Style twins

Two examples of art-deco apartment blocks in the older inner-heart of the city.

Down the left, I give you the Claridge apartments on Flinders Street, Darlinghurst. On the right, I give you the Belgenny apartments on Bourke Street, Darlinghurst.

Ballina 5, Darlinghurst

Perched atop the rising Liverpool Street, this double tower block is elegant on the outside, but probably dark and pokey ont inside.

Water lily

'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' by Choi Jeong Hwa Part of the 17th Biennale of Sydney, this work is located in the Main Pond in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Art-deco (2) - The Grace Hotel

Situated on the corner of York, King and Clarence Streets this was a "folly" by the Brothers Grace who gambled that the advent of the Sydney Harbour bridge would see a slight shift in the location of retail trading in the city. There had been much horse-trading in the corridors of power re the location of City Circle underground train stations with the Mark Foy family supporting the Museum location and the Lloyd Jones family supporting the St James location. Grace Brothers opened their new York Street store in July 1930. The entire ground floor was given over to retail.


Based on the design features of the Chicago Tribune building, the Grace Building was one of the first in Sydney to be clad in glazed terra cotta and marked the high point of the Commercial Gothic style, the immediate precursor of art-deco. Within the Gothic style, there are extensive art-deco elements.

The building has a distinct vertical emphasis with a Gothic corner tower, with flying buttresses, pointed windows and quatrefoils, with details picked out in green. It was designed by the architectural firm of Morrow & Gordon and constructed by Kell & Rigby. The building was extensively refurbished in 1995 and opened as The Grace Hotel in 1997. Although of immense beauty, the exterior of the building (up high) shows much chipping and damage to the tiling.

Sunday in the City - The glory that is art-deco (1)

Art-deco derived its name from the Exposition des Arts Deorators et Industrials Modernes, held in Paris in 1925. The style symbolised a new mechanical streamlined age, utilizing new materials such as steel and plastic. Art-deco motifs were particularly favoured for the interiors and exteriors of distinctly Twentieth Century buildings such as the cinema, the skyscraper and the pub.

Sydney has a large collection of Art-deco inspired buildings from the late 20s to the early 50s. With a guide from the 20th Century Society of NSW, I became acquainted with some.


This is the fenestration of the City Mutual Insurance Building on the corner of Hunter and Philip Street. Designed by Emil Sodersten it was completed in the second half of the '30s. It is clad in Hawkesbury sandstone above a polished granite base. It has unusual zig-zag windows which are hinged around a tall central tower and designed to allow as much light as possible into the building and reduce the heat load.

The foyer is now the home of Neil Perry's Rockpool.

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Sunday in my City - Surviving with style

Established in 1895 by Gastav A. Zink, this elegant store is now owned and run by the Jones family who bought it from Thomas Zink in the late '50s. The much admired art-deco shopfront was added in 1937.

Old monochrome images sourced from City of Sydney: Top: Zink's original store at 112 from 1895 to 1910 Mid left: Oxford Street from Hyde Park corner, prior to the widening showing the old Burdekin Mid right: Oxford Street from Hyde Park corner, after the widening showing the new Burdekin (the council helped each pub rebuild on the same lot!) Bottom: Aerial view in the '40s showing Zink's in the lower left

The comparison is a little presumptuous, but just as Paris was flattened and redesigned between 1852 and 1870 by Haussman, so was Sydney between 1909 and 1920, sadly sans le grand design! As mentioned with the post on Broadway, the 1909 Royal Commission determined that many streets needed to be widened or eliminated. Oxford Street was widened by resuming and flattening the entire north side of the street between 1910 and 1912. Some compensation was paid but not to Zink, who had to move a few doors down the street (from 112 to 56)and start over.


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