Caroline Simpson Collection

Drawing room, Normanhurst, Randwick, 1909 / photographer unknown

1909

1 photoprint : silver gelatin bromide ; 16 x 21 cm.

One of 9 photographs in a loose-leaf album, labelled by hand on the cover: "Normanhurst, Randwick, 1909". Each photo mounted by cut band corners and individually labelled. This photograph titled 'Drawing room'. The inside cover of the album is annotated, in biro: "Mr & Mrs Alexander Forbes / Allison Rd Randwick Course / Sydney / Mother's brother / House now gone".

Normanhurst (Randwick, N.S.W.)
Alison Road (Randwick, N.S.W.)
mansions
drawing rooms
jardinieres
potted palms
cornices
painted ceilings
domestic interiors
tasselled fringes
easy chairs
loose covers
mantelpieces
Kirkpatrick, John, 1856-1923.

Normanhurst album

The mansion Normanhurst was built in 1887 in Alison Road, Randwick, on the corner of Cowper Street overlooking Randwick racecource. It was designed in an Italianate style by the architect John Kirkpatrick (1856-1923) - an influential member of the NSW architectural establishment, with a career spanning over 40 years - and was built for Humphrey Oxenham (1854-1923), a prosperous bookmaker and gambler. Accounts of the house were published in 'The Builder & Contractor's News' on 21 May 1887 and 'The Illustrated Sydney News' on 15 April 1893. The latter described the drawing room as "a splendid apartment, measuring 25 ft by over 30ft [with] a mantelpiece of pure white statuary marble".
By 1909 when this photograph was taken Normanhurst was the home of Emma Matilda Forbes (1855-1921) and her husband Alexander Forbes (1864-1919). Emma, who was a beneficiary of the estate of wealthy Australian pastoralist James Tyson (1819-1898), had reportedly purchased Normanhurst from Oxenham for 20,000 pounds including furniture, carriages etc. [ref. Sydney Morning Herald 6 December 1901 p.8]

Pauline Curby Randwick Randwick City Council, 2009, p.153.

Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection ; CSL&RC PIC 1994/1

You may save or print this image for research and study. If you wish to use it for any other purposes, you must contact Museums of History NSW to request permission.

Picture

31555