A Hoi Hoi

A few weeks back P and I did a bit of a tour of Historic Houses in Sydney trying to knock a few things of The List. First up was lovely Elizabeth Bay House.

The main reason why it has taken me so long to put this one up is because I didn't know what to write really and didn't think I could properly explain the history of the houses, I'll let the photos do the talking. There are great views from both houses and the Historic Houses Trust always do well with their museums with furnishing their houses and the staff are always informative.

A marble bust of Macleay in in the library, he doesn't often have a knitted rat on his head it was part of an art installation throughout some of the museums in Sydney.

 

Each room is furnished as it may have been when it was originally built, with separate rooms for Husband and Wife, reading rooms and foyer for greeting guests. Elizabeth Bay House changed hands many times and was an artists commune in the 70's where the rooms were split and squatters moved in. 

About a 20 minute drive from Elizabeth Bay House is Vaucluse House. The house doesn't have an entrance to the museum as such, you come up the side of the property and go through this little shed thing (more of a building really) so the start of the tour is from the kitchen. This is because of the way the house evolved from a small house consisting of the main living area then with add-ons to the mansion today.

 

Money ran a little short towards the end of the build. looking towards the staircase. Marble busts of Will Wentworth and his wife Sarah are positioned where the front entrance would have been, looking to the grand stairwell.

 

Main living area which was the only part of the house when originally built.

People had a fair amount of time to create elaborate things of out shells.

Two more places off The List. I'll probably go back to both houses again. We only caught a bit of the tour at Elizabeth Bay House and we forgot to see The Grotto!. 

 

Also, Macleay (Elizabeth Bay House) and Wentworth (Vaucluse House) have buildings named after them at Sydney University for the science-y type work and their houses were kind of rivals at the time. Apparently they would not have been all buddy buddy though because Wentworth was born out of wedlock and his wife was a commoner. I think Vaucluse House was better though, mainly because of the history of the building and you can see how much it changed as the family changed.

- A