PROTECT
Layers of Heritage BY DAVID BURDON, CONSERVATION DIRECTOR
Heritage does not need to be static. Some of our most interesting historic places have been added to over time and are richer for it, but building on heritage is fraught, and we have a responsibility to do it in a sensitive way.
When we appreciate the layers of a place, we tie together its stories of history and human creativity and enrich our experience. The visitor to modern Rome or Athens finds it difficult not to contemplate the march of time in those ancient cities, while a visit to an English cathedral town is enriched by considering its growth and development from the invasion of the Romans through to the introduction of the railways. While individual buildings can be ‘frozen in time’ for historical purposes, our cities as a whole must evolve. Heritage should be part of, not the past of, our cities. It is what makes them interesting and multi-dimensional, not boring and flat. The trick, of course, is striking the right balance. Sydney is a city with many layers. To the keen observer, Sydney offers an endless supply of stories, often built into the very fabric of the city itself as modifications or additions to older buildings. Some additions, such as the 1980s extensions to the Powerhouse Museum, State Library, and Art Gallery of NSW, are plain to see, while others, controversial at the time, are often mistaken as part of the original design. 6
A history of modification The Darlinghurst Courthouse, designed by Mortimer Lewis and built in 1842, is one such example. The Colonial and Government Architects were responsible for many of the finest individual buildings in NSW, but they also had a history of adding to earlier structures as budgets and requirements increased. Lewis’ courthouse (1837–1842) was the earliest court building in Australia, and its fine classical portico was an imposing presence at the top of Oxford Street before it was dramatically expanded (1884–1888) by fellow Colonial Architect James Barnet. It was not the first time Barnet had engulfed one of his predecessor’s buildings – in 1866 he commenced his grand but ultimately unfinished extensions to Lewis’ Australian Museum on William Street. One wonders what Lewis, who died in 1879, must have thought of these changes. History records that Barnet was certainly less forgiving when his own designs were modified by his successor, the first NSW Government Architect, Walter Liberty Vernon. The Colonial Chief Secretary’s building at the corner of Bridge and Macquarie Streets in Sydney was one of Barnet’s major projects. Designed in the Victorian Free Classical Style and built between 1873 and 1881, the building was extended up Phillip Street in a matching style by Barnet in 1891. When further extensions were required only a few short years later, however, Barnet’s classical building was drastically altered by his successor with the addition of an elaborate attic storey surmounted by an aluminium dome, immediately changing it to a French Renaissance style – something Vernon was to repeat three years later on the GPO. Barnet was horrified.
National Trust (NSW)
