Sydney Architecture- Early Australian Architectural History

Chapter 8. JOHN WATTS

Early Australian Architectural History

JOHN WATTS was an architect who contributed a great deal to Australian architecture
and much to Australia generally. His part in history has not previously
had the recognition that it deserves, even though his very divergent activities took him to two widely separated colonies on the continent of Australia.

As an architect he was contemporary with Greenway, and so, historically has
always been overshadowed by the larger figure; but he had an equal claim to
recognition for his work in that field, and after the Macquarie period he contributed
much more to Australia than Greenway did. As an architect he
suffered a little from immaturity, but he showed good sense and a n-,a t, competent
command of design, which resulted in clear-cut, unhesitant, and useful buildings.
History has treated his work better than his reputation, for of the seven buildings
which he designed five remain-three of them in finest condition, and a delight to
the eye.

John Watts arrived in Sydney early in 1814, a lieutenant in the 46th Regiment,
which was replacing, piecemeal, the 73rd, which had originally come out with
Macquarie.' On 4th June of that year a General Order was published appointing
him aide de-camp to the Governor, whereupon he took up quarters in Government
House. His official salary in 1816 was A182 10s. a year, with nothing added
for his architectural labours.

Although he and Greenway arrived in Sydney within a few weeks of each
other, and although they were both working in architecture, there is nothing in
the records to indicate any professional contact whatsoever between the army
officer and the convict-architect. They must have met, and frequently too, but if
ever they did exchange ideas the results were not recorded for us. More than once
they were both present at ceremonies for the laying of foundation stones, notably
at Greenway's lighthouse, but for all we know they did not even nod to each other
on that occasion.8 Greenway, of course, was acting professionally; Watts's architectural
efforts were part of his army life, although he volunteered his services
beyond the call of duty.

The details of Watts's early life and training are known from the writings of his
daughter. On leaving school he was in a Dublin bank for a short time, but apparently
did not like the life. He had always been fond of architecture and in 1800 he
was apprenticed to Mr Griffith, an architect. The Napoleonic Wars interrupted this
career, and while still young he was sent to the West Indies with the army. After
a period of service in the Indies he was appointed to the 46th Regiment just before
orders for New South Wales were received.'

As aide-de-camp he soon became a great personal success with Macquarie and
his entourage. The Governor always handsomely wrote of him as a confidential
friend and treated him as one of his family. Naturally-for his architectural training
would have allowed nothing else-he would have been keenly interested in the
enormous building programme with which the Macquaries were indulging themselves.
It requires little imagination to picture the scene in the dining-room at
Government House when he was there, with many a conversation about the table
strongly laced with discussions of plans and elevations, brickwork and beams,
masonry, gables, cornices and columns.

With the great pressure of building work, it must have been a relief to the
Governor to have an army man both competent and willing to take over the design
of military buildings. The first architectural commission that Watts undertook was
the design of the badly needed Military Hospital, which he placed on Observatory
%U, Sydney. Watts must have been quick about his designing and planning, for
the hospital was virtually completed and partially occupied in July 181s. He
probably was absent from Sydney at the time of the opening, because he had
accompanied a vice-regal party across the Blue Mountains in June of that year.5
It was an important building for Sydney Town, and it followed very much the
lines of similar army buildings in tropical countries. We can imagine that the
verandas, taken round the four sides of the hospital on two floors, were suggested
by the Governor, who had spent a great portion of his army life in India, where
such building shelter was eminently necessary (37).

Watts's building still exists in part, although the remains are now overgrown
and surrounded by the various accretions of buildings which go to make up the
main building of the Fort Street School.

It was an interesting problem, in part almost archaeological in character, to
discover just what form the building originally took. Although there are a number
of early artists' drawings of the hospital, as usual they give, if interpreted architecturally,
a most confused and misleading picture. One large, unsigned panoramic
view of Sydney in 1821 (by Major J. Taylor), which is now in the Dixson Wing of
the Public Library, Sydney,' shows the building very closely in the foreground,
but most of the details are anything but correct. Indeed, this drawing-which
every historian of the period pores over because of its wealth of information- is,
architectural just about as unreliable as such a thing could be. However, all the
drawings and paintings of early Sydney in which the hospital appears agree that it
had continuous verandas on two floors, two chimney stacks, and central doors at
two levels. This agreement in evidence is so rare as to be particularly weighty. AU
other evidence was found at the building itself.

Fortunately there are sufficient portions of Watts's original work left to allow
a complete reconstruction drawing co be made. The only point of doubt is the
slope and height of the roof, all the original members of which have long since disappeared.
Even the chimneys have been completely rebuilt from just above the
first-floor ceiling to their tops, so that the original line of the roof against their
stacks has been obliterated.

In the accompanying plan the portions of the work of various dates have been
indicated by the method of drawing the walls: the original work is shown by crosshatching,
whilst the portions that have been demolished are shown in solid black.
The Watts veranda columns were swept away in 1848, when what are now the
external walls of the school were built. These walls can be seen on the plan, indicated
in broken line around the outer edges of the veranda. Portions of the original walls
still exist on both floors, and, by remarkable chance, one of the original windows
remains, giving the key to the whole of the fenestration. The entrance door marked
"A" on the plan has also survived, and a detailed view of it is given elsewhere in
this book (64).

The parts of the hospital that remain show that the original building had brick
walls I foot 6 inches thick externally, with stone quoins-or comer pieces-running
the full height of the building at all four corners. The door heads were semicircular
arches of stone crowned by a keystone, and the windows were spanned by
" flat" arches of stone (GI). The lower veranda was originally paved with stone,
and the floor of the upper veranda still shows the old wood construction. The
planning of the building, which was the same on both floors, consisted at each level
of two wards about 24 feet square and four staff rooms each about IZ feet square.
The latter rooms would each have had a fireplace in the corner so that the! flues
could join into the main stacks.

Watts designed another hospital at Parramatta, which was very similar in plan
and appearance to the Sydney one. Macquarie reported that work was in progress
in 1817 and that it was being erected by "Government Artificers", making it truly
a "convict-built" building. It served the town as the general hospital until some
time after 1890, when it was demolished to mate way for new buildings, only one
stone gate pier remaining to show us Watts's work.8 Photographs of the earlier
building exist which give excellent confirmation of Watts's methods of design as
interpreted &om the former Military Hospital at Sydney. (See 70.)

At Fort Street, just north of the hospital buildings, Watts's small surgeons'
barracks (38, 41) stood until the end of the year 1948, when they were destroyed.
Their demolition offered a rare opportunity for a study of constructional techniques,
for the portions of the building could be examined in their complete state,
and then again when dissected. Some details of this study are given in a later chapter,
where the curious, but typical, roof structure is analysed. This "double roof' over
a simple unit shape was a result of tile constructional methods used, and often, as
in this case, the effect can be quite odd when seen in side elevation. Otherwise the
details of the building match those of the hospital, even to the point of deceit in one
instance. The heads of the windows appeared to be made up of small stones interlocked
to form "flat" arches with a keystone in the centre. Actually they were
formed of a single piece of stone carved to simulate the more complicated form of
support. The veranda at the time of its demolition was supported by very light
cast-iron columns only 3 inches in diameter, but there is reason to believe that these
had replaced earlier wooden columns. All the internal window reveals were
formed by cedar panelling, which was hinged so that it could be unfolded to
shutter the windows effectively.

Parramatta was the scene of a great deal of architectural activity by Watts. His
hospital has disappeared, but his towers to St John's Church, his military barracks,
and major work at Government House all survive in flourishing condition.
Governor Hunter had rebuilt the two-storied Government House at Parramatta,
but it was not grand enough for Macquarie, who wished it greatly enlarged.
Watts achieved this by doubling the existing house, adding new work equal in area
to the old building. The present thick wall through the centre is actually made up
of two thicknesses of wall, Watt's new wall having been placed alongside the
original one. Two single-storied wings were added, behind and joined to the main
building, by link blocks, the whole making a very satisfactory composition hat is
enhanced by the four-column Doric porch, usually attributed to Greenway
(39. 40. 42). The building was in a dilapidated state in 1890, and it is possible that
the porch may have been at least replaced, if not redesigned.

The building was made into part of The King's School, and although the renovations
undertaken then were done with loving care, further extensive renovations
have since been necessary. It is quite large, being 176 feet across the full breadth
of the front, although the arrangement of the units gives an air of intimacy which
is most attractive. The whole building is finished in smooth render painted white,
and has dark-coloured shutters and a slate roof that has a "bell-crest" at the eaves.

Sitting on top of its tree-clad hill the old Government House is an example of
Colonial architecture chat is both beautiful and useful. Macquarie certainly found
it so. In 1816 he recorded in his diary: "The whole of the additions and repairs
some time since ordered to be made to the Government House, Garden and
Grounds at Parramatta being now completed to our satisfaction we have resolved
on passing a Feat part of our time here in future especially during the winter and
spring months." On one occasion in 1820 when Mrs Macquarie was occupying the
house a violent hailstorm broke all the windows, but no one was hurt.18

The towers of St John's Church, Parramatta, (45) were definitely Mrs Macquarie's
idea. A church has been on the site in Parramatta since Governor King
completed the first version in 1804, but although the building has continuously
existed its bulky fabric has grown and shed pieces of itself in a strange constructional
metabolism that has left nothing of the original church at all.

In 1816 it had already been altered, the work including the addition of a chancel,
by James Smith, who was also busy on some Greenway buildings at the time.
Apparently the outline of the church did not satisfy. Mrs Macquarie, who delved,
inevitably, into one of her books of plans and thought that the towers of Reculver
would suit Parramatta. Reculver towers, on the coast of Kent, in themselves were
of curious origin. The remains of the towers of a medieval church were rebuilt
to serve as a beacon to shipping plying the English Channel.'

If a foundation stone was carved for the Parramatta towers it is now lost, but a
draught of the inscription exists and it reads: "The foundation stone of tlus steeple
was laid by His Excellency Governor Macquarie on 23rd December 1818. The
plan was selected by Mrs Macquarie and the execution intrusted to Lieut. Watts,
46th. Regt. His Excellency's Aide de Camp." It is to be noticed that here, as
elsewhere, Macquarie refers to a single steeple, whereas at both Parramatta and
Reculver there are twin towers surmounted by steeples, or spires.

St John's towers were reported as finished in 1819. They were built of brickwork nearly,
3 feet thick. covered with stucco to imitate stone. The quoins of the 2
towers, the horizontal string courses, and the corbels at the eaves are all of stone.
The proportions are interesting: very approximately, the height to the ball on the
spire is five times the width of the base of the tower. This height is subdivided,
again very approximately, into seven parts, the tower height to the spire height
being in the ratio of 4 to 3. The end of the nave of the church, which appears
between the cowers, is later in date, the whole body of the church having been
rebuilt some forty years after the towers.

Beautifully set in an open plot of ground at the south end of Church Street,
Parramatta, St John's towers are very successful architecturally. They look particularly
well when viewed down Hunter Street, the eastward vista of which they
close very satisfactorily. A neat clock on the north face of the left tower is both
decorative &d useful.

Watts also designed what is the oldest existing military establishment in Australia,
now known as Lancer Barracks, Parramatta (43, 4). In 1822 Macquarie
reported that the two storied wing provided accommodation for a hundred
soldiers, that two single-storied wings accommodated the full proportion of commissioned
officers, and that there were all necessary out-buildings, the whole being
set out on eight acres of ground which was enclosed by a brick wall in front and a
stockade in best frontier tradition on the other three sides." The wall and stockade
have gone, and a public school occupies the northern end of the ground. One of
the single-storied wings has been destroyed, but the other two buildings remain,
although the two-storied block has had a veranda added. This block is simple
enough. It has a stair hall in the centre and a barrack-room each side, and both
floors are identical; the elevations dearly express this uncomplicated arrangement.
The one-storied officers' wing is more interesting, with its multi-columned
veranda round three sides, incorporated under the same roof as the main part of
the building. The small windows, kept low in the rooms, suggest the exclusion of
heat rather than the admission of light, another indication of tropical influence
in the designing. The rigid Colonial formula of perfect balance in the composition
of the elevation is here meticulously observed. The entrance door, with its arch
made up of brick voussoirs 18 inches long, is both unusual and striking, adding
much to the success of the simple arrangement. The walls are of brick with a stone
base, the columns are of wood, and the roofs originally, were of wood shingles.
The veranda floor is unusual in that it is exactly flush with the interior floor, there
being no step at the doors.

The whole history of the army in Australia has passed before these old buildings.
The parade ground has seen Red-coats drawn up in unmoving lines waiting for
inspection by a piercing vice-regal eye; it has felt the impatient pawing of the
hoofs of beautiful horses as Lancers sat at rigid attention, the pennants on their arms
fluttering restlessly in the breeze; it has felt the weighty imprint of steel tracks as the
lumbering brutes of modem warfare seek to manoeuvre on ground aimed too
small for such evolutions.

Watts built solidly and well, and the barracks have been well maintained for
nearly a century and a half; so that today they are just as useful as they were in his
day, although they now serve for executive headquarters rather than as barracks.
Watts has been credited with the design of the officers' quarters of the Anglesea
Barracks at Hobart, Tasmania, which still exist; but this is quite unlikely.18
Besides carrying out purely architectural work, Watts frequently assisted in the
engineering department. In 1817 Macquarie wrote:

The Road between Sydney and Parramatta being rendered almost impassable owing
to the long and incessant heavy rains which have fallen in the last IZ months, I have
resolved on employing immediately three separate strong gangs of Government
labourers to put the said Public Road in a complete state of repair, and Lieut. Watts
of the 46th. Regt., my own Aid de Camp having in a very handsome liberal manner
offered his services gratuitously to superintend the working Parties and to direct the
manner of repairing the Roads and Bridges, three strong gangs were this day selected
for this purpose and commenced their labours accordingly. . . .

The complimentary adjectives used to describe Watts were typical of all Macquarie's
references to him. Their accord was instantaneous and continuous. When,
soon after Watts's appointment to the Governor's stat Macquarie had to reprimand
and report the officers of the 46th Regiment for insubordination and insolence
towards himself, he expressly excluded certain officers, amongst them-it is
almost unnecessary to add-"Lieut't Watts, my own Aide-de-Camp.

In January 1818 Watts was one of the men the Governor chose to serve as a
witness to the formal rebuke he found himself compelled to deliver to that turbulent
priest of New South Wales, the not-so-reverend Samuel Marsden. At the end
of that year Watts met with a serious accident whilst directing further repairs to
the Parramatta Road.21 On Christmas Eve he resigned his appointment as aide-decamp
and asked for leave for two years. Macquarie publicly thanked his former
aide for his "important extra services gratuitously and voluntarily rendered to
Colony at large in the Exercise of his architectural skill and superior taste", and
highly recommended him in dispatches to London, which Watts himself delivered
to Lord Bathurst. The Governor used such expressions as "an Excellent and highly
meritorious good Officer", and "a Young Man of Excellent principles, Strict
Honour and Integrity and the purest Veracity".22 The subject of these encomiums
reached London in December 1819 and we can only hope that Lord Bathurst was
suitably impressed by a young man of such sterling worth. Of course, Watts was
going to put Macquarie's side of the various quarrels that were taking place, so we
can assume that the Governor sought to establish the bona fides of his witness.

In 1823, after receiving a captaincy, John Watts married Jane Campbell, a
relative of Mrs Macquarie, whom he met when visiting the old Governor and his
family subsequent to their return to their native Scotland. We know quite a lot
of his activities in England, home the important events of his marriage and procreation
of seven children, down to such trivia as the fact that his wife took "no
sugar or cream to her Tea"-neither did he.

Eighteen years later he returned to Australia, not as an architect but as a Postmaster-
General. His brother, Henry, had emigrated to Adelaide in the new Colony
of South Australia in 1838, and had been appointed Postmaster, a position which
he relinquished in favour of John, who arrived in the Colony in 1841. He was to
hold the position from April 1841 until 1861, a period of twenty years, in which
he gave service that was eminently satisfactory, according to official records. During
all this time he kept a diary of such completeness that we can only regret that no
such personal record of his early architectural years in New South Wales has ever
been discovered.

Apparently John Watts did not again take any active part in architectural
matters, except to suggest a coved ceiling in the church hc normally attended in
Adelaide. It would appear that he did not revisit the older Colony where all his
buildings were doing such good service, most of them long outlasting the
contemporary buildings.

Like his architecture, Watts lasted a long time, finally passing away three weeks
after the death of his wife on 28th March 1873, in the same Numey House that
was to be inhabited eighty years later by MI Walter Bagot, F.R.A.I.A., a great-grandson
of John Watts, and an architect of note, who kept about him his ancestor's
library, including Vitruvius Britannicus and other architectural works.25

Of Watts's family of seven children, three have left descendants in Australia,
one branch, which bears the name Travers, being settled mainly in Tasmania.
Watts as an architect had an even briefer time in Australia than Greenway in
his best period, but his buildings were an important contribution to Colonial
architecture. He was the third trained architect in the country, and the proportion
of his work which has survived is very high.

This section is based on the excellent book Early Australian Architects and Their Work (Angus & Robertson, Syd, 1954); Herman, Morton, (1901-1983). Illustrated and Decorated by the Author.