Heritage Issues
The Land and Housing Corporation gets the details wrong
Posted on 7th March 2022
One on of the brilliant things about the project by the Federal Government, and later the NSW Government, to restore the former church estates was that they went to a lot of trouble to get the details right. Sadly, the NSW Land and Housing Corporation which looks after the former church estates seems to have lost its memory and its skills.
Re-submitted DA for Bidura still unacceptable
Posted on 4th March 2022
The Society has lodged a follow-up submission in relation to the Bidura development application (DA) which proposes a large scale apartment complex behind the heritage-listed building, replacing the concrete Metropolitan Remand Centre/Childrens Court built in the early 1980s. This follows a period of consultation between the City of Sydney and the developers, Visionland, and amendments to their original proposal. The Society believes that aspects of the proposed development will be alien to the architectural character of Glebe and should not be approved.
Water tower heritage interpretation artwork
Posted on 6th November 2021
One of the requirements of the DA for the development of Harold Park was that the water tank associated with the Rozelle Tram Yards be reinstated. The tank has been reinstated as an artwork by Chris Fox called ‘Immerge’.
Our new video series ‘In Sydney, it’s Glebe’
Posted on 1st October 2021
‘In Sydney it’s Glebe’, six Glebe Society videos about our suburb, its history and heritage and the risks it faces from overdevelopment, have now been released.
Protecting our environment – sewage pumping stations serving Glebe
Posted on 14th September 2021
Four low level sewage pumping stations serve Glebe and surrounding areas, part of a network constructed at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries in response to the outbreaks of typhoid which plagued Sydney from the 1870s to 1890s. Built at a time when small-scale utilitarian buildings were given as much careful attention as public buildings.
Proposed development at 7 Franklyn St and 49-51 Greek St, Glebe
Posted on 5th August 2021
A DA under consideration for these sites, involves demolishing two former warehouses and replacing them with 84 self-contained boarding rooms. The proposed development is out of character with the neighbouring houses. Adaptive reuse of the warehouses would be a better solution.
Bidura: The Bitter Sweet DA
Posted on 3rd August 2021
The DAs for the demolition of the Metropolitan Remand Centre and construction of a new housing development behind the heritage-listed Bidura House are now on public exhibition. We explain the plans and why we are concerned about them.
Yelvertoft, 75 Hereford St, Sells
Posted on 3rd August 2021
The heritage-listed 1858 Victorian Regency sandstone villa, Yelvertoft, has been saved from the developers.
Society meets with State Government to discuss affordable and social housing
Posted on 11th July 2021
Ian Stephenson and Brian Fuller, the Society’s Planning and Heritage convenors, recently joined Deputy Lord Mayor Linda Scott at a meeting with the Hon. Melinda Pavey MP, Minister for Water, Property and Housing, to discuss the State Government’s intentions in relation to the provision of affordable and social housing in Glebe.
Damage to heritage-listed sandstone cobbled pavement
Posted on 11th July 2021
The City of Sydney is progressively upgrading the local green parks as part of the Greening Sydney 2030 Strategy. However, the upgrade the Cardigan St Reserve has come at the cost of the removal of some historic sandstone paving.
Glebe Society submission for the review of the NSW Heritage Act 1977
Posted on 14th July 2021
In April 2021 the NSW government asked the Social Issues Standing Committee of Parliament to conduct an inquiry into the NSW Heritage Act. The Glebe Society made a submission to the review.
Council’s heritage education program
Posted on 8th July 2021
At the prompting of the Glebe Society, Millers Point Residents Action Group and the Paddington Society, the City of Sydney Council is planning to further develop heritage information and education programs for owners of heritage homes.
‘It’s only words’: the melancholy of the St Phillips Estate
Posted on 6th July 2021
The Development Application to build two eight-storey apartment buildings and five faux terrace houses in the St Phillips Heritage Conservation Area, brings the plaintive melancholy of the Bee Gees’ 1968 hit song Words to mind
New Glebe Society video: Treasure in the City
Posted on 5th June 2021
The Glebe Society has collaborated with postgraduate students from The University of Sydney to produce a new video. It includes some fresh perspectives on Glebe as well as exploring current threats to this special place.
Mystery Photo – June 2021
Posted on 7th June 2021
Mystery photo for June 2021 – can you guess where we are?
Cowper St DA – consider making a submission
Posted on 4th June 2021
Sydney City Council are considering a development application (DA) from the NSW Land and Corporation for the construction of a high-rise development in Cowper Street in what, until very recently, was a Heritage Conservation Area. Submission closing date is 23 June 21
Another Conservation Area in Glebe at risk
Posted on 4th June 2021
A key principle underlying Glebe’s conservation areas are that if a Neutral building is to be replaced, the replacement must be sympathetic to its Contributory neighbours, rather than to any Detracting neighbours. This principle seems to have got lost in a recent development approval decision by City of Sydney Council.
Sanitary lanes (aka dunny lanes)
Posted on 18th April 2021
Once an integral and necessary part of the layout among the terrace house development of Glebe (and other inner west suburbs) was the sanitary lane.
High Rise For Glebe’s St Phillips Heritage Conservation Area
Posted on 8th April 2021
Nearly forty years of good planning designed to conserve the scale of the St Phillips Heritage Conservation Area through height controls was overturned on 29 March when Sydney City Council approved the NSW Land and Housing Corporation’s application for a spot rezoning of 17-31 Cowper St and 2A-D Wentworth Park Rd.
Latest photos by Philip Vergison
Posted on 8th April 2021
Recent photos of Glebe and surrounds by Phil Vergison.
Bidura continues to deteriorate – February 2021 photos
Posted on 27th February 2021
In danger of demolition by neglect, heritage-listed Bidura in Glebe Point Road, continues to deteriorate
Glebe plan shows lack of respect – Letter in Sydney Morning Herald
Posted on 1st January 2021
The Glebe Society’s letter, published on Jan 1st, 2021, about plans to trash the 50-year legacy of good public policy and town planning in Glebe
Glebe Society 50th anniversary Community Festival ‘highly commended’ at the 2020 National Trust Heritage Awards
Posted on 2nd January 2021
Last year’s Community Festival, held at the Tramsheds, was entered in the ‘Heritage Events, Exhibitions & Tours’ category of this year’s National Trust Heritage Awards. We’re delighted that the Festival was ‘highly commended’ by the judges.
Online seminar: The Street Where They Lived: Every Street Has A Story to Tell
Posted on 2nd January 2021
Learn how to research the history of your street (seminar in February 2021)
Glebe Society’s Aleppo pine has been on the move
Posted on 1st January 2021
In 2015, the Glebe Society donated a Gallipoli Pine to the University of Sydney and it was planted by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Michael Spence, on the eve of Anzac Day 2015. Unfortunately, the site where the sapling was planted was right in the middle of what was to become the Chau Chak Wing Museum, which unites the Nicholson and Macleay Museums and the University art collection under one roof. So ‘our’ pine was sent away on an extended vacation but has now been replanted near the main University gate and in front of the new Museum.
NSW Heritage protection is flawed
Posted on 29th December 2020
When the NSW Heritage Act was introduced in 1977 it was a turning point in the protection of our built heritage. However, all is not as it should be, and important heritage listed buildings in Glebe continue to deteriorate.
Heritage Conservation Areas – Repainting Guidelines
Posted on 29th December 2020
Thinking of repainting? The City of Sydney has guidelines for repainting, if your house is in a heritage conservation area.
Plans to shrink the St Phillips Heritage Conservation Area will undermine heritage values, liveability and amenity
Posted on 29th December 2020
The Society has lodged an objection the NSW Government s plans to remove the parts of the St Phillips Heritage Conservation Area, paving the way for building heights up to the equivalent of eight storeys. T
HOT TOPIC: Give us back Glebe Island Bridge – Meeting on 3 December 2020
Posted on 5th November 2020
On 3rd December 2020 it will be 25 years since the Glebe Island Bridge closed. Invitation to be part of action to lobby for the it to be restored and reopened for pedestrians and cyclists.
