Sydney Architecture- Early Australian Architectural History

Chapter 14. DAVID LENNOX

Early Australian Architectural History

COINCIDENCE caused David Lennox to be born in 1788, the foundation year
of Australia, but it was economic pressure that forced him across the seas
to the scene of his most important activities, and of his great success. He
was born at Ayr, in Scotland, and in his early years he roamed England following
his craft of stonemason. During this time he worked on some important bridges, a
circumstance which was vitally to affect his future life in a new land.' .
The great period of building that began with the Georgian era of architecture
was coming to a close, and as a result there was in England a surplus of fmely
trained craftsmen and a force of skilled labour greater than the country could
maintain. Emigration became one answer to the problem, as John Dunmore Lang
saw when he availed himself of the opportunity to bring out good building families
to New South Wales.

Lennox decided to try his luck in Australia, an extract from a letter of recommendation
dated 1837 from a former employer showing why: "England seems now to be overstocked with
tradesmen, and you trying one of the Colonies is not a bad plan, as your children can be
left in Scotland until you make a settlement." His
wife had died four years previously, so his decision must have been that much
easier to make.

At one time Lennox worked on a stone bridge across the Severn at Gloucester
in the west of England and on the Menai suspension bridge in north-west Wales.
Both were designed by the great Thomas Telford, and the latter was described as
' a fitting monument to the transcendent genius of the first architect of the age'.'
This quotation is important in that it shows the status of technicians connected with
architecture at that time. Today we would unhesitatingly class Telford as an
engineer rather than as an architect, but this is because it is our modem view that
the engineering branch of architecture is a specialized science. This view is less than
a century old. The whole previous history of mankind shows that building engineering
and architecture were no more than related manifestations of the same
thing. It was not until the great scientific expansion of the nineteenth century that
structural mechanics became the subject of theoretical analysis, and that there was
bred a school of specialized technicians who were more concerned with laboratory
analysis than actual building. With the immense impetus given by the application
of their specialized findings in practice, architecture found a new technique that,
through misunderstanding, at first debased architectural design. But intelligence
and experiment soon corrected matters, and architecture and engineering are once
again merging together to produce beautiful buildings, exactly in the spirit
of the Georgians. The resulting outward forms are new, refreshing, and exciting.
Lennox arrived in Sydney as an unassisted emigrant by the Florentia in August
1832, just a few months before the Surveyor-General, Mitchell, made his attempt
to fmd a new and better route for the Western Road? Some thirty miles west of
Sydney, from Emu Plains, the old road had made a most difficult route through
the tangles of the eastern slopes of the Blue Mountains, with a particularly nasty
section on Lapstone W. Mitchell found a much better route, with good gradients,
which avoided this difficult part of the mountain; however, a bridge across a deep
gully was needed at one point. Here was Lennox's opportunity. Immediately after
his appointment as Superintendent of Bridges he was given the job of designing
and forming the necessary bridge (84)."

Some doubts were at first entertained about his abilities, for Governor Bourke
reported to England as follows:

Mr Lennox will, I hope, tum out to be a useful Builder; but, as the work upon
which he is now engaged is his first attempt of any magnitude in the Colony, and
having been previously to his arrival employed in subordinate situations only, I
must withhold my opinion of his competency, until the work upon which he is
engaged is more nearly completed.

The Governor did not have long to wait for material upon which to form his
opinion. In less than six weeks nearly all the stone for the bridge was cut, Lennox
training his men as he went along. So well did he teach them that the Roads
Department was later most anxious to retain the services of men so skillfully taught
instead of letting them go on to the open labour market.'

Lennox, at first, had difficulties with his carpenters and sawyers. He was so
short-handed that on one occasion the absconding of one man stopped completely
the work in the sawpit where the arch centring was being made for the bridge.
Lime was obtained from Windsor, but powder was scarce, and most of the quarrying
had to be done by hand with the expenditure of prodigious labour. The guard
for the party of twenty at the bridge consisted of an overseer, a constable, and an
armed sentry; and an amusing old drawing shows this last-mentioned worthy
doing his duty, whilst Lennox himself appears at work near the lower abutment
of the bridge.

He gave his personal attention to the work at Lapstone until May 1833, when he
transferred to a new job near Liverpool. An overseer was left to complete the
Lapstone bridge, which he did by July of that year.

At the end of the month Governor Bourke journeyed along the road and was
"much gratified with the rural splendour of the bridge", as well he might be.
It was the first stone arch of any size in New South Wales, and both in design and
construction it has much to commend it. Technically it has interest in that the road
takes a sharp U-turn at the head of the gully, and so the northern side of the bridge
takes a sweep that earned for it the nickname of the Horseshoe Bridge. The arch in
this curved surface thus curves in plan, section, and elevation, and the edge of the
arch stones as a result also traces a pure but complicated curve, the whole showing
that Lennox had full command of geometry. The arch is small, having a clear span
of only ao feet 3 inches, and the bridge proper is not quite 47 feet long, the
remainder of the approaches being made up of dry-packed, square-rubble revetments.
The keystones are carved, one bearing the date "A.D. 1833", and the other
"David Lennox". According to evidence presented in about 1920, the word
“Builder" was then just discernible under Lennox's name, but by 1950 it had disappeared altogether.
Otherwise the stonework survives very well except where it
has received the attentions of the inevitable vandals who are such a disgrace to, but
a constant part of, Australia.

One of the walls has a slight crack, which appeared soon after the completion of
the bridge. Our old friend Ambrose Hallen reported the matter, but Lennox
decided that it was of no consequence, a decision which has been completely vindicated by time.
"The bridge remains in isolation now, for the Great Western
Road sweeps south of it, neglecting Mitchell's older road whose gradients gave
such satisfaction when the route was discovered.

Before the completion of the Horseshoe Bridge, Lennox had transferred his
headquarters to Prospect Creek at a spot seven miles north-east of Liverpool. An
earlier wooden bridge at this point, which carried a great deal of traffic to the
southern part of the Colony, was filling to pieces, and a sum of A1083 5s. 3d. had
been voted for a new one. Apparently Ambrose Hallen had prepared a scheme for
the bridge, but Lennox , being Superintendent of Bridges, produced his own
design. His working drawing, which has come down to us, shows that he had
command not only of constructional technique but of draughtsmanship as well.
This original design varies but little from the completed bridge (85, 86)?
The subsoil on the site being mostly of thin sediment over rocky strata, Lennox
founded his abutments on the bedrock, and, because of the tendency of Prospect
Creek to flood, he spanned the stream with a single arch so that the flow of the
stream would not be impeded.

This great arch is unquestionably the most attractive building Lennox ever did.
It has a peculiarity in that the curve of the arch proper is five-centred, while the
curved line between the buttresses is segmental, that is, struck from one centre.
Any description of this bridge must necessarily be technical in character, because
its success comes from profound geometrical causes, and, as we have seen, Lennox
was a geometrician of very great skill. We have seen his minor effort at Lapstone,
where the elaborate curve of the arch was necessary, but at Prospect Creek he
could have been activated only by artistic fervour. Although it may look simple
on paper, the combination of the pseudo-elliptical and the segmental lines is
extremely complicated. The author invites anyone interested to trace out geometrically
the extremely peculiar resulting line which forms itself on the soffit of the arch.
This effect is most unexpected, and the shaping of the stones in the transition
area of the curve is a masterly example of solid geometry. This subtlety of line,
combined with a thin crown to the arch only 5 feet in thickness, gives the bridge the
particular character which has earned its artistic reputation. The radiating arch
stones, or voussoirs, are very large in scale, some of them being nearly 8 feet long,
all perfectly worked.

As the clear span is 110 feet, the wooden centring must have been an achievement
in itself, a fact of which Lennox was not unconscious, for he embodied his
views in a letter:

If such a bridge as this was to be erected in any part of England there would be from
fifty to one hundred mechanics employed at it; if it was in London all the quarries
between Comwall and Aberdeen would have been supplying stone for it; the timber
would be prepared for it in Russia and America: here everything is to be done by
the men on the spot, and four mechanics are all that can with great difficulty be
procured.

The arch rises to 26 feet above mean water level, for Prospect Creek is tidal at
this point. Having to allow for the variation of the surface of the stream would
have complicated the building operations." The approaches to the bridge are all in
dressed stone and sweep up from the ground in subtle but most lovely vertical
curves; since they are curved in plan as well, we see Lennox up to his old geometrical
tricks. The parapet is kept dean and simple with the restraint that characterizes
all his work. It will be noted that the fundamentals of good architecture can be seen
throughout this design. Every part of it is not only necessary but beautifully
shaped so as to be aesthetically pleasing without the addition of meaningless
ornament.

Lennox found his own quarry for the stone for the Prospect Creek bridge. It
was brought to the site in punts, sometimes at night if the state of the tide demanded
it. He also asked to be allowed to employ some of the men he had trained at Lapstone.
He looked after his men, took an interest in their welfare, and often applied
for, and got, remissions of sentence for them. He was even able to wheedle extra
rations for them from the government stores, which was no mean feat. However,
when some of the men at the Prospect Creek quarry absconded, became drunk,
and rioted, he took immediate disciplinary measures, for although he was kindly
Lennox could be strong, which is not surprising, since that combination of chamcteristics
would be essential to a man in his position. He could not have succeeded in producing
good work from previously unskilled men unless he understood all their needs.

Governor Bourke laid the foundation stone on 1st January 1834, naming the
work Lansdowne Bridge after a politician of the day who was then important to
colonial governors. In the reports of the occasion, Mr Lennox was described as the
architect.16 It will be noticed that throughout the records Lennox is referred to as
Superintendent of Bridges, architect, engineer, and builder, and, in fact, he was all
of those things, but his salary was only £120 a year. Before the completion of
Lansdowne Bridge he asked for an increase, but asking and getting proved to be
different things, and he had to wait a long time for his merited increase. By December
1834 he was practically in revolt over his expenses, which, he pointed out,
were 15s. a day when travelling, whereas his salary was only 8s. 6d. a day. The
Deputy Surveyor-General strongly urged a higher reward for the man who was,
he said, architect, builder, clerk of works, and superintendent of convicts, and
trainer of craftsmen.

Landsdowne Bridge was named on 26th January 1836, the Governor having
chosen that date because it was the 48th anniversary of the founding of New South
Wales. The day was sunny, the assembly brilliant, the procession of exhibits of
colonial produce impressive, and the cold collation eminently satisfying. The
upper crust returned to Sydney that night to put the finishing touch with a viceregal
ball at Government House.

Major Mitchell was the only important figure absent from the festivities and
he was duly reprimanded by the Governor. Lennox himself received a special
grant of £200 in honour of the occasion. In 1835 his salary had at last been raised
to £250 a year with 2s. 6d. a day forage allowance, but the special grant must
have been most welcome.

The bridge languished unused for nine months whilst the toll gates were being
completed, for it was inconceivable that anyone should use a bridge without tolls,
even if it had been opened by the Governor himself. The delay was probably
caused by professional jealousy, because there were two architects and a Superintendent
of Bridges concerned in the design of the toll houses. Lansdowne Bridge cost
only a little more than £1000. In the two years 1843 and 1844 the tolls
amounted to more than £1300 that it was a fine source of revenue to the
Government.

The bridge has come down to us, and, strangely enough, no one has spent time
and money in mutilating it, which seems a serious oversight in the light of what has
happened to our other early buildings. Here, though, the torture is more exquisite.
Lansdowne Bridge was designed by Lennox to carry horse-drawn traffic, which it
did ably and well for more than a century, and could do for a few centuries more
except that now the vibrations caused in the bridge by 40-foot motor-driven
trailers, heavily loaded and travelling at great speeds, are such that grains of sand are
continually being shaken from its great stones, so that they are gradually being
eroded away.

During its building, Lansdowne Bridge had served as Lennox's headquarters,
but long before its completion he was busy on other projects and was often absent
in the interior.

At Berrima he built a stone bridge very like the Lansdowne one, but of smaller
size. It was one of his few failures for, although from Mitchell's sketch of the
bridge we can judge it to have been a handsome structure, its designer had miscalculated
the effects of floods in the Wingecarribee River. In 1858 flood waters
broke the arch and temporary repairs were apparently made. These lasted until
1860, when a new flood swept the whole bridge away.

Many smaller bridges were under his supervision but need not concern, us here.
In 1833 he became involved in the long and tedious negotiations for a proposed new
crossing of the river at Parramatta. We have already seen that Ambrose Hallen
received an insult when it was proposed that a prefabricated iron bridge be brought
from England. Lennox had prepared several sketches, and even the Governor had
intervened, saying that he particularly wanted "an ornate bridge". The Assistant
Surveyor thin took a hand and produced a plan for an arch of such restricted
dimensions that he was fearful of flood damage. Whilst all the argument was
proceeding the old bridge was rapidly growing so decrepit that cattle began to
fall over its sides, to the understandable chagrin of stockmen. Lennox, always
the man of action, very wisely went quietly ahead making the centring for his
version of the bridge, and then stated, firmly, that since he had done all that work
he had no wish to alter the design. Faced with this fait accompli opposition collapsed
and on 22nd October 1836 Lennox announced that he was about to start the
bridge itself.

It took some three years to build, and was perhaps the least satisfactory
of Lennox's designs. Although the approaches showed all the softly
graded curves of his other bridges, the main arch was coarse and heavy.
It will be noticed that the past tense is used in speaking of Lennox's Parramatta
bridge. The reason is that although a bridge does cross the Parramatta River, and
although some of Lennox's stones are still visible, his design has been so shockingly
altered that it is foolish to refer to the hacked and butchered fabric as his work. In
1912 it was widened for a tramway, and in 1935, apparently to celebrate its approximate
centenary, the Main Roads Board began alterations which, though necessary, were carried out
in a way that from the aesthetic point of view could only be called infuriating. A succession of
Parramatta councils, without any noticeable reputation for knowledge of historic value or for
good taste in a district that used to be rich with both, contributed their share to the
desecration of Lennox's work to produce the poor remains .

Lennox was associated with Parramatta in various ways. In 1843 he became
District Surveyor, but only held the appointment for a year. He was displaced
from his office of Superintendent of Bridges when reduction of the estimates took
place on 1st January 1844. The Colony was in the midst of a financial depression
and, as usual, building work was one of the first activities to be curtailed.
Lennox is reputed, on somewhat slender evidence, to have designed the original
St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, built in 1839 in Church Street. If he did design
this building it gives us cause to say that it seems a great pity that he did not confine
himself to his bridge-designing.

In 1845 he was in Melbourne as Superintendent of Bridges in Port Phillip.
He prepared a plan for a bridge of 150-foot span to cross the Yarra River at
Swanston Street. His design received approval and he commenced building work
in 1846. Four years later the bridge was opened and christened Prince's Bridge,
but it did not last long, for it was demolished in 1884 when the channel of the
Yarra River had to be altered and widened. It was very like Parramatta bridge
in appearance, but more than twice as large and of much more elegant proportions.
The immediate abutments of the arch had wide, smoothly dressed stone piers, with
semicircular-headed niches, contrasting with ihe rusticated stonework of the main
portion of the bridge. The turning of the arch was not nearly as graceful as in
Lennox's other bridges, the voussoirs in particular being very awkwardly radiated
at the abutments.

Lennox finally retired in 1853, the Victorian Government having voted him a
gratuity of £200 which would have recompensed him somewhat for his six
years at £50 per year, with increases to £300 in 1852 and to the more appropriate
sum of £600 in 1853." He had been in charge of roads, bridges, and wharfs,
but full details of his Victorian work have not so far been made available. His had
been a most crowded life, and his works were numerous. In New South Wales,
besides the bridges already reviewed here, he prepared designs for some fourteen
others that were never built. The surveying of the sites and the designing of the
structures is enough to keep a modern man busy, but Lennox actually constructed
the bridges himself, and in addition he often devised and built the necessary gear as
he went along.

He returned to Sydney in 1855, a firm and dour-looking old Scot, complete
with chin whiskers, to live again at Parramatta, where he built himself a house in
Campbell Street. He also designed the house Rose Vale near Little Hartley, west
of the Blue Mountains, and this small building shows a harkening back to an earlier
period, for its architecture has more of the excellence of 1830 than the decadence
of 1855.

David Lennox died in Parramatta in 1873 at the age of 85, and, as with Greenway,
his burial place is unknown. A very small proportion of his extensive work
has come down to us, but some of it is in such a condition that we can readily
appreciate the skill in design and construction of this first real bridge builder of
Australia.

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.