Annandale property

The Johnstons and Annandale House

The land that became Annandale was granted to Major George Johnston. He had arrived in the colony on the Lady Penrhyn, a First Fleet ship that carried convicts from England. His grant covered 600 acres around what are now Annandale and Stanmore, and it was known for a time as Johnston's Bush. He later gave it the name Annandale, taken from Annan in Scotland, the place of his birth.

Johnston's wife was Esther Abrahams, who had been one of the convicts aboard the Lady Penrhyn. The two of them farmed the property with their children. In 1799 they built a residence they called Annandale House, set back some way from Parramatta Road. Its original gates were kept and rebuilt at Annandale Public School, close by on Johnston Street. The house itself was demolished in 1905.

The estate passed to Johnston's son Robert, and in 1877 Robert sold it to John Young, a businessman, architect and mayor. The name of George Johnston lives on in Johnston Street and Johnston Lane, and in Johnstons Creek and Johnstons Bay.

John Young's suburb

Young set out to turn the old estate into an attractive suburb, and he built a number of picturesque houses to do it. One was Kenilworth, which had a "witch's cap" roof of a kind common in that period of architecture. Young rented the house to Henry Parkes, a former Premier of New South Wales and father of Federation.

Kenilworth was part of a group that also took in The Abbey, Oybin, Greba, Hockingdon and Highroyd, together with Rozelle and Claremont, both of which have since gone. The towers of some houses in the group put people in mind of witches' hats, and the houses are popularly known as "witches houses". A restoration of Highroyd took twenty years and was completed in 2009, supervised by a heritage architect, and that year it was nominated for a heritage award from the New South Wales chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects.

Kentville stood in the area too, a house John Young made for himself, with three hectares (seven acres) of garden beside Rozelle Bay. He bought that land in 1877, and it included a cottage that Robert Johnston had built. Young enlarged the cottage and gave the property the name Kentville after his home county in the United Kingdom. He also laid a bowling green there and opened it to the public.

The Abbey

Among the houses Young built, The Abbey draws the most attention. He gave his imagination free rein, and the result is a stone mansion in the Gothic Revival style, modelled on Scottish manors. It carries a copper-clad tower, a cloister, turrets, chimneys, quatrefoils, lions, gargoyles, arches and gables.

A rumour said Young might have taken gargoyles from the cathedral he built, St Mary's, though nothing proved it. Young held the highest Masonic rank in Australia, and Masonic themes are worked into The Abbey; the building may have served him as a Masonic Lodge. After his death a succession of tenants divided the house into flats and flatettes. A new owner bought it in 1959 and restored it. The house was listed on the Register of the National Estate, a register that no longer exists.

Council, streets and heritage

Johnston Street has a distinction of its own: it was the first street in Sydney to be 30 metres wide. From 1879 Young sat on the Leichhardt Borough Council as an alderman, and he was mayor that year. After travels in Europe and Asia, Young returned in 1891 and led a secession movement. That movement brought about a borough council for Annandale. The Municipality of Annandale came into being on 2 January 1894.

In 1949 Annandale's municipality was merged into the Municipality of Leichhardt. The old council chambers now serve as the Annandale Neighbourhood Centre. Young had hoped to make Annandale a match for places such as Darling Point. He could not stop industries from growing or lots from being divided up. He died in 1907, and the land was subdivided further in the years after.

The suburb has passed through several social changes since: factory floors, a stopping point for migrants, an ageing population and, now, young families and small and micro businesses. Several sites are heritage listed, among them the Hunter Baillie Memorial Presbyterian Church and Goodman's Buildings on Johnston Street, Substation No. 15 at 182 Johnston Street, the sewer aqueduct in Hogan Park off Taylor Street and Sewage Pumping Station 3 on Booth Street.

Other historic buildings include the Annandale Council Chambers, built in 1899 at 79 Johnston Street, the Annandale Post Office, described as an example of the Federation Free Classical style, and North's Factory at 43 Trafalgar Street, the former Beale Piano Factory, described as the first and largest piano maker in Australia. An Annandale Heritage Festival runs every April as part of Australian Heritage Week.

Timeline

Living in Annandale

Annandale is bound by creeks on its eastern and western sides, with Sydney Harbour to the north. Johnston Street is 30 metres wide. The suburb has a long roll of heritage buildings, including Victorian semi-detached villas at 13-15 Collins Street. The Annandale Hotel is a live music venue for rock and indie bands.

Trafalgar Studios, at 74b Trafalgar Street, was where many influential Sydney bands recorded their albums, and it was demolished in 2018. The Eco-Annandale exhibition has run each year since 2009, with each year's group show taking up one aspect of ecological sustainability.