Lost Streets
Resumptions
In 1905 the City Council gained the power to resume property in general.
It had gained the long sought-after right to resume land for road
alignments a few years earlier in 1900, something the Council had
been able to do previously only by purchasing on the open market,
and consequently had done infrequently. But the new legislation
in 1905 allowed for resumptions for slum clearance.
The Council went to it with enthusiasm, exercising powers which
might astonish present-day planners. There was little attempt to
define a slum area or to provide for any objections from interested
parties, and almost no recognition that the renters who lived in
the areas had any rights at all. Some resumptions were small, taking
a street here, a house or two there; some were grand, like the widening
of major business thoroughfares. New streets were opened, and narrow
lanes disappeared.
This section looks at resumptions in the north-west of Surry Hills,
which involved large-scale demolition and the creation of Wentworth
Avenue.
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Wexford Street
Elizabeth Street, looking up Wexford Street, c.1906. On the corner is Fong Lee Jang & Co., grocers and general merchants. There was a strong Chinese presence in the Haymarket and Surry Hills area in 1900, partly due to its close proximity to the Belmore Markets where many made their living. By 1900 Wexford Street was almost entirely occupied by Chinese. They were also a significant presence in Exeter Place, and Foster, Mary, Stephen and Elizabeth Streets.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS
51/3956)
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Chinese Church
Chinese Church of England, Wexford Street, Surry Hills 1898,
where the Rev. Soo Hoo Ten preached. The church building was
mix of European architectural styles with a dash of Chinese.
It was demolished as part of the resumptions.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS
51/3028)
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Hunt Street, c.1906
Hunt Street, looking west from Foster Street, c.1906. To the wider community, this area was identified as a slum. But for hundreds of families, it was home and the streets were a playground for the children. Hunt Street formed part of the Wexford Street no.1 Resumption. It was widened and realigned in the process.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS
51/3961)
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A wiped out slum?
This is a panoramic view of the Wexford Street area before
the City Council resumed the land and ran Wentworth Avenue
diagonally across it. The photograph was published in the
Daily Telegraph in 1911 under the heading “A
Wiped Out Slum”. The backyards of rows of terraces dominate
the picture. In the left foreground you can see the Chinese
Church of England.
(image: Daily Telegraph, 6 September
1911)
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From Slum Lane to Highway
While the Wexford Street and Brisbane Street Resumptions
were promoted by the City Council as being about creating
new broad access streets to Central Station and a new industrial
precinct, it was also about clearing out the poorer populations
in Surry Hills, with a dash of racism added in. This article
in the Daily Telegraph, “From Slum Lane to
Highway”, is typical of the sensational journalism associated
with slum clearance. It opens:
A thirty-foot lane across a dirty, Chinese infested slum
packed thick with fan-tan shops and opium-dens and far worse
places; eight acres, dreaded of the respectable, and known
mainly to the police, with a deathrate 20 per cent worse than
the rest of Sydney. That was Wexford Street and the Wexford
Street area...
(image: Daily Telegraph, 6 September
1911)
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Brisbane Street Resumption Area, 1928
This is the Brisbane Street Resumption area in 1928. Goulburn Street is to the left and Campbell Street is on the right. In the distance on the left is Buckinghams store up on Oxford Street. A few terraces facing Goulburn Street and St Simon and St Jude’s Church still stand. These would be demolished shortly. The Brisbane Street Resumption commenced in 1912 and continued for many years eventually extending over seven and a half acres from Goulburn Street north towards Oxford Street.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS
42/4, City Engineer’s Annual Report, 1928)
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Brisbane Street Resumption Area, 1929
This is the Brisbane Street Resumption area in 1929. Demolition
is complete and the new roads have been formed: from left
to right, Goulburn Lane, Garrett Street, and Garrett Lane.
The widened and realigned Brisbane Street is in the foreground,
Goulburn Street is on the far left and Campbell Street, the
far right. The terraces to the left of Goulburn Street near
the Matthews & Co Paper Bag and Printing Works were soon
to be demolished as part of the Robin Hood Lane area. In 1929
the area was offered for sale on 50-year leases, but by then
the Great Depression had hit, and there were no takers. Neither
was there any interest when it was resubmitted for auction
in 1936. It remained a wasteland for many years until the
land was eventually sold to the State government in 1954.
In the late 1980s the Sydney Police Centre was built on the
land, over half a century after many people had been uprooted
from their houses in the interests of promoting industry.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS
42/4, City Engineer’s Annual Report, 1929)
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