Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021C01223:front:0:p88
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021C01223
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 260628–263463

and in the area from Hunter to King Street the Sands Sydney and Suburban Directory indicated that the majority of properties were being used as boarding houses or as offices for the medical profession.  In the 1882 Gibbs Shallard & Co's Illustrated Guide to Sydney the area is described as being lined with terraces "representing excellent specimens of domestic architecture." These were still to be seen in the drawing by Cedric Emanuel of the subject site prior to the construction of the Reserve Bank building in the 1960s.  A few of these terraces survive further north in Macquarie Street, indicating the earlier scale and character of the area.

Figure 50 - General view of Macquarie Street, c1871, photographer unknown.  Note the site of St Stephen's Church in Phillip Street is now occupied by the Reserve Bank of Australia Head office building.
Source: Historic Houses Trust, RB919.441 VIS Facing page 102 - Record no. 37195.

The development of Phillip Street was notably different.  It was much slower to develop retaining much unoccupied land up to the 1850s and its development included a lower class of terrace buildings.  An 1839 publication entitled "Picture of Sydney and Strangers Guide in NSW for 1839 " described Phillip Street as follows,  "perhaps (there is) no street in the town where the mason and house carpenter appear to have found less employment."[51]

Figure 51 - View of Phillip Street Sydney, looking south, c1885, photographed by Charles Bayliss. The spire of St Stephen's Church, Phillip Street, is visible to the left of St James Anglican Church spire.
Source: SLNSW, SPF/578, IE1228587

By the mid-1860s the southern section of Phillip Street (between Hunter and King Street) accommodated the United Presbyterian Church (which later became St Stephen's), the White Hart Inn together with various cottages and small businesses.  The Sands Directory confirms buildings were occupied by a painter, blacksmith, dressmaker and a letter-carrier.

During the 1880s the character of Phillip Street changed dramatically when a number of small building were demolished, making way for the construction of larger buildings and factories.  In 1881 John Starkey, who had since the 1860s operated a cordial manufacturing business in Phillip Street, purchased land large area of land on the southern side of St Stephen's Presbyterian Church and established Starkey's Aerated Water and Cordial Company.  The cordial factory continued until the site was taken over in 1914 by Hughes Motor Garage.  'Selborne Chambers', a three-storey office building was constructed in 1896 to house members of the legal profession.  Mrs Lucy Weir ran a boarding house on the southern side of Starkeys' Factory from 1904 to 1912 and the Georgian town house, formerly St James' Parsonage, located on the southern side of St Stephen's