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Swifts, Darling Point
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Swifts, Darling Point
Swifts (also known as The Swifts) is a heritage-listed late-Victorian castellated Gothic Revival mansion located in the suburb of Darling Point, Sydney. Swifts is a rare survivor of a group of similar grand private residences sited on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour. It is described by the Australian Heritage Council as "perhaps the grandest house remaining in Sydney". Swifts was listed on the Register of the National Estate on 21 October 1980, and the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
The motto Perseverantia Palmam Obtinebit, being Latin for "perseverance gains the prize", is carved into the eastern façade of Swifts and seems to sum up the home as well as the lives of those who have lived in it.
Designed by G. A. Morrell, Swifts was built in stages from around 1873 to 1882 by Sir Robert Lucas Lucas-Tooth, the distinguished Australian brewer. In the 1880s, Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth had the house significantly remodelled in the style and likeness of his family home, Great Swifts Manor in Cranbrook, Kent. The house was subsequently purchased by Edmund Resch, also a brewer, and eventually bequeathed by his son Edmund Resch Jr to the Roman Catholic Church upon his death in 1963. In 1997, Swifts was acquired by the Moran family and, in what saved the home from a state of dereliction and possible destruction, underwent total restoration and renovation. Dr Shane Moran is the current owner.
Darling Point is located within the area of the Cadigal people, one of the Aboriginal clans of the Sydney region, and was known from at least 1795 as "Yarranabbe". The plan of land for sale at Darling Point in 1856 cites the Indigenous name for the point, and the name is listed in the Town and Country Journal's 'Aboriginal names of places' of 1878.
By the 1830s the vast majority of the harbour fronting land east of Darling Point was held by a small number of landholders, being principally the Cooper and Wentworth families, while at Double Bay, a government village had been reserved. At Darling Point, Governor Darling reserved the promontory for sale in 1831 at the suggestion of the Surveyor General, Thomas Mitchell. The area was subsequently surveyed into large villa allotments and referred to the promontory as 'Mrs Darling's Point' in respect to Eliza Darling, the wife of the Governor. However, the "Mrs" was dropped over time.
The first auction on the northern part of the promontory came on 11 October 1833 under the direction of Governor Darling's successor, Governor Bourke. At the sale, nine allotments varying in area between 2.4 and 6.1 hectares (6 and 15 acres) were offered. The reserve price per acre was A£10 but the average price actually paid was much higher at £34. Swifts is located on allotment four which was originally three point nine five hectares (nine point seven five acres) in size when it was purchased by Thomas Barker in November 1833. Barker also purchased the adjoining allotment of three point one four hectares (seven point seven five acres) at the same time. The total purchase price for the 6.9 hectares (17 acres) was £573.
With no development evidently having occurred, Barker's Darling Point grant was soon sold in 1835 to Thomas Icely. Icely had also acquired the neighbouring allotment of Lindesay at the time. Icely had been settled in the colony since 1822 and after an early dalliance in trading, went into pastoralism. The Darling Point grant, arguably the most favourably sited and extensive on the promontory, remained vacant. In the same year the Kent Brewery was opened on Parramatta Road at Blackwattle Bay. It was founded by John Tooth and his brother-in-law, Charles Newnham.
Meanwhile, Barker's two grants, within which Swifts is sited, had been purchased in 1838 by Thomas Urmson Ryder, a partner in the mercantile company Aspinall, Brown & Co. Ryder had the land subdivided into 14 lots suitable for villas and put up for auction in April 1840 as the DeLamere Estate, which netted some £13,531. With the northernmost allotments comprising the site of the future Swifts, ownership changed hands successively during the 1840s and 1850s through conveyance, mortgage or trusteeship, but no development ensued.
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Swifts, Darling Point
Swifts (also known as The Swifts) is a heritage-listed late-Victorian castellated Gothic Revival mansion located in the suburb of Darling Point, Sydney. Swifts is a rare survivor of a group of similar grand private residences sited on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour. It is described by the Australian Heritage Council as "perhaps the grandest house remaining in Sydney". Swifts was listed on the Register of the National Estate on 21 October 1980, and the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
The motto Perseverantia Palmam Obtinebit, being Latin for "perseverance gains the prize", is carved into the eastern façade of Swifts and seems to sum up the home as well as the lives of those who have lived in it.
Designed by G. A. Morrell, Swifts was built in stages from around 1873 to 1882 by Sir Robert Lucas Lucas-Tooth, the distinguished Australian brewer. In the 1880s, Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth had the house significantly remodelled in the style and likeness of his family home, Great Swifts Manor in Cranbrook, Kent. The house was subsequently purchased by Edmund Resch, also a brewer, and eventually bequeathed by his son Edmund Resch Jr to the Roman Catholic Church upon his death in 1963. In 1997, Swifts was acquired by the Moran family and, in what saved the home from a state of dereliction and possible destruction, underwent total restoration and renovation. Dr Shane Moran is the current owner.
Darling Point is located within the area of the Cadigal people, one of the Aboriginal clans of the Sydney region, and was known from at least 1795 as "Yarranabbe". The plan of land for sale at Darling Point in 1856 cites the Indigenous name for the point, and the name is listed in the Town and Country Journal's 'Aboriginal names of places' of 1878.
By the 1830s the vast majority of the harbour fronting land east of Darling Point was held by a small number of landholders, being principally the Cooper and Wentworth families, while at Double Bay, a government village had been reserved. At Darling Point, Governor Darling reserved the promontory for sale in 1831 at the suggestion of the Surveyor General, Thomas Mitchell. The area was subsequently surveyed into large villa allotments and referred to the promontory as 'Mrs Darling's Point' in respect to Eliza Darling, the wife of the Governor. However, the "Mrs" was dropped over time.
The first auction on the northern part of the promontory came on 11 October 1833 under the direction of Governor Darling's successor, Governor Bourke. At the sale, nine allotments varying in area between 2.4 and 6.1 hectares (6 and 15 acres) were offered. The reserve price per acre was A£10 but the average price actually paid was much higher at £34. Swifts is located on allotment four which was originally three point nine five hectares (nine point seven five acres) in size when it was purchased by Thomas Barker in November 1833. Barker also purchased the adjoining allotment of three point one four hectares (seven point seven five acres) at the same time. The total purchase price for the 6.9 hectares (17 acres) was £573.
With no development evidently having occurred, Barker's Darling Point grant was soon sold in 1835 to Thomas Icely. Icely had also acquired the neighbouring allotment of Lindesay at the time. Icely had been settled in the colony since 1822 and after an early dalliance in trading, went into pastoralism. The Darling Point grant, arguably the most favourably sited and extensive on the promontory, remained vacant. In the same year the Kent Brewery was opened on Parramatta Road at Blackwattle Bay. It was founded by John Tooth and his brother-in-law, Charles Newnham.
Meanwhile, Barker's two grants, within which Swifts is sited, had been purchased in 1838 by Thomas Urmson Ryder, a partner in the mercantile company Aspinall, Brown & Co. Ryder had the land subdivided into 14 lots suitable for villas and put up for auction in April 1840 as the DeLamere Estate, which netted some £13,531. With the northernmost allotments comprising the site of the future Swifts, ownership changed hands successively during the 1840s and 1850s through conveyance, mortgage or trusteeship, but no development ensued.
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