Sydney CBD · 1840 — 1849

Sydney CBD in the 1840s

Sydney's oldest surviving street views come from a set John Rae drew from life in 1842, the year before he was appointed the city's first full-time town clerk. This is the working colonial town a generation before its Victorian rebuild: unpaved streets, timber post-and-rail fencing, and buildings named down to the shopkeeper.

Rae worked his way around the town centre. King Street looking north passes T. B. Coveny's New Holland Grocery Warehouse, a wine vault at James Chambers, and the Harp & Shamrock advertising London porter on its sign. Hyde Park appears looking two different ways across the same open ground: one view lines up Lyons Terrace, Darlinghurst Gaol and the original Sydney Grammar School on the eastern rise; the other looks north to St Mary's Cathedral's Gothic tower and belfry, with the Woolloomooloo windmills turning on the ridge behind it. York Street runs south past the domed, colonnaded George Street Markets. Macquarie Street leads up to the castellated Government House, its paling fence enclosing the Domain down to the harbour and a sailing ship at anchor.

Rae's 1842 views come down to us through two different albums — one captioned close to the year itself, the other a later photographic reproduction bound in with other views of the old town, so the same scene can carry two different catalogue dates depending on which album you're reading. The pencilled captions name what stood where in either case, down to individual shopfronts and pub signs.

5 works
Government House and Macquarie Street, Sydney, 1842 — photograph, from Government House, circa 1842
photograph·1870·Sydney CBD

Government House and Macquarie Street, Sydney, 1842

Views of Old SydneyBayliss, Charles, 1850-1897; Freeman Brothers; John Rae (original drawings)
Hyde Park, Sydney, in 1842, with Lyons Terrace on the skyline — illustration, from Hyde Park, circa 1842
illustration·1870·Sydney CBD

Hyde Park, Sydney, in 1842, with Lyons Terrace on the skyline

Views of Old SydneyBayliss, Charles, 1850-1897; Freeman Brothers; John Rae (original drawings)
King Street looking north, Sydney, 1842 — illustration, from King Street, circa 1842
illustration·1870·Sydney CBD

King Street looking north, Sydney, 1842

Views of Old SydneyBayliss, Charles, 1850-1897; Freeman Brothers; John Rae (original drawings)
York Street, the George Street Markets and old Corporation offices, 1842 — illustration, from York Street, circa 1842
illustration·1842·Sydney CBD

York Street, the George Street Markets and old Corporation offices, 1842

Views in old SydneyRae, John, 1813-1900
Hyde Park, with old St Mary's Cathedral and the Woolloomooloo windmills — illustration, from Hyde Park, circa 1842
illustration·1842·Sydney CBD

Hyde Park, with old St Mary's Cathedral and the Woolloomooloo windmills

Views in old SydneyRae, John, 1813-1900