The Sze Yup Temple (Chinese: 悉尼四邑關帝廟) is a heritage-listed Chinese joss house and Taoist temple located at Victoria Road in the inner western Sydney suburb of Glebe in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1898 to 1904. Properly the Sze Yup Kwan Ti Temple ("the temple of Kwan Ti of the people of the Four Counties"), it is also sometimes called the Sze Yup Temple & Joss House or Joss House and Chinese Temple. The property is owned by Trustees of the Sze Yup Temple. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. It is one of only four pre-World War I Chinese temples that remain active in Australia.
The temple venerates Kwan Ti (Guan Di), a popular deity based on Guan Yu, a military figure of the Three Kingdoms Period. Its form, and those of the grounds, reflect the architectural style of Sze Yup counties (Siyi) in Guangdong, China. The central hall (1898) holds the Kwan Ti shrine, with the later eastern and western halls (1903) serving as an ancestral hall and hall dedicated to Caishen (Choi Buk Sing, 財神), the god of wealth.
History History of the area
The Leichhardt area was originally inhabited by the Wangal clan of Aborigines. After 1788 diseases such as smallpox and the loss of their hunting grounds caused huge reductions in their numbers and they moved further inland. Since European settlement the foreshores of Blackwattle Bay and Rozelle Bay have developed a unique maritime, industrial and residential character - a character which continues to evolve as areas which were originally residential estates, then industrial areas, are redeveloped for residential units and parklands.
The first formal grant in the Glebe area was a grant to Rev. Richard Johnson, the colony's first chaplain, in 1789. The Glebe (land allocated for the maintenance of a church minister) comprised rolling shale hills covering sandstone, with several sandstone cliff faces. The ridges were drained by several creeks including Blackwattle Creek, Orphan School Creek and Johnston Creek. Extensive swampland surrounded the creeks. On the shale ridges, heavily timbered woodlands contained several varieties of eucalypts while the swamplands and tidal mudflats had mangroves, swamp oaks (Casuarina glauca) and blackwattles (Callicoma serratifolia) after which the bay is named. Blackwattle Swamp was first mentioned by surveyors in the 1790s and Blackwattle Swamp Bay in 1807. By 1840 it was called Blackwattle Bay. Boat parties collected wattles and reeds for the building of huts, and kangaroos and emus were hunted by the early settlers who called the area the Kangaroo Ground. Rozelle Bay is thought to have been named after a schooner which once moored in its waters.
Johnson's land remained largely undeveloped until 1828, when the Church and School Corporation subdivided it into 28 lots, three of which they retained for church use.City Plan Heritage, 2005, quoting Max Solling & Peter Reynolds "Leichhardt: On the Margins of the City", 1997, 14 The Church sold 27 allotments in 1828 - north on the point and south around Broadway. The Church kept the middle section where the Glebe Estate is now. Up until the 1970s the Glebe Estate was in the possession of the Church. On the point the sea breezes attracted the wealthy who built villas. The Broadway end attracted slaughterhouses and boiling down works that used the creek draining to Blackwattle Swamp. Smaller working-class houses were built around these industries. Abbattoirs were built there from the 1860s. When Glebe was made a municipality in 1859 there were pro and anti-municipal clashes in the streets. From 1850 Glebe was dominated by wealthier interests.
Reclaiming the swamp, Wentworth Park opened in 1882 as a cricket ground and lawn bowls club. Rugby union football was played there in the late 19th century. The dog racing started in 1932. In the early 20th century modest villas were broken up into boarding houses as they were elsewhere in the inner city areas. The wealthier moved into the suburbs which were opening up through the railways. Up until the 1950s Sydney was the location for working class employment - it was a port and industrial city. By the 1960s central Sydney was becoming a corporate city with service-based industries - capital intensive not labour-intensive. A shift in demographics occurred, with younger professionals and technical and administrative people servicing the corporate city wanting to live close by. Housing was coming under threat and the heritage conservation movement was starting. The Fish Markets moved in in the 1970s. An influx of students came to Glebe in the 1960s and 1970s.Murray, Dr Lisa, Central Sydney, 5 August 2009.
Allen family and the Toxteth Park Estate Much of Glebe, including the temple site, was acquired by lawyer George Allen (1800–77) in 1827. Allen named his estate Toxteth Park Estate and had a house designed by eminent colonial architect John Verge (1772-1861). The house was completed in 1834, named after the home of the family's friend Sir Robert Wigram.Pollen & Healy, 1988, 109 Toxteth Park was a rectangular two-storey block with single-storey wings, a stone-flagged verandah on two sides, with the kitchen and servants' quarters behind. During extensions in 1878-81 the ground floor was renovated, but the present-day long drawing-room and bay window retain many original features.
The son of a London physician who died in financial straits, Allen was brought to Australia by his widowed mother and became the first solicitor to be trained in this country. An active Wesleyan, he established what became a successful legal firm. He married Jane Bowden in 1823 and she produced five boys and five girls who survived infancy, the most noteworthy, historically, being George Wigram Allen in 1824. By 1831 he had acquired of Glebe land and commissioned John Verge to build Toxteth Park, the foundation stone for which was laid on 21 March 1829. Allen also led an active public life, serving as Mayor of Sydney (1844–45), President of the Bank of New South Wales (1860–66), MLC (1845–73) and Fellow of the Senate at the University of Sydney (1859–77). Today the legal firm of Allen, Allen & Hemsley still maintains a high profile in Sydney and their corporate contemporary art collection, exceeding 1,000 paintings, embraces the theme of "art in the workplace".
Son of Jane and the previously-named George Allen, who was articled to his father, George Wigram Allen entered the law practice in 1847, which continued to expand as a thriving enterprise. He also inherited his father's enthusiasm for religion (helping to create the YMCA), public affairs,Member of the Legislative Council 1860-61 the University of Sydney Senate (1878–85) and business. G. W. Allen (1824–85) was involved in the incorporation of Glebe as a municipality, becoming its first Mayor in 1859, a post he held for 18 years. From 1869-82 he represented Glebe in the Legislative Assembly, was Speaker from 1875–82 and for these many services was knighted in 1884.
During that time he sponsored the reclamation of Wentworth Park and, together with Edmund Blacket and Glebe Council members, was responsible for Glebe's water supply and gas lighting as well as the construction of new streets. The Allens, both father and son, were keen cricketers and built a private ground in what is now bounded by Glebe Point and Toxteth Roads and Mansfield and Boyce Streets. It was here that Frederick Spofforth, a great bowler who lived in Derwent Street, frequently played. Upon his father's death in 1877 G. W. Allen made extensive additions to Toxteth Park, when a third storey, tower and ballroom were added. However Sir George did not live so long after his father (he lived at Toxteth Park Estate until 1885) and subsequently this stalwart Wesleyan's house, in 1901, was sold to the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, a Benedictine Order, which is today St Scholastica's College. He had amassed a fortune of by the time of his death. Two nearby street names recall the first owners of the home - Wigram and Allen. The Toxteth Park Estate included Harold Park to the west and downhill from Toxteth Park Lodge. Harold Park was part of Allen's Toxteth Park Estate (now reduced and renamed St Scholastica's). Allen leased Harold Park to Joynton Smith who ran a small proprietary race track. It went to the Harness Racing Association in 1912.
Lady Allen's charitable interests helped to establish the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, which until quite recently focused on the health of Sydney's children - the hospital is now closed and the large site is developing into a new housing area to be known as the City Quarter.The Glebe Society, accessed 22/9/9
Sze Yup Temple When Chinese settlers in Sydney decided to build a temple dedicated to the Chinese folk hero and god, Kwan Ti (sometimes Kwun Ti, or Kwung Ti), they prayed for a sign showing where the temple should be built. This led them to a market garden in Francis Street (now Edward Street) in Glebe which they purchased from the owner for . The temple was funded by immigrants from the area known as Sze Yup (Siyi) area of Guangdong province, China.
The impetus to establish the Temple came from the Sze Yup community in NSW in the early 1890s, during a period of widespread hardship throughout the Australian community and a time of higher levels of racial tension. People from the Sze Yup County were regarded as being particularly religious. The proposal was supported by local Chinese organizations including the Chinese Masonic Society and well-known local figures including Johnny Moi Sing, Grandmaster of the Society. Advice was received from the Melbourne Sze Yup Temple Trustees. Funds were obtained from the Sze Yup Society levies, fundraising and donations.Singer, Mark; Chinese Australian Heritage Society, 2005.
The renowned Sze Yup Temple is dedicated to Kwan Ti, a warrior and patriot in the era of the Three Kingdoms 220 - 265 AD. Kwan Ti is famous for his loyalty, physical prowess and masculinity. In Australia, immigrant Chinese worshipped him as a wise judge, a guide and a protector. Many important business decisions, for example, were not made until Kwan Ti had been consulted for his guidance and blessing.
The central temple in the Sze Yup complex was built in 1898. The simple red brick cottage was designed with the principles of Feng Shui in mind; it was located on land that sloped from the temple to the waters of Rozelle Bay. Inside the central temple is an altar with embroidered images of Kwan Ti and his guards, racks which hold Kwan Ti's Red Hair Horse and weapons, engraved couplets, prayers, a huge drum and gong and two beautiful carved columns which date from 1898.Zhao, Karl. December 1998.
Lots 1 and 2 of the subdivision of Lot 23 of the Eglington Estate, the original Temple site, were purchased from Elizabeth Downes in 1897 for , close to a "Chinamens garden" (market gardens) that extended from the site northwest to Blackwattle Bay.The Map of the Glebe Municipality 1888 CRS495 The land formed part of the Toxteth Park (Allen) Estate, which remained substantially intact till the 1890s. The Estate created a pleasure ground setting with cricket ground, orchards and gardens.
Covenants on the title explicitly required that any building to be erected on the land had to be "in keeping with the condition of the surrounding properties already erected or being erected on the Toxteth Estate", and "would not depreciate the value of any...surrounding properties".
It was clear that both vendor and purchasers understood that a Chinese temple was to be built on the land. The covenant stated that it "should in no way be deemed to...refer to the erection of any house for the purpose of religion or Chinese joss house and caretakers residence which shall be properly and substantially built."