Rockwall Crescent, Potts Point, contains a suit of grand Potts Point terraces.

Number 20 is for sale through Jason Boon and Geoff Cox https://www.rwebay.com.au/7292780/

Rockwall Crescent is named after Rockwall House, a Georgian mansion built in 1834 by John Verge, who also designed Elizabeth Bay House nearby. His magnificent Georgian mansion, Rockwall, dominates the southern side of the Rockwall Crescent, originally named Rockwall Street.

Sands’ Sydney and Suburban Directory of 1882 notes there were “houses in the course of construction” after the Rockwall House estate was sold in 1878 and sub-divided in 1880. The original sales poster shows four hectares sold with the new street named, 18 new blocks created and major frontages in Macleay Street opened up.

Today, Rockwall Crescent consists of three sets of terraces houses on its northern side.

The first set at numbers 2 and 4 were built in the late Victorian/early Edwardian red brick style. Number 2 was occupied at the time by prominent, fiery-tempered, Sydney Councillor and MP, John Macelhone, a colourful identity proud of his raw, plain-speaking upbringing. His endless scurrilous and ribald questions in parliament often saw him suspended while his driver, a former boxing prize-fighter, proved useful in the rough and tumble of electioneering.

Two other groups of Rockwall Crescent terraced houses, originally known as “residential chambers”, were all built by 1884, including number 12, according to an old survey map in the NSW Mitchell Library, except number 14, which was built slightly later.

One group of four, at numbers 6-14, was known as “Brunswick Terraces”, and another group of three at 16-20 was named “Pamela Terraces”. They were all occupied by Sydney’s upper middle class and are nostalgically named after English localities such as Battersea (no.16) in Surrey, Kendal (no.10) in the Lakes District and Crasmere (no. 18), although Sands’ 1890 Directory names it Grasmere with a g, also a village in the Lakes District.

In 1887 number 20 with its undercroft beneath its front terrace was known as Percyville but by 1890 was re-named Yanowinna.

In 1888 number 10 was called Farlie, after a Scottish castle and place name.

Number 12, Knightsbridge, is named after the exclusive and highly fashionable London suburb. Number 12 is indicative of its aligned social status. The Knightsbridge name evokes the exclusive upper class London suburb which includes Harrods store in its main street. It is named after a bridge over the River Westbourne, now underground, where knights of the realm crossed over a bridge as early as 1141, nearly 900 years ago.

In 1890 number 12 was occupied by The Rev. H.J. Campbell, Rector of All Saints’ Anglican Church, Woollahra, a prestige ecclesiastical position. By 1920 however, numbers 10 and 12 were combined to create a small boarding house, “The Lenox”.

The terraces were all built in the fashionable neo-classical style by The Hon. Benjamin Backhouse, MLC, politician, a former builder and later an eminent architect. The Backhouses lived nearby at Ithaca, number 4 Ithaca Road, Elizabeth Bay, having previously lived in number 16 Rockwall Crescent themselves in 1890.

Interiors retain well-proportioned rooms with extensive original high skirting boards, a beautiful twisted wooden staircase newel post at the foot of the balustrade and marble fire places with views over the Rockwall House gardens and north-facing vistas.

By Andrew Woodhouse
Heritage Solutions