Simpsons Potts Point Hotel, 8 Challis Avenue, Potts Point, must be the only hotel named after its heritage architect. It was restored by Peter Simpson in about 1987 who also ran the hotel. It was heritage-listed in 2000. It is a local secret and a jewel in its landscape.

It caters for middle upmarket customers who enjoy the finer things but with all mod-cons, computers etc., and who relish distinction without homogenised, impersonal, hard-surfaced hotel lobbies.

Outside, it looks like a grand Arts and Crafts, pre-Edwardian villa, which is exactly what it is. Built in 1892 its warm, earthy maroon-red bricks, deep balcony, elliptical Tudor arches and stained glass all ooze style and grace. Its owner. Keith Wherry, is a Potts Pointian for 20 years. “It’s the only individually-owned, free-standing heritage mansion in Potts Point with its grand internal features,” he says.

Its 12 rooms, all en-suite and air-conditioned, are exclusive and a masterclass in interior design and decoration. It’s not overly fussy but is simply sumptuous. The gold friezes, William Morris chintz fabrics and fine botanical prints by famous Australian artist, Ellis Rowan, and artis botanica from Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, especially commissioned for Simpsons, make the bedrooms a living art gallery. It’s less a hotel and more a private members’ Mayfair London club. Breakfast is served in the glass-roofed conservatory. A dozen cafes within 300 metres are on its marble door step. The English library with its richly polished mahogany and walnut book cases and gold hand-tooled leather shelf lips, a studded leather wing back chair with matching foot stool and big, beautiful books on architectural history, Bentley and Rolls Royce motor cars (the owner has six) all create a unique ambience and point of distinction. The Carrara marble fire place and burgundy marble studded roundels crackles with warmth during winter as guests are invited to help themselves to brandy, sherry, cognac etc., from the elegant crystal decanters. The Georgian antiques are glorious. Sitting in the drawing room overlooking Challis Avenue with its dinner plate-size, white, garden Magnolia Grandiflora and emerald, jewelled stained glass, it is a peaceful oasis from the hum and thrum of the city outside. Pachelbel’s Canon and Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik waft in background.

There is nothing else quite like it in Sydney.

Now wonder the Belgian ambassador loitered longer reading by the fire saying “it is so much nicer then the Canberra embassy.”

Its original architect was John Bede Barlow (1860-1925), FRIBA, described as “a leading light in NSW Institute of Architects as its co-founder and its journal’s foundation editor”. In 1890 he drew up its professional code of practice and charges “to serve the profession” stating: ”Architecture is a science among many sciences.” Barlow was an outspoken critic of others’ works. His 1909 magazine, Sydney Architecture, was scathing. He deplored Sydney’s “ponderous confectionary”, its “extra-storey” fever, poor use of shadows, colour and window mouldings which looked like “caterpillars”, allegedly “improved” beyond recognition.

“A uniform skyline gives a sense of unity,” he said, adding that Victorian architecture “gave him indigestion … with hideous iron balconies and preposterous parapets, pitiful in their vulgarity.”

Barlow was also an artist and exhibited at the Royal Art Society in Sydney in 1885.

He designed St. Canice’s, Rushcutters Bay, nearby in1887-9 and 40 other churches, chapels and convents, some of whom were for hits relatives, including Lewisham Hospital, where his wife was a volunteer, and Lyndhurst Chambers in Elizabeth Street.

By 1893 he had an international reputation and was editor of Art and Architecture magazine.

He and his wife were supporters of many Catholic charities including St Vincent’s. She was beloved for her charm. A connoisseur and keen collector of fine china and etchings, jewels, literature, especially poetry.

Barlow designed three houses in the same style as Simpsons, originally known as “Killountan”. It featured in “Beautiful Homes of the Edwardian Age”, as a drawing in the Sydney Arts and Crafts Exhibition 1892, the “Annual Architectural Review” 1893, “The Australasian Builders’ and Contractors’ News”, 1893 and “Sydney Domestic Architecture”, 1905.

Its original owner was John Francis Lane Mullins MLC (1857- 1939), a cousin of Barlow. His family was originally from County Cork, Ireland, where his family home was also named Killountan. His father (1826-1879) had emigrated in 1851. John was a man of politics, arts, law and letters. As a Sydney Councillor (1900-1904) he opened its (then) new library in the QVB on 18^th October 1910. John was educated in the University of Sydney (BA, 1876, MA, 1879) and admitted as a solicitor in 1885 and then a barrister. His father’s real estate investments provided him with a private income. He was the solicitor for the Catholic Press in 1895. His wife was the sister of Sydney’s first Lord Mayor, John Hughes, of Elizabeth Bay. He helped form the NSW Irish Rifle Regiment in 1896 and was captain in 1898. He was a prominent Catholic layman and Treasurer of the Catholic Church as well as Privy Chamberlain to Pope Pius. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Papal Order of St Gregory the Great in 1920. He was Treasurer of the St. Mary’s Cathedral Building Fund from 1879, a Director of St. Joseph’s Building and Investment Society, a supporter of the St. Vincent de Paul organisation in Australia, and Secretary, later Treasurer, of St. Vincent’s Hospital. He was also a member of the Royal Australian Historical Society, noted as a patron of the arts and founded the Australian Ex-Libris Society and the Australian Limited Editions Society. He served as Secretary and Treasurer of the Society of Artists, Sydney 1907–39, and from 1916 was a Trustee of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales and its President in 1938–39. He was an active supporter of the local Numismatic and Philatelic Societies and the Royal Australian Historical Society. He loved heraldry. The internal vents of Killountan were graced with a large M.

He was a member of the Legislative Council (1917 to 1934).

He was Secretary of the Society of Art and supported their travelling scholarship. He supported struggling artists including the 1927 Archibald Prize winner, George Lambert, who begged from his A block Prince of Wales hospital bed in 1936: “If you could send me a shilling …?” He supported Lambert’s Warriors’ Tomb sculpture for St Marys Cathedral and his memorial exhibition and memorial fund.

Mullins lived in Killountan until about 1914 and later lived in “Killountan”, Ascham Avenue, Darling Point, “Ranelagh”, 3 Darling Point Road, in 1936, now demolished, 36 Edgecliff Road, Edgecliff, Greenknowe Avenue and Elizabeth Bay Crescent 1937-8.

Simpsons remains his legacy to he future.

Simpsons Potts Point Hotel

8 Challis Avenue, Potts Point, NSW 2011 Australia

https://www.simpsonshotel.com/

Phone: +61 (2) 8354 6000

Fax: +61 (2) 9356 4467

Email: hotel@simpsonshotel.com

By Andrew Woodhouse, Director, Heritage Solutions