Strickland House is a heritage-listed former residence and convalescent home and now functions, film studio, urban park and visitor attraction located at 52 Vaucluse Road, Vaucluse, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Frederick Hilly and built from 1830 to 1858 by William Wentworth. It is also known as Carrara; Strickland Convalescent Home for Women; Strickland House Hospital for the Aged. The property is owned by the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 and on 21 March 1978 was listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate.
History Strickland House's site has been identified as having twelve phases of historical development from the pre-European occupation of the site; to the first grants made to William Wentworth, who gifted this part of his estate to his daughter, Thomasina, and her husband, Thomas Fisher, in the 1830s–55 (they did not build on it, returning to England); to Charles Lowe, who may have started building the house, but then on-sold the site; to John Hosking, the second Mayor of Sydney (who owned it 1855–76) who built Carrara and lived here; to Henry Moore and his family (1876–88); to Arthur Wigram Allen, tenants and caretakers (1888–1899); Tudor House (1899–1902); to other members of the Allen family (1902–14); and then through a period of ownership and use by the Government of New South Wales / Minister for Lands (1914–15) who bought the site with funds from the Foreshores Resumption Scheme for use as a 'public recreation ground'; for subsequent re-purpose as the Strickland Convalescent Home for Women (1915–33); and then as a Convalescent Hospital for Men and Women (1933–60); and as the Strickland House Hospital for the Aged (1960–90); and finally in its current phase of ownership and use since 1990.
The site demonstrates an important component of the early settlement patterns in the district, being part of an early land grant (originally made to William Charles Wentworth) that has not been subdivided. The site has associations with the historical figures of William Charles Wentworth, the original owner of the (originally much larger) property; John Hosking, who built Carrara and substantially developed the grounds; and subsequent occupants including Henry Moore and members of the Allen family are of significance. The status of these people as leading political figures in the nineteenth century ensured that Carrara was well known within important social circles in Sydney at that time.
John Hosking development and ownership
The original villa, Carrara was built in 1856 in a large landscaped setting, including a strong relationship between the house and the water. The two-storey segmental bay projection is striking and represents a relatively early use of such a feature. The remnants of the sandstone wharf adjacent to Milk Beach contributes to the strength of this association.
John Hosking (1806–1882), the Mayor of Sydney, commissioned John Frederick Hilly in 1856 to build Strickland House (then called Carrara). An advertisement was placed in the Sydney Morning Herald on 15 April 1856 for contractors to erect the walls of the house. Hosking was born in 1806 in England. His father was the principal of a day school and was invited in 1809 to come to Sydney to run the Female Orphan School in George Street. He returned to London ten years later when John was 13 years old. When John was 20 he decided to return to Australia with his brother and opened a store in Pitt Street. He went into business with John Terry Hughes who was the nephew of Samuel Terry, an extremely wealthy merchant and landowner. In 1829 he married Terry's daughter, Martha, and the couple had three daughters. The family lived at Strickland House until 1876 and then moved to Penrith to live with one of their daughters.
An advertisement was placed in the newspapers in 1877 which described in detail the house and surrounding gardens of the property. Some of the description is as follows.
Henry Moore ownership
Henry Moore (1815–1888) moved into Strickland House in 1879 with his wife, Elizabeth, and seven of his adult children. He was born in London in 1815 and came to Australia as a child with his father, Captain Joseph Moore, who became a merchant. After leaving school he entered his father's firm which was a large importing company. In 1839 he married Elizabeth Scholes Johnson and the couple had nine children – three sons and six daughters. He bought a large wharf at Darling Harbour which was later called Moore's Wharf. He was also an agent for P&O. In 1868 he became a Member of the NSW Parliament and retained this position for almost 20 years.
An account of life at Strickland House and the Moore family in the 1880s was given by one of the housemaids when, in later years, she wrote of her life at the house:
From July 1879 to June 1888 Henry Moore MLC lived at Carrara. He had extensive business in loading and discharging of vessels. About 1840 he bought Moore's Wharf at Millers Point and from 1852 to 1880 was the first P&O shipping agent in Sydney, becoming an MLA in 1868. He married Elizabeth Johnston in 1839 and over 20 years they had 12 children. They moved into Carrara in July 1869 from Barncleuth (later Kinnell), Darlinghurst as that suburb was getting too crowded. Some four years later Moore became owner of Carrara. Their youngest son, Verner, described the Carrara years as "halcyon". They would be invited on board ships anchored in the bay and would return the hospitality. He considered Carrara had a ghost in the giant bamboo, which would crash about in the wind. Mrs Moore died aged 66 in 1885 and in 1888 Henry died, aged 73. After 1888 the family split up, some going to England, some interstate.
Ownership under Arthur Allen and Boyce Allen
When Henry Moore died, the property was purchased by Arthur Wigram Allen, in conjunction with his eldest brother, Boyce, on 11 December 1888. Arthur, well-known solicitor and Sydney identity, was married to Ethel, daughter of Watler Lamb who built the original Kambala on Bellevue Hill. Arthur was third of six sons of George Wigram Allen, whose father George founded the well known eponymous legal firm, Allens, and built Toxteth Park estate at Glebe. Arthur's youngest brother Walter was father of Oswald, known in the cricketing world as "Gubby Allen". He may have used Carrara's grounds and hall as a cricket pitch. Gubby Allen was the English test bowler in the famous "bodyline" series, lived at Carrara as a boy. Boyce Allen lived in the house with his family for over ten years.
Boyce Allen (1856–1945) was born in Glebe in 1856. His father was George Wigram Allen, a prominent solicitor and politician who owned Toxteth Park, Glebe which is now St Scholastica's College. He was one of eleven children, six boys and five girls. His brother Arthur Wigram Allen was also a solicitor and they went into partnership in a legal firm. Arthur was a very enthusiastic photographer and many of his photos depicting scenes of Sydney are still used in exhibitions.
In 1888 Boyce married Isabella Dundas who was the daughter of Joseph Dundas a Scottish landowner who lived in Carron Hall in Stirlingshire. She came to Sydney to visit her relative Admiral Henry Fairfax who at that time was living at Admiralty House. It was during this short visit that she met Boyce Allen and shortly after they married. The couple moved to Strickland House immediately after their wedding. They had six children three boys and three girls. A niece of Boyce Allen described the family and the house in her memoirs:
During the Allen period of ownership, the Sands Directories for the following years list the occupants as:Poland, 1992 1889 – Bennett, gardener; 1890–92 – Johanthon Seavers, CBP, MLA; 1893–96 – George Boyce Allen (Arthur's brother); 1897–98 – Dewley, gardener; 1899 – Mr Lyons; 1900–03 – Wilfred Inman, Boys Preparatory School (which moved to Moss Vale and became Tudor House); 1904 – George Boyce Allen; 1905–11 – Mrs J. P. Garvan.
Wilfred Inman, as a tenant
Between 1899 and 1902 the house was let to Wilfred Alexander Inman who used the house as a school which later became Tudor House School, Moss Vale.
Wilfred Alexander Inman (1862–1950) was born at Spital Old Hall in Bebington, Cheshire in 1862. His father was Charles Inman, a wealthy merchant and his mother was Decima Isabella Catherine Davies. In 1882 at the age of 19 he immigrated to Melbourne on the ship Sobraon.Inward Overseas Passenger Lists (British Ports) Some years later he found employment at Groongal Station on the Murrumbidgee River. In 1897 he married Mary Martin, the daughter of Sir James Martin, Chief Justice of NSW, and Lady Isabella Martin. During her childhood Mary had lived at nearby Greycliffe House and later at Woollahra House.
In the same year as their marriage the Inmans started a school at Erewal in Bellevue Hill called the “Preparatory School for Boys”. This school was moved two years later to Strickland House. In later years Wilfred Inman wrote about his time at the house, commenting:Tudor House Preparatory School website. Online reference
In 1915 the Allen family sold Strickland House to the Government to become a hospital.
Use as a hospital The siting and general design of the Strickland House site represents the picturesque aspirations of wealthy mid nineteenth century society. The garden and grounds of Strickland house are significant for their siting and development, largely credited to the Hosking period of ownership, according to romantic picturesque principles. The landscape of the Strickland House site is significant as a scale of grounds associated with a former harbour side "marine" villa residence adapted to institutional use and now open space with integral physical and visual connections with Sydney Harbour and adjacent Sydney Harbour National Park lands. The development of Strickland House's garden can be divided into two historical phases:Tanner Architects, 2003. as the garden setting for a grand private residence, a Victorian marine villa on the shores of Sydney Harbour; as the grounds of a convalescent home (–1989).
The Stables building is a substantial outbuilding representing an extension of the facilities required to support a substantial family residence and property during the mid nineteenth century. Architecturally it exhibits idiosyncratic detailing that has an unfinished quality and makes this building rare. The relationship of the Stables to Carrara combined with its unusual details contribute to the aesthetic quality of the site and setting as a whole. In 1911 the NSW government established the Foreshores Resumption Scheme. Purchases made by the NSW government in 1912 and 1914 were significant factors that contributed to the site's preservation. The property was purchased in June 1914 with funds from the Foreshore Resumption Scheme - the same scheme that paid for the adjacent Nielsen Park – "for a public recreation ground at Rose Bay" and "to be added to Nielsen Park".Woollahra Council; Woollahra History & Heritage Society, 2014. This was to satisfy public demand of the day for land on the foreshores of Sydney Harbour for public use in perpetuity.
The site was subsequently adapted to provide a public health care facility – a significant phase in the development of the site representing changing government attitudes in health care ideology in NSW. It reopened in 1915 as the Strickland House Convalescent Hospital for Women. The additional buildings (two large dormitories for men and women) constructed during the 1933 demonstrate the importance of the health care facility to the community and are a physical representation of occupation by the Department of Health.