about 10.5m by 25.2m). Given the signage and the elaborate door and window surrounds on the ground floor it is possible that John Fell and Co. undertook an upgrade or even reconstruction of the façade of the building to mark their occupation. This would be consistent with the decorative style of the building.
In 1905 John Fell and Co, oil merchant is listed at 119 George Street, and two John Fells are listed as living at Kendall Street (suburb not specified) and at North Botany. If Kendall Street is an error for Kendall Lane it places one of the Fells living about from the office.
The 1910 Sydney Trades Directory lists Fell under oil merchants. It also lists another 24 oil merchants. They were widely scattered but others had offices in Harrington Street, George Street North and Kent Street, suggesting that the Dawes Point peninsula was a sound commercial location to operate from, as it serviced a substantial maritime and industrial area. 117-119 George Street at this time comprised two separate styled façades incorporated into the same building. No. 117 is a plain façade with a single large door, by comparison No. 119 is very elaborate. Based on the building characteristics Fell and Co. appear to have renovated the building and its façade, but it is possible that the street-front buildings, or at least the main section, are a new construction.
A survey of 1923 shows the property as consisting of a single building with the side blind alley. The rear of the lot and a laneway are marked as being completely covered by structures. From the survey it is clear that there is a minor encroachment beyond the front building line and that the northern side of the adjoining No. 121 is set back slightly from the allotment boundary. John Wilson Fell, listed as a "Gentleman" purchased the property from the Crown on 4 June 1931. This was unusual in this block of George Street, as most properties remained in the ownership of the Government and would continue to do so to the present. Based on evidence from the subsequent site development application they ceased trading at that address by 1948.
Women's League of Health The present building on the site was constructed in 1956. The main occupant of No. 117–119 in its later years was the Women's League of Health, later more simply the League of Health. The property was bought by Dorothea (Thea) Margaret Hughes on 10 December 1954. By the end of their occupation in 1973 the building was commonly known as the League of Health Building.
It is not clear whether Hughes bought it with her own capital or on behalf of the League of Health. The building that was constructed was a modern style dark red brick building with dark panels, probably stained timber. The development application papers lodged with Sydney City Council reveal that the development was not straightforward at all. Although the plans do not appear to have been retained, the development sequence is preserved in other council documents.
D. M. Hughes lodged a development application with Sydney City Council on 1 July 1955, registered as DA 434/55. Her address was listed as c/- The Women's League of Health, 308 George Street, Sydney. The application described the current offices, recently vacated by John Fell and Co. The application sought to extend the building to the rear, and to alter the existing building. The extensions would be about 22'6 by 30'6 (approx. 6.8m by 9.3m) on each of two floors, presumably in addition to the ground floor. The cost of the work was estimated at £9,000. In support of the application Hughes said "We hold classes in a special kind of physical training for women and for children and many of the classes are concerned with prenatal work to alleviate and decrease maternal mortality and morbidity". An inspection report by Council staff noted that about half of the ground floor was occupied by Howard Research, with the remainder of the ground floor and the upper floor unused.
No objection arising, the development application was approved on 8 August 1955. Shortly after the approval of the development application, a second DA was submitted by Hughes in February 1956. This proposed "(t)o demolish front portion of building and rebuild a three storey addition for use as an extension to the approved use of rear portion for health exercises". The cost was to be about £10,000. The architects were E. Lindsay Thompson, Spooner and Dixon, of 56 Hunter Street. There were no objections to the application and it was approved on 19 March 1956. The effect of the two applications was to demolish the existing two storey building from Fell's occupation and replace it with a completely new three-storey building. Footings from the Fell building, and possibly the earlier Dalley building survive as an informal basement level and have been incorporated into the construction, but everything above ground dates from 1956. The façade as built was entirely modern in form. Large metalframed windows provided light for each floor, separated by a possibly metal infill strip. The walls were constructed in mid-dark red brickwork. The stairwell and amenities on the southern side are highlighted with a strong vertical surround and smaller panel infill. In 1960 an application was made to the City Council on behalf of the League of Health to add external shades to the upper windows. The building initially had no awning but in 1973 Flame Opals applied for firstly a temporary awning and then a permanent metal awning.
The Australian branch of the Women's League of Health was established by Thea Stanley Hughes, who had been a student of Bagot Smith's, Hughes was born in Britain in 1935 but came to Australia at the age of four. She returned to Britain and enrolled in one of Bagot Smith's classes where she was an "outstanding" student. Hughes's philosophical background was influenced by the idea of reincarnation, and possibly by exposure to anthroposophy. As a result, her objectives were focussed more on developing women's character through self-development rather than on exercise. She purposefully dropped "and Beauty" from the League's Australian title. The League proved to be popular in Australia with more than 250 classes given weekly. Hughes wound the League up abruptly without it having another president or leader in 1974, coinciding closely with the League's departure from 117 to 119 George Street.