Work was commenced on the gates and gatekeeper’s lodge some time in 1819. Greenway’s design was in a picturesque Gothic style, featuring four crenellated corner turrets on the lodge and four matching gateposts. The lodge itself was topped by a steeply pitched gable roof with decorative crenellations and crockets. The building was a visual conceit, a folly that might well have graced the grand entrance to a country estate.
The work was done by various masons, including Ralph Oakes, who also wrestled with Greenway at Fort Macquarie and St James’ Church (see chapters 17 and 21). And as elsewhere, Greenway clashed with his workers. In a report to Major Druitt in December 1819, the architect unfolded a typical tale of woe. The ‘Adcock’ he refers to was actually Samuel Laycock, the overseer on the job:
About six months ago I made a Drawing of the Toll Gate with full instructions for the Pillars – to hang them, & desired them to be got ready with their casings – notwithstanding which Adcock has delayed it to the very last, when everything should have been ready to fix not a single Article is ready and we are now obliged to use Posts not large enough and giving ten times the trouble it would have given had they been got out as ordered by me in the Lumber yard at first …
In an unstated reference to the pressure of work he saw crowding in around him, Greenway ended on a typically disingenuous note, stating that ‘if I had been [attending] to the whole of it [the building] would have been long since finished and inhabited’.
But before the Commission of Inquiry, Ralph Oakes told of the struggle from the other side of the stonemason’s mallet and bolster:
I worked the Pinnacles of the Turnpike Gate house for Mr Greenway … Three or Four others were employed in the same work & recd Pay for it, as it was in their own time. Mr Greenway said that the Governor was so anxious to get it done, that I worked at it on Sundays.
The other men were paid, I think 3 or 4 shgs per Day for their work, but Mr Greenway has not paid me: I don’t know why he refuses for he certified my account & sent me to Major Druitt for Payment. The Major sent me back to Mr Greenway, saying that as it was he who employed me, he shd pay me or see me paid.
Minor as the project might have been, the decorative pretensions of the turnpike gates and gatekeeper’s lodge were a bit much for Commissioner Bigge. But like the Government House stables, the building on Parramatta Road was ‘too far advanced to admit of Suspension or abandonment’. And as with the rest of the governor’s indulgences, the gatehouse needed to ‘speedily be brought to such a state as to be rendered serviceable’ and no more.18
Straddling Parramatta Road, the turnpike gates and gatekeeper’s lodge were as conspicuous as any building in Sydney, and invited close scrutiny from all who paused to pay their toll. Henry Kitchen, for one, certainly looked and wondered, then demolished with sharp words this castle of frivolity. One blow and the crenellations and crockets came tumbling down, reduced to a ruin of bad taste. ‘This is another extravagantly expensive trifle’, Kitchen insisted to Bigge:
An attempt at an imitation of the florid gothic it is equally defective in design and execution – and while it must excite the derision of every one acquainted with [this] style of architecture, [it] must raise a strong emotion of regret at the vast comparative disbursements on this inelegant and fugacious toy.
Greenway’s turnpike gates and gatekeeper’s lodge operated until the mid-1830s, when a new tollgate was established at Annandale further to the west. Greenway’s building lasted only until the 1850s, when it was demolished and replaced with a police watch house. The description ‘fugacious toy’ became reality perhaps sooner than Kitchen might possibly have expected.
Obelisks, ‘temples round pumps’, ornate gatehouses, a pigeon house in the governor’s domain in Parramatta (attributed to Greenway), and an elaborate illuminated Chinese pagoda marking the entrance to Newcastle Harbour and the grim coalmines beyond: small projects all, but examples of a rather eccentric and at times crazy passion on the part of the Macquaries. Any sensitive andfashion-conscious aristocratic landowner of the day would decorate their estate with such picturesque or classical ornaments and so demonstrate their good taste. It was no different for the laird of New South Wales and his consort. Theirs was a limitless landscape canvas on which to indulge their whims, and far beyond the ken of Mr Bigge, or even their supporters among Sydney’s successful emancipists, the ambitious Macquaries continued to build and improve and dream. Perhaps their craziest and most eccentric fantasy rose on Bennelong Point at the entrance to Sydney Cove, the most picturesque site of all in the Macquaries’ estate.
Francis Howard Greenway. Date unknown and possibly a self-portrait.
Pastel, donated by Greenway’s granddaughter, Caroline Irving, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Calvert Richard Jones, Clifton Assembly Rooms. The original configuration of Greenway’s façade before unfortunate later 19th-century additions compromised its clarity and rhythm. Photograph, 1845, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Thornbury Castle, Gloucestershire. In 1803 Greenway exhibited a scheme at the Royal Academy of Arts for the restoration of the partly ruined castle. Thornbury also provides an intriguing link between Greenway and a possible relationship to the Duke of Norfolk.
Copper-plate engraving, 1784. Collection of the author.
Francis Greenway, untitled scene in the prison yard. Dated July 1812. Greenway’s access to paint, canvas and an easel during his incarceration seems to indicate that people of influence were helping to ease his passage through Bristol Newgate.
Oil on canvas, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Francis Greenway, The Mock Trial. Dated August 1812, this is the second of Greenway’s paintings undertaken while a prisoner in Bristol Newgate. The two works are unsigned although they are attributed to Greenway, having remained in the artist’s family for several generations.
Oil on canvas, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Robert Fabyan, The Chronicle of Fabian, Which He Nameth the Concordance of Histories …, London, 1559. The forger turned legitimate copyist – Greenway’s facsimile title page produced while imprisoned in Bristol Newgate, ca 1812.
National Library of Australia
Robert Fabyan, The Chronicle of Fabian, Which He Nameth the Concordance of Histories …, London, 1559. Verso of title page, one of 52 facsimile pages probably made for Charles Joseph Harford. At the bottom of the page is written: ‘This most accurate facsimile was done by F. Greenway when in Newgate before his being sent to Botany Bay …’
National Library of Australia
Edward William Cooke, Prison-ship in Portsmouth Harbour, Convicts Going Aboard. The prison hulk Captivity on which Greenway was held for perhaps five months or more would not have been dissimilar to the one illustrated by Cooke.
Hand-coloured etching, ca 1829, National Library of Australia
John Harris, Surgeon. Greenway and Harris most likely became acquainted on the convict transport General Hewett. Greenway began designing alterations and additions to Harris’s house, Ultimo, within months of his arrival in Sydney in 1814.
Artist unknown, miniature watercolour, ca 1790–1805, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Lachlan Macquarie. The governor had already been in office for approximately nine years when this portrait was executed, far longer than any of the previous four incumbents. It is one of three miniatures of Lachlan, Elizabeth and young Lachlan Macquarie presented to the governor’s aide-de-camp and close friend, Captain John Watts.
Artist unknown, miniature watercolour on ivory, ca 1819, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Elizabeth Henrietta Macquarie. The governor’s wife played a prominent role in the determination of fashion and taste in colonial New South Wales.
Artist unknown, miniature, watercolour on ivory, ca 1819, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Lachlan Macquarie, memorandum for Mr Greenway, 4 July 1817. The
governor’s instruction to Greenway to commence work on a fort ‘on the lower part of Bennelong’s Point’.
Greenway papers, A 1451, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Augustus Earle, Captain John Piper. One of Sydney’s wealthiest residents, Piper more than likely first met Greenway when returning to New South Wales aboard the General Hewett. His mansion, Henrietta Villa, for which Greenway may have been the architect, sits in the Arcadian splendour of the background.
Oil on canvas, ca 1826, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Joseph Lycett, Ultimo House, Sydney. Greenway added a stair hall and two-storeyed wings to John Harris’s original house. This watercolour is one of a collection of works by various artists once owned by Thomas Hobbes Scott, secretary to John Thomas Bigge during the official enquiry into the administration of New South Wales.
Watercolour, ca 1819–20, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Richard Read, Elizabeth Heneretta [sic] Villa. Greenway decorated several Masonic aprons for the foundation stone ceremony for Captain John Piper’s waterfront pile. His association with Piper possibly extended to the design of Henrietta Villa, but a falling-out following Greenway’s ignominious clash with Piper’s Masonic brother, Captain Edward Sanderson, might have seen Henry Kitchen take over as architect.
Watercolour, 1820, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Joseph Lycett, North View of Sidney [sic] … The Government House stables, the ‘palace for horses’ is perhaps intentionally depicted as the largest building in the town. The three forts – Phillip, Macquarie and the Dawes Point Battery – are clearly visible, as is the tower and spire of St James’ Church. Lycett was Greenway’s fellow transportee from the General Hewett.
Hand-coloured aquatint, 1825, National Library of Australia
Edward Close, The Military Barracks, Sydney. Greenway designed a mess house and a commissioned officers’ barracks as an addition to the existing military headquarters. In December 1816, the barracks and barrack square were the scene of a violent altercation between Greenway and Captain Edward Sanderson of the 46th Regiment.
Watercolour, 1817, National Library of Australia
Sydney Hospital, Macquarie Street. One of Greenway’s first tasks as acting civil architect was to report on the poor workmanship and structural problems in the new complex, the so-called ‘Rum Hospital’. Greenway was characteristically scathing in his criticism.
Photographer unknown, ca 1865, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Old and new Macquarie Lighthouse. Construction on the James Barnet–designed copy of Greenway’s Macquarie Tower began in 1881. Built of stronger materials, the new structure (right) deviated little from the form of Greenway’s building.
Photographer unknown, ca 1884, NSW Government Printer, National Library of Australia
South Head Light House. Even in a naïvely rendered illustration, the elegant simplicity of Greenway’s design for the Macquarie Tower is apparent. The building was part functional lighthouse and part prospect tower for the governor and his guests.
Artist unknown, watercolour, ca 1820s, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Augustus Earle, South Head and lighthouse, Port Jackson … with the approach of a southerly squall. Earle’s painting dramatically illustrates the importance of the lighthouse on South Head, sited on the highest point south of the entrance to Port Jackson.
Watercolour, ca 1825, National Library of Australia
Augustus Earle, Female penitentiary or factory, Parramata [sic] … Genteel pleasure on one bank of the Parramatta River, harsh confinement on the other side of the societal divide.
Watercolour, ca 1826, National Library of Australia
Thomas Phillips, Henry, 3rd Earl Bathurst. Bathurst was secretary of state for war and the colonies in Lord Liverpool’s Tory government from 1812 to 1827. He and Lachlan Macquarie held very different views regarding the development of the colony of New South Wales. From an original portrait.
Engraving by Henry Meyer, ca 1810, National Library of Australia
Richard Woodman, Reverend Samuel Marsden. The ‘flogging parson’ was no friend of emancipists such as Greenway.
Stipple engraving, 1835, National Library of Australia
George Edwards Peacock, Government House and Fort Macquarie from the Botanical Gardens. Greenway’s fort as a landscape folly complementing the later Edward Blore– designed Government House. The grand gubernatorial residence might have been a Greenway building had Macquarie not been hobbled by Lord Bathurst and the Colonial Office.
Oil on board, 1846, Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales
Henry King, Fort Macquarie, Bennelong Point. Watermen, the water-taxidrivers of the 1890s, wait for a fare alongside Greenway’s fort.
Government Printing Office, State Library of New South Wales
Charles Rodius, Government House, Sydney. The much altered and complained-of original governor’s residence, with additions by Greenway.
Watercolour, 1836, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Thomas Uwins, John Thomas Bigge. Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s nemesis, and by association that of Greenway as well. At the behest of the Colonial Office, Bigge spent from September 1819 to February 1821 enquiring into every aspect of the administration of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land.
Glazed ceramic panel, ca 1819, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Louis de Freycinet, Esquisse de la ville de Sydney: capitale des colonies anglaises, à la Nouvelle-Hollande: année 1823. French explorer Freycinet arrived in Sydney in November 1819 and was greatly impressed by the architecture of Sydney. St James’ Church and the Supreme Court; forts Phillip and Macquarie, and the Dawes Point Battery; Hyde Park Barracks; the market house; Macquarie Place, the hospital, Government House and the stables, are all clearly delineated.
Lithograph, National Library of Australia
Francis Greenway, Plan and Elevation of the Governor’s Stable and Offices at Sydney, New South Wales. Greenway is assumed to have been the author of this drawing.
Ink and wash, 1820, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Charles Pickering, Government House Stables. Premature and misplaced grandeur, a ‘palace for horses’ as the governor’s detractors described the building.
Photograph, 1871 (copy by Wesley Stacey, ca 1970), National Library of Australia
Major James Taylor, The Entrance of Port Jackson, and Part of the Town of Sydney. Macquarie’s ordered town. Of Greenway’s buildings, Fort Macquarie is clearly visible in the centre of Taylor’s depiction of Sydney, while his obelisk stands in Macquarie Place fronted by Government House and the residences of the colonial secretary, judge advocate and chief justice. The Government House stables are sited among dense foliage, and the Macquarie Tower is visible on the distant horizon.
Aquatint engraving, 1823, National Library of Australia
Robert Russell, Toll Gate and Benevolent Asylum, George Street South. Greenway’s adversary Henry Kitchen described the tollgates and gatekeeper’s lodge as a ‘fugacious toy’. The benevolent asylum was designed and built by bricklayer Frank Lawless, one of several tradesmen with whom Greenway clashed.
Hand-coloured lithograph, 1836, National Library of Australia
Robert Russell, Prisoners’ Barracks, Hyde Park. A fragment of a grander town plan. The barracks viewed from St James’ Church, with the two buildings in formal conversation.
Hand-coloured lithograph, 1836, National Library of Australia
John Rae, George Street Looking North Past the Market House. Greenway imagined a grand town hall and market place on the site, and was disgusted by the compromises made under Commissioner Bigge’s influence. To him, the dome of the market building was fit only for an outhouse. In the foreground lies the old burial ground, the future site of the Sydney Town Hall.
Watercolour, 1842, Dixs
on Galleries, State Library of New South Wales
John Rae, The Convict Barracks and the Southern Wing of Sydney Hospital Viewed from Hyde Park. One of Macquarie’s town-planning measures was to formalise the boundaries of the open space south of the Governor’s Domain previously known as ‘The Common’ or the ‘Race Course’. Greenway’s barracks, St James’ Church and the Supreme Court all bounded Hyde Park.
Watercolour, 1842, Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales
Conrad Martens, View in the town of Sydney. Looking from Bridge Street across Macquarie Place: past one of the Sydney Cove merchant warehouses and Greenway’s ‘little unadorned Obelisk’ to the Edward Blore–designed Government House in the distance.
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