HERITAGE-LISTED Birtley Towers, towering high above neighbouring properties, is aptly named after the former mansion, Birtley House, on the site.

Built in 1934 with 54 flats on nine floors with only 14 car spaces spaces, it is still described as “one of the greatest achievements of Art Déco residential architecture in Australia”. With its masterwork brick detailing, elegant, original, chic French foyer, finials and sunburst motifs, and amber glass doors it contains many signature Art Déco elements.

The Sydney Morning Herald (March 1933) noted “it is costing pounds £80,000 and is said to be the biggest building operation within three years. There will be two lifts and incinerators accessible for garbage from each flat.”

The construction boom of the 1920s was consolidated during the 1930s as the worst effects of the Depression began to ease with very large, luxurious buildings with spacious flats constructed.

Birtley Towers was designed by the famous architect, Emil Sodersten, who worked briefly in the office of Walter Burley Griffin, (designer of Canberra): his influence shows in the highly-textured surfaces. Sodersten (1899-1961), born in Balmain, later co-designed the Canberra War Memorial and other local landmarks such as Werrington (1930) and Wychbury Towers (1934) in Manning Street and the elegant Marlborough Hall (1938), Ward Avenue. He was initially influenced by Art Déco influences and then the Modernist style after a 1936 European tour.

Birtley Towers, still with its original polished brass entrance plaque, attracted a decidedly superior social milieu well after its 1934 completion. The Australian Women’s Weekly noted in 1962: ”English visitor, Viscountess Broome, will be guest of honour at a dinner party given by the state president of the CWA, Mrs Bate, at her town flat at Birtley Towers on May 9 as a curtain raiser to the CWA’s handicraft exhibition, opened by Lady Broome at 8pm.”

Its grand port cochère and imposing harbour aspect Birtley Towers give it a box seat in Elizabeth Bay.

By Andrew Woodhouse, Director, Heritage Solutions