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Surry Hills Library & Neighbourhood Centre

Surry Hills Library Reading Room, C 1960; City of Sydney Archives: SRC 7467

Surry Hills Library Reading Room, C 1960; City of Sydney Archives: SRC 7467

The City of Sydney’s new multi-purpose Surry Hills Library and Community Centre building in Crown Street, Surry Hills replaces a smaller building on the same site which was demolished in 2006.

When the old building was built in 1956 it was originally named the Anthony Doherty Community Centre, but in recent decades it has been known as the Surry Hills Library and Neighbourhood Centre. An oral history project was conducted with both users and staff of the old building to commemorate the building’s fifty year interaction with the diverse community it served.

An illustrated booklet called Sydney Stories: Surry Hills Branch Library & Neighbourhood Centre, which is based on the oral history project, appears below as a downloadable PDF file.

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Richard Francis-Jones

Richard Francis-JonesIn the lead-up to the demolition of the old building in 2006, Richard Francis-Jones, architect of the new multi-purpose centre, described the reasons for the planned demolition.

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Coral Dasey

Coral DaseyIn 1960 Coral Dasey celebrated her twenty first birthday in the Anthony Doherty hall at the rear of the building. Coral and her father were performers and composers of country music.

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Enid Cook

Enid CookIn the 1970s Enid Cook moved to Surry Hills, became a community activist, and was involved in the establishment of the Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre in what had formerly been the Anthony Doherty Hall. Her community work focussed mainly on the needs of the large immigrant communities which had moved in to Surry Hills in the post war years.

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John Rule

John RuleJohn Rule became co-coordinator of the Neighbourhood Centre in 1989. He recalls the diverse nature of the Surry Hills community that the Centre served.


 


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Bradley Kendal

Bradley KendalJust like the Neighbourhood Centre at its rear, the Surry Hills Branch Library on Crown Street responded to the needs and requirements of the diverse Surry Hills community. Librarian Bradley Kendal talks about the requirements of some Surry Hills residents.

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Claudette Roy

Claudette RoyClaudette Roy, a French Canadian woman who came to Australia in 1970, is a keen borrower of books from the Surry Hills Library. She has some particular preferences in reading material.

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Eva Kubbos

Eva KubbosEva Kubbos is a Lithuanian-born abstract expressionist painter who came to Australia after the war. A painting of hers titled ‘Late Summer’ hung in the Surry Hills Library for many years. Here she describes it. Click on the image of ‘Late Summer’ for a larger view of the painting.

 

 

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Elizabeth Maher

Elizabeth MaherElizabeth Maher was Children’s Librarian for the City of Sydney for many years. She discusses the reasons for locating the City’s first toy library in the Surry Hills Branch Library.

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Ruth Champion

Ruth ChampionRuth Champion is a Surry Hills resident who has been a dedicated library user for many decades. She thinks libraries are essential for functioning democracies.

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Computer access to the online oral history collection is provided at all branches in the City of Sydney’s library network.

CDs and printed copies of interview transcripts are available at the Waterloo Branch Library: Waterloo Town Hall, 770 Elizabeth St, Waterloo NSW 2017; Telephone: 02 9288 5688 

Please be aware that for reasons of privacy and/or coherence audio excerpts may not be precisely identical to the way that they appeared the original recording. For the same reasons full audio files and transcripts may also have been slightly edited where necessary.

To view PDF files you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Get Acrobat Reader Now. PDF Accessibility.

 

Last Updated: Wednesday 1 September, 2010

Please Note:
While care is taken to ensure accuracy, the City of Sydney cannot guarantee that information expressed here is correct and recommends that users exercise their own skill and care with respect to its use. The City of Sydney makes no warranty or undertaking, whether expressed or implied, nor does it assume any legal liability, whether direct or indirect.