Werrington was designed by Emil Sodersten (born Sodersteen) who was a famous Sydney Architect of the 1930s-1940s. He was responsible for many famous Art-Deco buildings in Sydney including the City Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd’s offices (CML Building) in the city centre, Birtley Towers (1934) at Elizabeth Bay and the National War Memorial in Canberra.

Werrington is an early example of his work completed in 1930 and contrasts with another Sodersten design, Wychbury, alongside at number 5 Manning Street which was completed in 1934 –  by which time he had entirely embraced the new Art Deco style (or Continental Style as it was referred to at the time) and was responsible for some of the most flamboyant use of brickwork in Sydney.

Werrington on the other hand is much more restrained, having some elements of deco in the detailing – especially above the original entrance on Maning Street – but it also has ropework elements around the entrance which can be seen on another of his apartment 1930 buildings, “Cheddington” at 63 Elizabeth Bay Road,  that  was built in the Spanish Colonial Style. This was popular at the time, and can also be seen in the Northern building of the DeVere hotel opposite, which was later subsumed into the hotel structure.

Werrington interiors also reflected this transitional period with many of the apartments having federation-style moulded plaster ceilings created by mixing plaster and horse-hair. Presumably this was done to reflect the likely decor required by new owners who would probably be moving out of federation style homes.

Plan view showing structural beams and columns

Werrington is believed to be one of the earliest examples of a concrete framed building in Sydney, having massive beams and pillars to take the main weight of the building with the brickwork providing a facade. Like modern concrete buildings, it has a concrete slab between each floor with a false celing below and floorboard on joists above,  providing  sound proofing not found in earlier apartment buildings in the area, such as Kingsclere nearby that was completed in 1912.

Potts Point was originally one of the most sought-after and upmarket areas of Sydney with only a few very large mansions in their own grounds, amongst which was Tusculum. The house was set in 9 acres of land along the West side of Macleay Street. At one time it was home of Dr. W. G. Broughton, tho first Bishop of Sydney.

In 1901 the house and the land surrounding it were subdivided into smaller plots which were sold off for houses.

It doesn’t appear to have been a successful sale, however, because in 1904 the same sale is advertised again  – this time with 28 plots and the name Manning Street first appears replacing Tusculum Avenue on the earlier map.

The laneway between Tusculum and Macleay Street has also disappeared and Tusculum Mansion has been divided into two.

Interestingly, Albert Street which appears on other maps has also been re-named Hughes Street at some point in the early 1900s.

The Manning name comes from Sir William Manning, former Mayor of Sydney, who lived at Orwell on Macleay Street.

Trolley Bus No. 1

No.1 trolley bus was the first trolley bus to operate in Sydney, in 1934. Trolley buses are a cross between a conventional bus and a tram. They look like an ordinary motor bus on rubber wheels except that, like trams, they operated on electricity and were connected to overhead wires by a pair of trolley poles.

Werrington still has the mounting point for the wires embedded in the building facing Macleay Street

Unlike trams they were quiet, not confined to tracks, could move from lane to lane in traffic, and picked up passengers from the kerb rather than the middle of the road. Nevertheless, trolley buses in Sydney were worked by tram crews, they never carried motor vehicle registration, and passengers paid for travel on them by purchasing tram tickets. They acquired the nickname ‘whispering death’ because, being electrically driven on pneumatic tyres, they crept up on unwary passengers and pedestrians alike.

This trolley bus was one of two single-deck trolley buses introduced on an experimental service from Potts Point to the City in 1934. It was anticipated that the Sydney trolley buses would replace trams, but the Potts Point service initially suffered from de-wiring problem over the hilly terrain, and during road repairs in 1948 the trolley buses were replaced by diesel buses.

Following the Second World War Sydney’s very large tram network was gradually scrapped and by the late 1950s trams were largely replaced by diesel buses. Unfortunately the trolley buses became caught up in the tram scrapping policy and they too were all replaced by diesel buses in 1959.

Margaret Simpson Assistant Curator, Science & Industry, Powerhouse Museum

Originally, the address of the building was 7 Manning Street with the main entrance facing this street. There was a tradesman’s entrance on the side at 85 Macelay Street.

However, in the 1960s, we believe, the ground floor entrance was blocked off and converted into one large retail space. At the same time the tradesman’s entrance on Macleay Street was converted into a rather ugly main entrance and the wood panelling installed – the mirrors in the entrance lobby were likely to have been a later addition since mirror glass was still expensive and large panes difficult to produce until the development of  float glass production methods in the 1970s.

At one time this retail space was a pizza restaurant – hence the large metal chimney at the rear of the building which was installed to remove the odour from cooking.

This is the advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald when the apartments went on sale in December 1929:

What is interesting about this advertisement, which current occupiers might find hard to believe, is the promise of “Exceptional Harbour Views” – given the number of tall buildings that now surround Werrington.

However, this ariel photograph from the 1920′s below, shows that Kingsclare was the only other tall building in the area before Werrington was built.

Another ariel photo from the 1930′s shows Werrington (the dark building in the middle of the photo with a light area at the base) with Kingsclare and Byron Hall to the South but no tall buildings between Werrngton and the Harbour.

Another view taken in the late 50s shows some of the development on the Eastern side of Macleay Street but the white(?) entrance of Werrington can clearly be seen with no large buildings between it and the harbour.

However, by the 1960s, as the photo below shows, buildings had appeared all around Werrington, notably the Chevron Hotel to the North (now the IKON building).

Another aspect of the advertisement which could be confusing is that it  mentions 9 floors when the building is only 8 floors high.

This was because originally the ground floor had two apartments (one for the caretaker) either side of the entrance on Manning Street.

8th floor indicating changes from the original plan

Also the top floor is shown on the original drawings to be one large 4-bedroom unit with a double balcony.

However, someone (presumably the developer) has rather crudely drawn an additional wall across the living room to create a second one-bedroom apartment (801).