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Argyle Cut

Location: City Center > Sydney Harbour > The Rocks, Show Map
Connecting Sydney Cove with Darling Harbour and Millers Point, the Argyle Cut was borne out of a necessity to ease transport across The Rocks and thus help trade, as well as benefiting the community at large. Initially hewn from sandstone by convict labour (with just hammers and chisels as tools), such was the scale of the task that some twenty years after the project began, it was completed in 1867 only with the help of explosives.

By overcoming such a geographical barrier, the Argyle Cut was, in essence, a rudimentary form of town planning and urban development. Of course, from a historical perspective, its success as one of early Sydney's most impressive engineering feats was offset by the Argyle Cut's somewhat dark and foreboding nature (which lent itself to criminal activity, with the immediate area becoming home to all sorts of undesirables, including thugs, petty gangsters and vermin). Indeed, at one stage an outbreak of plague forced the city's authorities to sanitize the whole area.

Today, the Argyle Cut is an important feature in The Rocks conservation area, not least because of its significance in aiding the development of Sydney's maritime and mercantile precincts, which in turn, spurred on the development of Darling Harbour and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Argyle Place

Location: City Center > Sydney Harbour > The Rocks > Argyle Street, Show Map
As an idyllic, and somewhat unusual enclave within Sydney's Millers Point, Argyle Place is a stretch of gardens lined with 19th-century houses and cottages, topped and tailed at either end with a pub and church. Overlooked on its northern side by Observatory Hill, the area was given its name in 1810 by Lachlan Macquarie who, having previously been a resident of the Scottish town of the same name, become Governor of Sydney in April 1809.

In amongst the many charming period dwellings, you'll find examples of well-kept Victorian terraced housing, whilst nearby in Lower Fort Street are a mixture of colonial, Georgian and Regency style buildings. In fact, given the architecture here as a whole, you could be forgiven for thinking that you'd stepped back in time to 19th century Edinburgh or London. Indeed, on the corner of Lower Fort Street is the Hero of Waterloo Hotel (1845), while nearby is another pub dedicated to a famous English war hero - The Lord Nelson.

Argyle Stores

12-20 Argyle Street, The Rocks, NSW 2000, Show Map
As an architecturally significant group of solid sandstone warehouses dating from the mid-1820s, the Argyle Stores are an important part of Sydney's early history. Being constructed just 40 years after the first settlement, their character stands out to this day with a basic structure of solid wooden beams, floors and pillars.

The Stores, which are found opposite Harrington Street, now house a collection of upscale gift and souvenir shops, together with several fashion shops, cafés and restaurants. Certainly, if you're planning a visit, they make for an interesting aside to some of the bigger sights in Sydney, especially as the architectural merits of each building make it worthwhile to spend time here. And, on scorching hot days, it's worth knowing that you can parch your thirst at the city's best known German restaurant, the lively Löwenbräu Keller.

Art Gallery of NSW

Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000, Tel: (+61 2) 9225 1744, Website: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au, Open daily*: 10am-5pm, with late closing every Wednesday at 9pm (Art After Hours), * except Good Friday and Christmas Day, Public Transport: bus 441 or Sydney Explorer Bus to stop no. 6, train to St James or Martin Place stations, Show Map
The early 1870s had been a tumultuous period in European history, with all of the negative consequences upon French and German society that the Franco-Prussian War entailed. Permeating (as it often did) into the art and culture scene of the time, such was the upheaval in Europe that debate raged as far afield as Australia, with the first artistic soirée of the New South Wales Academy on 7th August 1871 culminating in the showing of photographs of a burning Louvre in Paris. The famous exhibition halls, which had come to symbolize (the world over) Europe's dominance in the field of arts, had suffered a dreadful fire as a result of its buildings being used as a makeshift arsenal.

Eliezer Montefiore, a founding member of the Academy, had drawn attention to the devastation in Paris which, in turn, led to debate in Australian cultural circles as to how an Academy for Art "for the purpose of promoting the fine arts through lectures, art classes and regular exhibitions" could be established.

Less than eight years later, a 'Fine Arts Annexe' to the enormous Crystal Palace was erected to house the state collection of art during the International Exhibition of 1879. Constructed of iron and timber, it was situated where the glass pyramid in the Botanic Gardens now stands. After the close of the exhibition, the Annexe was officially opened as the 'Art Gallery of New South Wales', though within just four years, it was found to be infested with termites. Its problems were further exacerbated by safety concerns and widespread damp. Consequently, lobbying by the trustees for a permanent home for the national art collection began in earnest. Their cause gained further weight by the fire which destroyed the Crystal Palace, coupled with the fact that Melbourne had established its own art gallery in 1861.

The importance of the latter should not be underestimated, as traditional rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne was well-known. To Sydneysiders, it was imperative that their city should possess a collection of art worthy of Australia's mother colony. To this end, ten prominent local men were appointed officers of the new Academy of Art, with the task of re-investing Sydney's new found wealth into worthy cultural endeavours. Needless to say, the Gallery's founders were men who vehemently believed in the ennobling power of art. Giving their time and money in support of the cause, numerous designs for the art gallery's eventual home were first submitted by John Horbury Hunt. The trustees' decision to appoint Hunt, however, an architect in private practice, was to prove controversial at the time.

Indeed, their faith in Hunt proved ill-judged as, following the collection's move to a building of six rooms on the present site in the Domain, his grandiose designs for a gallery "not exceeding £80,000" were all rejected (this was largely due to the trustees desire to build a classic ionic structure, whereas Hunt had first submitted plans for a Tuscan column lined building, then a Gothic type structure with pointed arches winding around it). Instead, the task was given to Walter Vernon who, despite having his own initial designs rejected, was entrusted to build a classical style gallery, though the final building lacked the extensive sculptural ornamentation originally envisaged.

Following the turn-of-the-century, Vernon's designs were not expanded upon beyond the early Greek style southern half of the building (roughly a quarter of the intended overall structure). There was no northern gallery to correspond with the southern watercolour gallery and the Great Depression of the 1930s led to the abandonment of further work.

It was not until 1968 that plans to complete the building were put forward by the New South Wales Government as a major constituent of the Captain Cook Bicentenary celebrations. Architect Andrew Anderson was entrusted to implement the ambitious project, which opened to the public in November 1970. A further extension of the structure was undertaken as part of the National Bicentenary in 1988, doubling the size of the gallery. As well as providing a display space for permanent collections and temporary exhibitions, there was also a new gallery for Asian art and an outdoor sculpture garden. More recently, the Yiribana gallery, a space devoted to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture, was opened in 1994.

Today, you'll find varied collections covering Australian art from early colonial times to the present, with a separate selection of Aboriginal Art (see above). An Asian gallery (on the first-floor) features Chinese and Japanese art from ancient times to the present, with background on the spread of Buddhism from India across central Asia to Southeast Asia, China and Japan. A Western Collection features European art dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries, while on a separate level you'll find works by British masters, as well as contemporary paintings from European modernists.

In addition, the art gallery hosts an impressive calendar of events, with temporary exhibitions that include those on contemporary Aboriginal art, young Australian artists, Old European masters and 19th Century impressionist paintings, while every Wednesday, the art.afterhours series of events, features talks, concerts, jazz and film showings.

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Sydney Sights - Argyle Cut, Argyle Place, Argyle Stores, Art Gallery of New South Wales

Argyle Cut

Argyle Place

Argyle Stores

Art Gallery of NSW