Sydney Architecture- Early Australian Architectural History

Chapter 10. AMBROSIA

Early Australian Architectural History

DURING the whole governorship of lieutenant-General Ralph Darling, from
1825 to 1831, the administration was involved in the struggle between
the emancipists and the "exclusives", as the rich free settlers came to be
called. For the first time in Australian history the Government was coming under
censure in a newly founded public Press. Red bricks and mortar became less important as, by a different method of building, the lower-most stones were laid in
the foundations of self-government of the Colony, and eventual nationhood.
The records of the Macquarie era had been thick and heavy with reports of
buildings, construction, and artisans. Those of Darling's period were almost a
desert in this regard, unrelieved by any appreciable oasis of architectural activity.
Building did go on slowly-more in the private than in the government field but,
generally, the adverse effect of the Bigge Report was predominant.

Sydney nevertheless developed into a handsome little town, stretching a mile
and a half south of Sydney Cove, and lying between the crests of the hills now
surmounted by George and Macquarie streets. Along unpaved streets buildings
were see in gardens and trees, with whitewashed brick or light-coloured stone
walls, sparkling in the pure air under a clear sky. At every other door hung a cage
containing a parrot or another gaudy bird, whilst at street corners, and at many
doors, fruit-stalls teeming with fruits of all sorts made splashes of colour to delight
the eye?

Two architects do emerge from the obscurity of this period, and they are of
more than passing interest. Historians have always been troubled by the Hallens,
who seem to blend until they become not two persons, but one. Admittedly, there
is much scope for confusion, for they were both architects, they were brothers,
and, worse still, they married sisters. However, they can be told apart: the one on
the left is Ambrose, the Colonial Architect; the one on the right is Edward, a
private practitioner in architecture. The wives were Sophia and Sarah, daughters
of that William Lawson who was one of the trio of explorers who first crossed
the Blue Mountains in 1813.

Ambrose, being an employee of the Government, figures largely in the records and
we can trace his activities with reasonable ease. Edward is a more obscure figure,
because his papers have not been preserved to the same extent. Ambrose received
a government appointment in 1827, and it can be assumed that Edward arrived in
Sydney about this time. At any rate, Sydney College was commenced in 1830,
and he must have been working on the plans for some time before that.

Sydney College, which was later turned into tile present Sydney Grammar
School, is one building we can assign to Edward Hallen with confidence, because
not only have we satisfactory literary evidence, but Edward very wisely signed his
building. On the stone plaque in the centre of the building appears the line, "E.
Hallen. Arch.". The wording of the panel is in Latin which states that the building
is Sydney College and settles the date of the building as 1832. If only more
architects would clearly sign their buildings, the lot of the architectural historian
would be not quite so hard. Nearly all painters sign their pictures, but only a few
architects so distinguish their buildings, although architecture and painting are
allied arts.

The history of the building of Sydney Granmar School has been disturbed.
The foundation stone was laid on 26th January 1830, Edward Hallen having
designed the building and donated one-third of his professional fees to the building
fund. A contract was not signed with R. Cooper, the builder, until March 1832.
The official report of the committee referred to "Mr E. Hallen, the Architect to
whom we are indebted for his zealous exertions".

The building was subjected to some curious alterations, mostly necessitated by
street building or widening, and in 1850s the trustees commissioned Ednlund
Blacket to alter the building again, and to "improve the facade".' The building we
see today is the final Blacket version. The north and south wings are his work, but
the centre of the facade facing College Street is Hallen's original elevation (54).
We would gather that Hallen never set the Thames on fire with his architecture,
although it should be said for the defence that his work at the Grammar School
is seen at a disadvantage. College Street has been raised, so that Hallen's ground
floor is now depressed below street level. There was once a pedimented porch
on the wide centre panel of the front, which had been designed by another architect,
but presumably it was removed when the new street level made it redundant.

Otherwise the elevation is simple enough, its decoration conforming amiably
to all the rules of the period. The engaged pilasters, or pier strips, running up the
elevation do not serve a useful constructional purpose as do those of Greenway's
work. Here they are intended only to break up the large surface of otherwise plain
stonework. The panels under the windows, too, are only ornamental. The stone
work generally is finely detailed and worked, and within the rather sterile convention
of its architectural style the design makes no great mistakes, but remains dull
in comparison with Blacket's work alongside. Hallen's elevation suffers most from
its failure to take advantage of the deep, rich shadows which would have been
achieved with a bolder treatment. The small window-panes shown in the sketch
are the original ones, which have long since been replaced by large sheets of glass.
The main interest of this building is that it is the best known work of Edward
Hallen that has come down to us. Works in Sydney also attributed to him are the
Argyle Cut, a street deeply carved through cliffs on Miller's Point, and Hereford
House in the Glebe.

He and his brother built themselves each a house in the Potts Point area of
Sydney-Telford Place and Rose Hall- but who built which seems to have confused
every historian who so far has tackled the subject. As the buildings have
disappeared, we are not concerned here with the proper allocation of authorship.

Ambrose also built Roslyn Hall, a similarity of name with Rose Hall that has
been another source of confusion. However, Roslyn Hall, which was located near
Rushcutters Bay, was built for Thomas Barker. It, too, has long since disappeared;
and we must regret the demolition of its staircase. It is reputed to have been a
circular spiral "wide enough for a coach and pair", and, since we have always
wanted to see a coach and pair being driven up and down a staircase, the
disappointment is a bitter one. The bedrooms were large and had a remarkable
feature: each contained a bath let in flush with the floor, so that one stepped down,
rather than up, into it.' Whether this was an innovation of Ambrose's, or whether
the baths were later additions, history does not reveal. The exterior of the house
(55) was not in any way inspired, and probably was improved by the verandas
which Blacket- that amender of Hallen work- added at a later date.

Ambrose Hallen commenced his government service as Town Surveyor in
December 1827. Early in the year, the Governor had received from England a`most
curious letter of reference from Thomas Telford, the great architect and engineer
whose name was a household word. Telford said in his letter that he knew little of
Ambrose except that he was bred amongst mechanical operations and, therefore,
had practical skill. He added that he was energetic and might make a good surveyor,
since surveying was easy to learn. We feel this reference must have pleased
Ambrose much more than it did any surveyors who saw it. His first duties were to
"preserve the order of the streets and the regularity of Buildings etc.", and his
services extended to other towns besides Sydney. His salary was £200 a ycar from
the date of embarkation in England, and in addition he and the assistant surveyors
were given a lodging and forage allowance of £20 to place them above tcmptation.

By 1829 he had the title of Architect and Town Surveyor, and in 1832 he was
appointed Colonial Architect. This corroborates evidence from other sources that A
the architectural needs of the Colony were reviving. In 1826 Darling advised the
authorities in England that carpenters, blacksmiths, and stone masons were much
wanted, and that if such came out to New South Wales they "would
immediately find abundant employment".

The Government itself had been struggling along with its public buildings.
Poor old Government House had been repaired again in 1826; some watch-houses
had to be built; Wynyard Barracks needed extensive repair; the Liverpool hospital
was progressing slowly; parsonage houses were needed; and all the usual minor
works were crying out for attention."

Apparently the Board of Works' recommendation on the use of private architects
had not been followed, because Darling was in worse trouble with poor
builders than Macquarie had ever been. He wrote at the end of 1827:

There are no Master Builders in the Colony of any respectability. The Mechanics are
for the most part independent Journeymen, profligate in their habits, without
character and without means; and, when Contracts have been entered into the
Government has generally been obliged to advance Money to supply a portion of
the Materials and the Mechanics, and not withstanding this has been disappointed.
We begin to see why Hallen was made Architect as well as Town Surveyor.
However. he did little more for Australian architecture than maintain the work of
his predecessors.

Throughout 1832 he made repairs and alterations to the female factory and the
military barracks at Parramatta, including shingling, glazing, plastering, and the
provision of "new Privies and Drains". He designed a new pulpit and twenty
forms for the Sydney jail, and a new pump with 48 feet of pipe for Sydney Hospital.
The convict barracks at Parramatta and at Hyde Park, were also repaired, the work
including the inevitable shingling of the roof. As most of these buildings had been
built by Greenway this evidence shows that the wood shingle roofs had a life of
twelve to fifteen years only.

In November Hallen made an estimate for a wall to surround Government
House. In 1833 he reported, mistakenly, that the first stone bridge of any importance
to be built in New South Wales was showing signs of instability, and he
altered a plan by John Verge for a prefabricated wooden house to be sent to New
Zealand. In the same year tenders were called for surgeons' quarters at Liverpool,
although Hallen may not have designed the latter."

Later he again had bad luck with a bridge, his design for one on the Liverpool
Road being rejected by the Governor. He produced a design for the courthouse, of
course. Every architect in Australia, save Cookney, had produced plans for this
still non-existent building. Hallen's design was laid before the Executive Council
in 1833, and a foundation stone was set in the next year, but nothing further came
of it. His original drawing reproduced here (51), with the design of Roslyn Hall,
shows us the quality of his work. We may feel happy that this curious courthouse
building remained flat on paper and never came into existence in three dimensions.
It would appear that Ambrose was both out of his depth, and not very competent,
so it is not altogether unexpected that by 1834 a move was on foot to
have him removed to another post. Sir Thomas Mitchell, the Surveyor-General,
held the lowest possible opinion of Hallen, and Sir Thomas was a most influential
man. He suggested that a protégé of his, M. W. Lewis, a surveyor by training,
should be made Colonial Architect, and that Hallen be made Engineer to be put
in charge of the proposed semicircular quay at Sydney Cove and the breakwaters
at Newcastle and Wollongong. Hallen must have worked on the plan for Sydney
Cove, because a report exists which is signed by both Hallen and Mitchell.
It proposed two channels with an island between Bridge Street and the cove, but, as one
critic very mildly put it, "It is fortunate this scheme was not adopted."" Hallen's
designs rarely did come to fruition. It is impossible to escape the thought that
Mitchell was trying to banish him from the Civil Architect's Department to anywhere,
so long as he was removed from underfoot. Apparently Hallen resisted
this move, and Authority's activities became more hostile and subversive.

In regard to the market shed, in May 1835 the Governor issued a memorandum
which contained the request, "I beg to have the opinion and advice of Mr Lewis
who seems to have been more conversant in these matters than Mr Hallen".18 As
Hallen was still Colonial Architect this was strong language, but stronger was to
follow. In a list of works needing to be done, there was mentioned the decay of
the old wooden bridge at Parramatta and the necessity of replacing it, possibly by
an iron bridge. The Govemor suggested that details could "be made known to the
artist to be employed in England who will send out the iron-work in Convict ships
free of freight and may if necessary send out a person to put it up, but I imagine
Mr Hallen will be fully equal to this, having been brought up in an Iron-Foundry".
If the Governor was using such language in official letters, and in addition was
complaining of the difficulty of getting proper plans and specifications, it is obvious
Hallen's position was becoming intolerable. He resigned the position of Colonial
Architect in 1835. M. W. Lewis was triumphantly installed, and Ambrose Hallen's
name vanishes from the official files.

However, we need shed no tear over his fall; he may not have been a very prolific
architect, but he soon proved himself a very substantial citizen. From his Potts
Point property he bustled into town, now attending a meeting of citizens, now
manoeuvring his way on to the board of directors of the Australian Gas Light
Company, which was just being formed in 1836. The Stock Exchange received his
attention, for the deed of settlement included his name. Busy, busy, always busy his
later life gives the impression that his dismissal from the Government Service
enabled him to reach at last his true environment, where his resplendent character
could come to full flower.

But the flower soon faded, as Hallen lost one position after another. At last,
while returning to England, he was reported lost at sea. Conjecture suggests
suicide.

Times were changing. The Macquarie period of intense architectural development
had passed away: symbolically, the old Governor himself had died in 1824 in his
native Scotland.

By political decree, official building activity was suppressed following the issue
of the Bigge Report and the building trade was in a neglected and unsatisfactory
state. But the needs of the country were too great to be dismissed by politicians
of limited ideas with their fulminations against "ornamentation", which they confused
with extravagance. The embryonic nation was stirring; forces of development,
wealth, and progress were about to burst all arbitrarily restrictive bonds.
The intervening period had been architecturally poor, and, appropriately, it had
prodcepodo r architects. But better things were to come; Australia was on its way
forward, and architecture was to travel the broader, clearer path that was emerging
amongst all these activities.

But before we examine this stimulating march and its action and reaction upon
the country's architects, we intend to turn aside for a brief anatomical analysis of the
architecture itself.

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.