By Virginia Simpson-Young, for Bulletin 2/2026 (April)
At his recent talk on the pubs of Glebe, Max Solling spoke about William Stanley Jevons’ (1835-1882) remarkable 1858 document on Sydney’s social geography, particularly his observations of Glebe, made during one of his many exploratory walks:
Jevons observed a pattern of social segregation which represented Glebe’s three broad social precincts, noting ‘Glebe Road, a pleasant wooded road leading to the rural first-class suburb of Glebe Point’, and, according to his typology, featuring ‘country villas or mansions’. Jevons, a systematic and imaginative observer and speculator on causes, recorded in his notebook that ‘The frontage of Parramatta street was occupied by shops or public houses doing a large trade, since they are the first and last which the traffic along the road meets with’. [Jevons] returned to England to become one of their greatest economists.
Max urged his audience to read Jevons’ ‘Remarks upon the Social Map of Sydney,1858’. This article reproduces what Jevons wrote about Glebe. Having said that, it is well worth reading his entire notebook which is available online at State Library NSW. It comes in two forms: images of the original handwritten pages [1] and a transcription by the Library’s Jacqueline Lamprecht [2].
A covering note to Jevons’ notebook by his daughter Winefrid Jevons explains that ‘This is the original [manuscript] of Professor William Stanley Jevons’ Investigation into conditions in Sydney in 1858 and preparation for a Social Map (which has not been found).’ Winefrid goes on to say that parts of the manuscript were published in multiple instalments in the Sydney Morning Herald in late 1929. The first instalment [3] is an introduction by Winefrid that provides an excellent background. Sadly, Jevons died before his Social Map was completed but we are fortunate to have access to his notes.
William Stanley Jevons took up a position as assayer at the new Sydney Mint on his arrival in NSW in 1854. According to State Library NSW, Jevons ‘became a pioneer in scientific meteorology, publishing his observations in Sydney newspapers. In 1857 Jevons took up wet-plate photography, producing portraits, interiors and landscapes. In 1858 he undertook a ‘social survey’ of Sydney. Jevons left Sydney in 1859, returning to England where he went on to publish studies in logic, economics and scientific method.’ [1]
Jevons’ notebook reflects his formulation of ‘the basic premises of his theory of political economy’ [4]. Pages 1 to 6 describe his ‘attempt to represent the variations of social rank [in Sydney], and the division of the town into its social districts, the separation of these ranks into distinct districts’. ‘The inhabitants of this town are first considered with regard to their residence; they are supposed to be divided into three social ranks’. The social survey described is the basis for the social map that was never completed, although some such maps are included in the notebook for some locales.
Markers of class
To make sense of the upcoming extract about Glebe, it helps to understand Jevons’ framework connecting a person’s (i.e, a man’s) social class with where, and in what, they lived, as per the table below (page numbers are for the transcription [2]):
| Class | Inhabitant’s position | Location (in relation to Sydney city) | Features of their residence |
|---|---|---|---|
| First class | ‘the first ... includes all who may be regarded as gentlemen or ladies, including mercantile men, clerks, & other chief employees, professional men, chief shopkeepers, independent gentlemen etc. (p2) | ‘The suburban first class districts follow somewhat the trend of the high land and are generally very distinctly separated from the lowest class residences.’ (p3) | ‘Houses of superior size & appearance belonging to the upper class including merchants, chief shopkeepers, clerks, professional men, etc. Also, when in the country, Mansions or villa residences ... of considerable size, & separately & specially erected.’ p.4 |
| Second class | The second class ... includes most mechanics or skilled artisans, shopkeepers, shopmen, etc. (p2) | ‘Second class residences are more numerous & equally diffused, but are most thickly placed in intermediate districts at a short distance from the central parts of the town.’ (p3) | ‘Houses of limited size, 4 or 5 rooms, occupied by respectable tradesmen, shopmen, journeymen & other employees.’ p.42 |
| Third class | ‘The third or remaining class ... comprises labourers, and the lower orders.’ | ‘Third class residences collect about a few distinct centres, or form part of the town peculiar to themselves, generally in the lowest or least desirable localities. In general, third class residences appear of considerable age showing that the land has been long located.’ (p4) | ‘Houses inhabited only by labourers & others of low class standing, as evidenced by the small size & dirty disorderly condition.’ (p42) |
Jevons’ observations of Glebe
The notebook consists of descriptions of and thoughts about locations he visited during excursions from Sydney city to nearby suburbs, and further afield to the Illawarra, Goulburn, Melbourne and Ballarat. Interspersed between these trips are further observations of localities within Sydney city proper. On 2 December 1858, Jevons visited Glebe ([2], pps.31-33):
Crossing Darling Harbour by the newly erected & very respectable bridge which now reaches across it, I walked around Pyrmont which is a suburban village upon a point of land hitherto almost disconnected with Sydney except by water carriage. [Then,] passing over Black Wattle Swamp Cove, by the embankment & bridge which are being constructed, I reached the better part of the Glebe & Glebe Point.
The Glebe is a thickly populated suburb chiefly of recent date. The part which I now describe is bounded on the East by the Black Wattle Swamp creek on the South by Parramatta Street & on the West by the Glebe [Point] Road. A somewhat distinct part of older date than the rest is that between Bay Street & the Creek [This is the area, now in Ultimo, that was subject to the 1906 Athlone Place ‘slum clearance’ resumption – Ed.]. It contains the slaughter houses which supply Sydney with almost the whole of the butchers meat consumed within it; these border the creek, and the waters of which bear away all the filthy refuse of the slaughter, becoming thereby thickened & coloured a light coffee brown tint. The foul mud deposited in the channel, giving off a fearful stench render this place as unhealthy & disgusting to one and all the senses as can well be conceived.
Yet on one side are a number of small streets or alleys, thickly built up with small cottages, situated but a few feet above the creek waters; they are almost entirely, as might be expected, of the third class & of considerable age. The frontage to Parramatta street is chiefly occupied by wretched wooden buildings, & small shops. The remainder of the Glebe to the East of Bay Street is of no very wholesome or healthy [appearance] being scarcely raised above the level of the Creek & the flat shores of the Cove, but to the West of Bay Street this land rises and a marked & agreeable change takes place. Numerous small cottages or well built rows of small houses chiefly of brick or stone are here found. They are pretty newly built and are not unduly crowded while the main streets or at least the corners are occupied by substantial built shops of 2 or 3 stories. Bay Street is wide & well placed for the limited traffic which must pass along it. …
In proceeding further away from Sydney the [appearance] of the Glebe … improves further. There are innumerable small cottages of wood or brick probably built by the inmates, and though very little durable, still for the present unobjectionable. Near the angle of Parramatta & Glebe roads is a slight hollow rather densely covered by rows of small houses. Some of these are of third class rank but the rest of the Glebe belongs to the second with the exception of a certain number of first class houses bordering the Glebe Road. This is a pleasant wooded road leading to the rural first class suburb of Glebe point, but from the sale of land on both sides of it, the first class rank in this part is not maintained.
Excepting that the Glebe is almost entirely removed from business traffic & is contaminated by the slaughter houses, it has much analogy with Woolloomooloo, containing a similar arrangement of the several classes, chiefly alluding to elevation.
The frontage to Parramatta Street is of course occupied by shops or public houses doing a large trade, since they are the first or last which the traffic along the Parramatta road meets with. The innumerable small houses recently erected with great haste & often of the worst materials must soon deteriorate & become both unsightly & unwholesome. There is an old corn mill in the Glebe but with the exception of such domestic work as dressmaking, tailoring, washing, shoe making, etc there is no manufacturing industry carried on. There are a few retail shops, & some building yards.
Jevons’ next notebook entry is titled ‘Sydney by Night’. Further entries are for Newtown, Enmore, Sydenham and the Cooks River area. Then, after some further notes – this time documenting locations of particular professions – he moves on to a social survey of Goulburn, followed by Melbourne, Ballarat and the Illawarra region. These include maps that represent many of the classifications he developed and described.
Why the title, ‘Then as now’? It is often observed that Glebe has (broadly) three socioeconomic (‘class’) groups that are (broadly) arranged geographically. The spatial distribution of those groups is not so different to that described by Jevons in 1858.
References: 1. [Catalogue entry for images of notebook pages] William Stanley Jevons – ‘Remarks upon the Social Map of Sydney, 1858’, bound with 3 maps, 1854-1859. State Library NSW; 2. Jevons, W.S., Remarks upon the Social Map of Sydney,1858 [transcribed by Jacqueline Lamprecht], State Library NSW. 3. ‘Sydney in 1858’, in The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 November 1929. p16. 4. White, M.V., ‘Jevons In Australia: A Reassessment’. Economic Record, 1982. 58: p. 32-45.
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