Lindesay, Darling Point

Lindesay is a heritage-listed former residence and now offices, functions and house museum located at 1a Carthona Avenue, Darling Point, Sydney, Australia. It was designed by James Chadley and Edward Hallen (attributed), Francis Clarke and Robertson & Marks (service wing) and built from 1834 to 1836. The property is owned by the National Trust of Australia (NSW). It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. Lindesay was the first major house to be constructed on Darling Point and is aesthetically important as the earliest example of the domestic Gothic Revival style in Sydney. Some of its residents were colourful figures who played an important part in the history of New South Wales.

Originally known by its Aboriginal name Yarranabbee, Darling Point was named Mrs Darling's Point by Governor Ralph Darling in honour of his wife, Eliza. At that time the area was heavily timbered, but after New South Head Road was built in 1831 timber cutters felled most of the trees, and the land was subdivided. Most of the plots, covering 9-15 acres in this area, were taken up between 1833 and 1838. The suburb later became known as Darling Point. Several notable people bought land and built homes here, including surveyor-general Sir Thomas Mitchell's Carthona and one-time home Lindesay.

Mrs Darling's Point was named by Surveyor Larmer, who did the original survey (on 11 September 1833 nine allotments were laid out).

The first land grant was made in 1833 to a Thomas Holt. In 1833 "villa allotments" were advertised for sale at "Mrs Darling's Point". There were soon several cottages and villas built in the area, but from the 1840s more grandiose mansions arose as the colony's most successful businessmen bought up land on the point. ....

Lindesay is an 1834–36 house built for the then colony's Treasurer, Campbell Drummond Riddell (b.1796 – a young and well-connected Scotsman) and his wife Caroline (née Stuart Rodney, b.1814 in Ceylon, the 16-year-old daughter of the Government Secretary in Colombo) on a site of c. 6.9 hectares (17 acres) of land with stables, outbuildings and garden sweeping down to the harbour. The property took two years to complete.

It was designed as a villa – typically a free-standing rectangular block which presents a different, self-contained facade on each side. This was a style much favoured by professional families at the time in rural Britain but, although bearing similarities to designs in English Regency Pattern Books, the design of Lindesay is simpler, reflecting a mix of Scottish austerity with a good dose of colonial disregard for convention. This very simplicity could possibly be read as a snub to Governor Bourke, who was rapidly becoming persona non grata for Riddell and others in colonial society and whose plans for a new Government House were "modern Gothic" and ornate, to say the least. The design owed much to contemporary pattern books and was also attributed initially to James Chadley and Edward Hallen, although the work was completed under the direction of Francis Clarke. It was named in honour of Colonel Patrick Lindesay (1778–1839) who was acting governor of the colony from 22 October to 2 December 1831, between the departure of Governor Darling and the arrival of the next governor, Sir Richard Bourke. This Acting Governor reserved the 6.9 hectares (17 acres) for Riddell in 1834 and it is believed that this favour of reserving the land led Riddell to name the house after his friend, the fellow Scot, Patrick Lindesay.

The Riddells moved into Lindesay with their two-year-old son in 1836, but remained there only two years. Following their departure the property had a number of owners including Sir Thomas Mitchell who, as Surveyor-General in the 1830s, conducted three major expeditions into the interior of Australia. In 1841 he sold it to his friend Sir Charles Nicholson, an avid collector of rare books and antiquities and future chancellor of the University of Sydney. Nicholson housed his library, thought to be one of the largest private libraries in the colony, at Lindesay, with a special room set aside for his statues. In 1849 Nicholson sold to William Bradley, a wealthy pastoralist who had married Emily Hovell, daughter of explorer William Hovell. He died at Lindesay in 1868.

Additions to the house, new and altered outbuildings and changes to the property boundaries were made by successive owners throughout the 19th century, including James Barker (1838–41); Mitchell (1841–45); Nicholson (1845–59); William Bradley (1849–68); and John Macintosh (1868–1911).