Darlinghurst is one of Sydney’s earliest suburbs dating from the 1850s. 275 Darlinghurst Road, an original terrace house, now renovated, is for sale through Jason Boon and Geoff Cox   https://www.rwebay.com.au/5320610/

Darlinghurst Road mirrors the development of Darlinghurst and East Sydney. The development of this area in turn is symptomatic of the rapid growth of Sydney between 1850 and 1900.

Darlinghurst Road and nearby Victoria Street are part of the first phase of European development in the area. Darlinghurst Road was created to provide access to the 1830s villa estates along the Darlinghurst ridge from Oxford Street whilst Victoria Street the latter was created by the subdivision of Thomas Mitchell’s villa estate, Craigend (where todays Coke sign stands) in 1841.

The area contains a strong urban form derived predominantly from Victorian and Federation period residential/commercial development on Darlinghurst Road and Victoria Street.

The area contains a number of aesthetically significant and prominent buildings such as the Darlinghurst Fire Station, St. John’s Church and Rectory, the Sacred Heart Church, the c.1919 St. Vincent’s Hospital, the First Church of Christ Scientist, and a number of fine inter- war residential flat buildings as well as grand houses such as Iona.

Nearby Green Park provides an important open public space.

The area lies outside the first boundaries of the Township of Sydney established by Governor Phillip in December 1792.

Governor Darling, after whom Darlinghurst is named, was divided into a number of exclusive villa estates, principally for senior government officials. Known initially as the Woolloomooloo Heights, this cluster of villa estates and the area immediately surrounding them was subsequently renamed Darlinghurst,Darling for the Governor and ‘hurst’, an Old English word for ‘a wooded hill’.

Governor Darling made 15 grants.

The southern grant of the emancipist Thomas West (1812 and 1844) now forming part of nearby St. Vincent’s Hospital site.

The owners of land at Darlinghurst and Woolloomooloo were well placed to take advantage of the rapid growth of Sydney from 1830 onwards. Darling’s grand villa estates were subdivided from the early 1840s onwards. The northern end of Victoria Street originated as the entrance to Thomas Mitchell’s 1841 subdivision of Craigend Estate, where today’s COKE sign stands. The line of the street to Old South Head Road was probably established in 1843. The opening of the Darlinghurst Gaol and Courthouse and the nearby Victoria Barracks (Paddington), improvements to William Street and population growth, encouraged development. Darlinghurst Gaol marks the entrance into Darlinghurst Road from Oxford Street. Early development clustered around the junctions with Oxford and William Streets, near 275 Darlinghurst Road.

With development came the need for community facilities. The southern part of Victoria Street and Darlinghurst Road then became dominated by the Catholic Church. The first Sacred Heart Church was built between 1850-2 and the foundation stone for St. Vincent’s Hospital laid in 1862. Further north, work on St. John’s Church of England began in 1854.

Continued population growth and improved transport were the forces behind the development of Victoria Street and Darlinghurst Road during the period 1880 to 1900. By 1900, buildings, many of them terraces, stretched in an unbroken line along both streets.

Between 1900 and 1920, the character of the area began to change as wealthier residents moved to the developing outer suburbs and a large number of boarding houses and rentals operated. The entrance into Victoria Street and Darlinghurst Road from William Street was altered by the widening of William Street and the construction of the iconic Darlinghurst Fire Station. The existing landmark Sacred Heart Church was built in 1916. Between 1920 and 1940, residential flat buildings were constructed in the surrounding area, most notably at the northern end of Darlinghurst Road.

The southern part of Victoria Street has undergone significant alterations in the post World War II period, largely through the gradual construction of multi-storey buildings part of St. Vincent’s Hospital. New buildings have been constructed elsewhere along Victoria and Darlinghurst Road between the surviving nineteenth century terraces.

275 Darlinghurst Road has undergone interior renovations but its marble fireplace, high ceilings, wrought iron work and arched windows remain; part of its past explaining its present.

By Andrew Woodhouse