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

Number 2/14 is for sale through Jason Boon, Geoff Cox and Joss Reid

Real Estate For Sale – 2/14 Rockwall Crescent – Potts Point , NSW (rwebay.com.au)

Rockwall Crescent is named after Rockwall House, a Georgian mansion built in 1834 by John Verge, who also designed Elizabeth Bay House nearby. His mansion 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 the 1880s. The original sales poster shows four hectares sold with the new street named Rockwall Crescent, 18 new blocks created and major frontages in Macleay Street opened up.

An 1882 subdivision map shows lots for auction along both sides of what was then Rockwall Street, with St Vincent’s “Convent” present at the end of the cul-de-sac.

An accompanying brochure from the time promotes the Rockwall Estate as “the healthiest, most accessible, and aristocratic portion of the City of Sydney”.

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 rough, 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, apparently proved useful in the rough and tumble of electioneering!

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

The first 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), 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.

In 1890 number 12 was occupied by The Rev. H.J. Campbell, Rector, 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.

Number 14 is un-named and is sub-divided with the piano nobile (principal room) containing the most magnificent, richly carved fireplace.

Interiors retain well-proportioned rooms with extensive original high skirting boards, with views southwards over the Rockwall House gardens and north-facing vistas to the CBD and Sydney Harbour Bridge.

By Andrew Woodhouse

Heritage Solutions