Mowbray House

Mowbray House is a heritage-listed historic building that was an independent, day and boarding school for boys, located in Chatswood, on the North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.[1] More recently, it was part of an Ausgrid depot site.[2] The school buildings included a chapel that is now the Holy Trinity Anglican Church.[3] The building is listed on the local government heritage register.[4][5]

Mowbray House School
Location
339 Mowbray Road, Chatswood, Sydney, New South Wales

Australia
Coordinates33°48′16″S 151°10′50″E
Information
TypeIndependent, day and boarding school
Established1906
FounderLancelot Bavin
(Founding headmaster)
StatusClosed
Closed1954
Key peopleSandy Phillips (Co-headmaster)

History
Lancelot Bavin as headmaster.

The school was opened in 1906 as the Chatswood Preparatory School by Lancelot Bavin (1881–1956), who would later be an alderman (1925–1932) and three-term Mayor (1927–1930) of Willoughby at the start of the Great Depression.[6][7][8][9] Bavin initially ran the school with his wife, Ida, and his mother, Emma (1845–1931), the widow of Methodist Minister the Rev. Rainsford Bavin (1845–1905).[10][11] In 1914 Sandy Phillips, until then a master at Sydney Grammar School, became co-headmaster with Bavin and the institution became known as Mowbray House School. Phillips remained at Mowbray House until his return to Sydney Grammar in 1924, where he ultimately became Headmaster.[12] Bavin continued as Headmaster of Mowbray House until the school closed in 1954 due to his ill-health.[13]

Several notable Australians received primary education at Mowbray House School, including Norman Lethbridge Cowper in its first few years,[14] Kenneth Slessor from 1910 to 1914,[15] and Gough Whitlam in the early 1920s.[16]

In the late 20th century and until 2016, Mowbray House was part of an Ausgrid depot site. It was then acquired by Transport for New South Wales.[2] As of December 2017, a planned tunnel entrance for the Sydney Metro was nearby, and the John Holland Group was preparing the building to be office space for the construction project.[17][18]

Buildings

Mowbray House was built in 1906 and is a two-storey tuck pointed face brick building with a hipped tile roof and cream cement render on the upper level. It is in the Federation Arts and Crafts style, with regular multi-paned windows and a symmetrical form. The building has timber eave brackets and unusual corner chimneys. It originally contained a dormitory accommodating twenty-five boarding students. In 1917, a dining room was added to the northern end of building, and modifications to the kitchen and eastern façade were made.[4]

In 1874 the Mechanics' Institute built a School of Arts on the site. From 1878 until 1903, Willoughby Council used the ashlar sandstone building as its council chambers.[3] The building became the school chapel in 1906. In 1957, due to public pressure, the Sydney County Council took possession of the site, and the building was dismantled and relocated stone-by-stone to 44 Beaconsfield Road, Chatswood, where it is now Holy Trinity Anglican Church.[5][19]

See also

References
  1. Willoughby City Facts Archived 22 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Di Biase, David (14 March 2016). "Land Acquisitions By Transport For NSW For Sydney Metro Project". Willoughby City Council. p. 187. Archived from the original on 23 June 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  3. "Holy Trinity Anglican Church (including original interiors)". environment.nsw.gov.au. NSW Environment & Heritage. Archived from the original on 18 November 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  4. "Mowbray House and 10m curtilage". New South Wales Heritage Database. Office of Environment & Heritage. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  5. "Holy Trinity Anglican Church". New South Wales Heritage Database. Office of Environment & Heritage. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  6. "Willoughby Heritage Plaques". Archived from the original on 21 August 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
  7. "SELECTION OF MAYORS". Evening News. No. 18868. New South Wales. 13 December 1927. p. 16. Retrieved 21 June 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. "RE- ELECTED". The Sun. No. 5639. New South Wales. 4 December 1928. p. 3. Retrieved 21 June 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. "Municipal Council Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 28, 693. New South Wales, Australia. 20 December 1929. p. 11. Retrieved 18 December 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. "Bavin Family History". Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
  11. Hugh Gemmell Lamb-Smith (1889–1951), an Australian educator who, as a member of the Second Field Ambulance unit, landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, taught at Mowbray House in the late 1900s (see Webber, Horace, Years May Pass On . . . Caulfield Grammar School, 1881–1981, Centenary Committee, Caulfield Grammar School, (East St Kilda), 1981, p.247). He was a member of the staff of Caulfield Grammar School, both as teacher and administrator, from 1913 to 1951.
  12. Frederick Phillips, School is Out, Angus & Robertson (Syd, 1957)
  13. "PARENTS TOO "KIND"". The Sun-Herald. No. 249. New South Wales, Australia. 1 November 1953. p. 72. Retrieved 18 December 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. Alfred, James (1 June 2000). "Sir Norman Cowper". Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. 86 (1): 74–84. ISSN 0035-8762. Archived from the original on 14 December 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  15. "The Papers of Kenneth Slessor". nla.gov.au. National Library of Australia. Archived from the original on 9 September 2010. Retrieved 27 April 2009.
  16. "Australia's Prime Ministers: Gough Whitlam: Before". National Archives of Australia. Archived from the original on 15 May 2009.
  17. Metcalfe, Caryn (11 October 2017). "Concerns for historic house's future". The Daily Telegraph. News Corp Australia. North Shore Times. Archived from the original on 14 October 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  18. Metcalfe, Caryn (29 November 2017). "Willoughby Council angered by tree removal at Chatswood dive site". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). News Corp Australia. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  19. Russell, Eric (1966). Willoughby: a centenary history of the municipality from earliest times. Chatswood, NSW, Australia: Council of the Municipality of Willoughby. p. 76. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
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