Avery Terrace is a row of heritage-listed terrace houses located at 2–4 Atherden Street in the inner city Sydney suburb of The Rocks in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed in 1881, and it is also known as Former Ebsworth's Terraces and Ebsworth's. The property is owned by Property NSW, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 May 2002.
History The land on which the subject property was once part of a grant to Robert Campbell Senior in 1834. Campbell used the site west of the "High Street" (later George Street North or Lower George Street) and another closer to the harbour's western shore to operate wharves and a successful mercantile business. Campbell & Co operated in the colony from 1800, and by 1804 the firm was heavily engaged in NSW trade. On 16 October 1834, Lot 1 (2 roods 15 perches), Lot 2 (3 roods 34 perches, later known as Lot 1), Lot 3 (3 roods 25.5 perches) and Lot 4 (2 roods 5 perches) were formally granted to Robert Campbell Snr "to promote the Establishment of Towns in the Colony of NSW". The grant was subject to conditions including the construction within three years of a permanent dwelling house with appropriate drainage on each allotment and payment of a "Quit Rent" over nine-years. Campbell used some of the land for his own business needs, leasing other parts for trade and associated port activities. It was one of a number of land grants acquired by Campbell in NSW.
In early 1841 Robert Campbell Snr subdivided Lot 1 in preparation for sale. The site was roughly triangular-shaped and bound by George Street North on its eastern side and by New George Street (later renamed Gloucester Walk) to the west. Its western boundary was dominated by a long sandstone bluff running north-south along the peninsula, reducing in height toward Dawes Point to the north. The bluff separated Campbell's Lot 1 and Lot 2 further to the west. Campbell was willing to accept £40,000 for his property of more than four acres adjacent to the wharf and including warehouses. Auctioneer Mr Thomas Stubbs described the land 'At Campbell's Wharf, Opposite the Entrance Gate' as, "All that well adapted and valuable plot of ground of the Estate of R. Campbell, Esq., M.C., and now subdivided into Six Building Allotments, open and immediately accessible to all the general shipping, Custom House, Bonded Warehouse, and harbour business of the trade and port of Sydney. (It) commands all the shipping lying in Sydney Cove".The Australian, 22 May 1841.
The property, to be auctioned on 2 June 1841, bounded George Street and a short street "charted out as Union-street" (later renamed Atherden Street). In a prime position, it sketches a carriageway and approach from Campbell's Wharf and George-street, to a proposed parallel extension of George-street, forking off from Essex-street, through Argyle-street, passing the Custom House, and joining Lower George-street again. The land was well-positioned for the construction of "properly built warehouses", for which there was a strong demand. The land was reported to have realised an average of £16 per foot; however, Land Titles indicate that Lots 9 and 10 remained unsold. Lots 1 and 2 were purchased by George Atherden, a wharfinger of Sydney, who in 1878 was to purchase Lots 9 and 10 (11 perches to the south-west corner of Campbell's grant), which are the subject site. By 1856 Atherden had constructed four stone cottages facing Union Street. They were listed in the City of Sydney Assessment Books from 1858.
Robert Campbell Senior died at Duntroon on 15 April 1846. The estate included substantial acreages throughout New South Wales, as well as the residue of the George Street site and Lots 9 and 10. In 1848 the heirs to Campbell's estate agreed to partition the landholdings amongst the shareholders, with the one rood 32.5 perch residue of the George Street North allotment allocated to Arthur Jeffreys. The land remained part of the trust and was left to "the use of his brothers-in-law". An 1849 road alignment plan confirms Arthur Jeffreys ownership of the land at this time and the lots that had been sold, and the buildings constructed along George Street. Union Street is shown near the southern end of the site, bound on the north and south by Martyn and Coombes' owned buildings. George Atherden's premises are indicated on the southern boundary of Campbell's Lot 2.
Arthur Jeffreys died in England in 1861, leaving his interests in the Campbell Estate to his son, John Jeffreys. Primary sources of this period confirm that Lots 9 and 10 remained vacant until the early 1880s. In 1873 a conveyance was made between John and George Campbell and John Jeffreys of Fernhill, England, per Arthur's will. By this time, land titles indicate that it was the sole remaining allotment of Campbell's grant in The Rocks and known as Lots 9 & 10 (11 perches). In February 1878, ending a long period of ownership by the Campbell family, George Atherden purchased Lots 9 and 10, adding to his substantial land and business interests in The Rocks at this location. the Union Street had been renamed Atherden Street after George Atherden, who owned property on the south side of the street and lots facing George Street.
In October 1878, George Atherden sold Lots 9 and 10 to Edward Stanley Ebsworth (1832–1901). A month before this, Ebsworth had purchased land nearby, facing George Street, commencing the construction of five terraces at the George Street site. By Ebsworth had built a terrace on the Union Street allotment. Sydney Municipal Council's Assessment Books indicate that the Union Street terrace consisted of two, two-storey, four-roomed residences constructed of brick with slate roofs. The Atherden Street terrace, although not as ornate as the George Street terrace, or in such a prominent position, was a modestly scaled and detailed bald-faced Victorian Style residential structure, typical of the period. The brickwork was stuccoed, and the roof was a simple pitched gable over the house's main, two-storey section. The terrace was built close to the escarpment rising to Gloucester Walk and opposite a row of four similarly modest dwellings built in 1880 by Thomas Playfair, on the street's southside. The terraces at the west end of Atherden Street would have stood in contrast to the single-storey, stone cottages built by Atherden in the 1850s immediately to the east of number 1–7 Atherden Street.
By 1882 Ebsworth had leased No. 2 Atherden Street to Walter Bell, and No. 4 to George Cook. The gross annual rating was £52 for each property. Numbers 2 and 4 first appear in the Sands Directory in 1883 showing Mr Bell's occupation as sailmaker and Cook's as a wharfinger, consistent with the demography of the area at this time. Like many of the rental properties in The Rocks area, in the 19th century the tenants of the Atherden Street houses tended to be one to three years at the most. A few tenants returned at various time to live in other houses in Atherden Street. At this time the population of The Rocks was diverse, including high numbers of immigrants, often with trades related to maritime and wharf activities. A brief survey of the names and occupations of Atherden Street tenants listed in the Sands Directory provides an indication of the backgrounds of Rocks residents of the period. Atherden Street residents included sailmaker, wharfinger, master mariner, waterman and storeman. A few had trades such as painter, engineer and blacksmith; while a number are shown as clerks.
Women's occupations shown include laundress and dressmaker. Unfortunately the Sands Directory does not indicate the diversity of women's occupations in the 19th century as women were only listed when the woman was the sole adult occupant or householder.
The Sydney Real Estate Bank Limited represented by Leonard Dodds, purchased the two properties from Ebsworth in 1888 and they continued to be leased. The bank had mortgaged the properties by 1889 and transferred them to the Perpetual Trustee Company Ltd in 1892. Council Assessment Books indicate that from the Perpetual Trustee Co. was the owner of 2 and 4 Atherden Street. Increasing unsanitary conditions in some parts of the city, and an outbreak of bubonic plague in late summer of 1900, resulted in a large-scale resumption of land by the Public Works Department of NSW. The aim was to selectively demolish substandard or badly planned residential and commercial buildings, followed by the replanning of some areas and selected rebuilding. A Royal Commission was appointed to gather expert evidence on the best way to effect the "Improvement of the City of Sydney and its suburbs" and its conclusions were published in 1909. On 3 October 1903 Lots 9 and 10 were resumed under the Act "in connection with a system of Public Wharves approaches thereto at Darling Harbour and the waters at Port Jackson". The Sydney Real Estate Bank Ltd, the owner of this and a number of adjacent sites (33–41 George St), had gone into voluntary liquidation in 1893 and the Perpetual Trustee Co Ltd was now the "mortgagee in possession". The Atherden and George Street properties were valued at a total of £7250, an amount accepted by the liquidator as full compensation.
The NSW Government became the official owner and landlord for the resumed properties. Resumption records relating to the valuation and assessment of the houses in Atherden Street have not been located and it can only be assumed that their construction and condition were assessed by the Public Works Department as being satisfactory and to be retained. In 1918 the Sydney Harbour Trust (known from 1936 as the Maritime Services Board) took over administration of resumed properties in the Darling Harbour - Rocks area. The remodelling of The Rocks was carried out gradually although some of it was never realised. Although numbers 2 and 4 Atherden Street and numbers 1-7 remained intact, four stone cottages, built by George Atherden in 1855 on the south side of the street at its eastern end, were demolished by the Sydney City Council in 1920–21. This allowed for the continuation of Harrington Street (this section later renamed Playfair Street in 1953) to George Street via Atherden Street; as well as for road widening. Circa 1922-23 Atherden Street was renamed Atherton Place, the name referring only to the length of roadway from Playfair Street to the cliff face to the west. The new configuration of the streets is illustrated in a City of Sydney Detail Sheet prepared in the early 1960s.
In 1969 the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority Act led to the formation of the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority in 1970 one of the responsibilities of which was the administration of The Rocks properties including 2 and 4 Atherden Street. The Authority was renamed the Sydney Cove Authority in 1991, the functions of which were assumed by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority in 1999.
Residents of Avery Terrace The history of 2 and 4 Atherden Street is intimately linked to the people who lived there. Little more than basic information has been discovered about the late 19th century tenants of 2 and 4 Atherden Street.