Preliminary plans for stores and offices, O'Connell and Bligh Streets, Sydney, ca. 1884 / by Benjamin Backhouse

PXE 1031

fonds

ca. 1884

899574

2 architectural drawings - 26.5 x 38.9 cm and smaller - ink on linen

Benjamin Backhouse (1829-1904), an architect and parliamentarian, was born in England where he trained under his father as a stonemason and builder. He emigrated to Victoria in 1853 where he worked as a builder and later as an architect and surveyor in Geelong and Ballarat. After returning to England in 1860, he arrived in Brisbane in 1861 where he worked as an architect and became an alderman, before moving to Sydney in 1868. He was elected an independent member of the NSW Legislative Council in 1895 and remained a member until his death in July 1904.

Backhouse developed a large architectural practice with branches in Newcastle and Bathurst. He was secretary of the Institute of Architects of New South Wales in 1871-73 and was made an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1886.

References:
Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition - http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/ (accessed 30 June 2010)
MLMSS 861

1. Elevation to Bligh Street - elevation of a four storey building showing entrances to stores and offices and cartway.

2. Elevation of a five storey building showing entrance to offices, cartway, and entrance to Elliot Bros. [i.e. Brothers]

Out of copyright: Artist died before 1955

Scale 1 inch = 16 feet

Title taken from plans

These plans were probably drawn for Elliott Brothers Limited, a wholesale druggist firm. Some time between 1884 and 1886 they moved into premises in Bligh and O’Connell Streets, Sydney. The Sands Sydney and suburban directory for 1884 lists this business at 72-74 Pitt Street. The 1886 directory lists them at 33 Bligh Street and 18 to 22 O’Connell Street.

These drawings were probably not used for the buildings that were erected at 33 Bligh Street and 18 to 22 O'Connell Streets, Sydney. Photographs of the Elliott Brothers premises in 1915 show a five storey building in Bligh Street and a six storey building in O'Connell Street. A tender appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on 17 March 1884 by Rowe and Green, Architects, Vickery Chambers, Pitt Street, for the erection of a block of buildings for Elliott Brothers, wholesale druggists, comprising a warehouse, with offices fronting O’Connell Street, and stores at rear of same fronting Bligh Street.

References:
Sands' Sydney and suburban directory for ... : containing street, alphabetical, trade and professional directory, together with a miscellaneous directory of useful information. Sydney : J. Sands, 1873-1900
Fluid extracts : manufactured by Elliott Brothers Ltd., wholesale druggists and manufacturing chemists : Sydney & Brisbane. 2nd ed.. [Sydney] : Elliott Brothers, [ca. 1915]
The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 March 1884, p. 2 on Trove, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ (accessed on 28 May 2010)

Inscribed in red ink 'B. Backhouse Archt., Belmore Chambers, Sydney'