Claud Hamilton (1891-1943), architect and inventor, built one of his grandest buildings, the Savoy, in 1919 at 10 Hardie Street, Darlinghurst.

Apartment 6, 10 Hardie Street is for sale with Greg McKinley and Penny Timothy: https://www.rwebay.com.au/6312375/

Hamilton was prolific in the local area, designing 15 apartment blocks.

No other architect has had such an influence on the area in terms of numbers of apartment blocks.

Hamilton was born in Campbelltown, a small port town on the southern tip of the south island of New Zealand. It was renamed Bluff in 1917.

He lived in Elizabeth Bay and designed “St John’s Flats” (1916), 241 Darlinghurst Road, “Savoy” (1919), 10 Hardie Street, “Kenilworth” (1920), 18-22 Hardie Street, 235 Victoria Street (1923), “Tennyson House” (1924), 1 Farrell Avenue, “Normandy” (1926), “Regent’s Court” (1929), 18 Springfield Avenue, “Versailles” (1929), 233 Darlinghurst Road, “Springfield Inn” now known as Funk House (early 1930), 23 Darlinghurst Road, “Sandringham” (1935), 22 Springfield Avenue, “Kaloola” (1927), 1 St Neot Avenue, “Byron Hall” (1928), 97 Macleay Street, “Wiringulla” (1927), 2 St Neot Avenue, “Lakemount” (1933), 46 Roslyn Gardens,  and in 1940, 76 Elizabeth Bay Road.

Between 1916 and 1933, over 17 years, he designed 15 significant apartment blocks, almost one a year, a tremendous task, all within 2km of each other.

He also designed properties in Lithgow in the Blue Mountains and “Arawua” (1935), at 6 Palm Beach Road, Palm Beach, named after the Awarua Plains, where he was raised, just east of Bluff in New Zealand.

He made alterations in 1925 to “Osterley” 42-48 Darling Point Road, Darling Point, and carried out alterations and additions, converting the house into two self-contained flats, one on each level. He added the front porch, being the entry to the upstairs flat, the southern gabled wing housing a bedroom on each level and external stair, new kitchens and bathroom and a new stair to the upstairs flat.

His King Street offices must have been very busy.

All his buildings reflected the “neo-classical” style prolific at the time.

The term denotes use of classical features such Terrazzo tiling, columns, proportionally-squared windows, even a palmette or acroterion (a Grecian sculptural embellishment) usually emblazoned on the building’s façade.

This neo-classical style was popular between 1919-1939. It was less formal and more eclectic than 18^th and 19^th century buildings.

This style evolved from Vitruvius, a Roman architect and engineer, who published his famous Ten books of Architecture in about 20 BC. His principles were re-adopted by Palladio (1508-1580) in Renaissance Italy. It was revived in the Georgian period (1714-1837) and then again in the 1920s and 30s. It was popular at that time alongside the Art Deco style. Neo-classicism is known for its proportional rooms and windows and ancient Roman and Greek style motifs.

Hamilton was described as a “renowned architect of the day” yet today we know very little about him.

In 1927 he was involved in a financial imbroglio and took legal action. He settled the case, successfully, for £137/10 owed to him to recover his costs against a real estate agent, Vincent Morgan, for work on a proposed block of apartments at Baden Street, Coogee.

But in 1940 Smith’s Weekly reported he owed money to Sydney Council, £50, and failed to pay. Council petitioned for his bankruptcy in November 1940 and won the case.

Hamilton was bankrupt.

He supervised works for Australian Consolidated Industries (ACI), founded in 1922.  It was a holding company, consisting of subsidiaries that manufactured items such as bottles, glassware, sheet glass, engineering products and plastics.

Hamilton invented a plastic cement building material.

On 22^nd May 1943 The Sydney Morning Herald and the Decoration and Glass magazine reported he had died:

“A Sydney architect, Mr. Claude Hamilton of Elizabeth Bay, died yesterday after a long illness. He was well-known as the inventor of a plastic cement building material and built a large number of houses at Lithgow of this material. Mr Hamilton supervised for Australian Consolidated Industries in a number of its constructions and designed and constructed a large number of flats at Kings Cross.

He is survived by Mrs. Hamilton, three daughters and a son.”

He was only 52 years old.

By Andrew Woodhouse

Heritage Solutions