Mowbray House is a heritage-listed historic building that was an independent,

day A day is the time rotation period, period of a full Earth's rotation, rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, afternoon, evening, ...

and

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

for boys, located in Chatswood, on the North Shore of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. More recently, it was part of an

Ausgrid Ausgrid is an electricity distribution company which owns, maintains and operates the electrical networks supplying 1.8 million customers servicing more than 4 million people in Sydney, the Central Coast and Hunter regions of New South Wale ...

depot site. The school buildings included a chapel that is now the Holy Trinity Anglican Church. The building is listed on the local government heritage register.

History

The school was opened in 1906 as the Chatswood Preparatory School by Lancelot Bavin (1881–1956), who would later be an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

(1925–1932) and three-term

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

(1927–1930) of Willoughby at the start of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. 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). In 1914 Sandy Phillips, until then a master at

Sydney Grammar School Sydney Grammar School (SGS, colloquially known as Grammar) is an independent, non-denominational day school for boys, located in Sydney, Australia. Incorporated in 1854 by an Act of Parliament and opened in 1857, the school claims to offer "c ...

, 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. Bavin continued as Headmaster of Mowbray House until the school closed in 1954 due to his ill-health. Several notable Australians received primary education at Mowbray House School, including Norman Lethbridge Cowper in its first few years,

Kenneth Slessor Kenneth Adolphe Slessor (27 March 190130 June 1971) was an Australian poet, journalist and official war correspondent in World War II. He was one of Australia's leading poets, notable particularly for the absorption of modernist influences int ...

from 1910 to 1914, and

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from December 1972 to November 1975. To date the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was notable for being ...

in the early 1920s. In the late 20th century and until 2016, Mowbray House was part of an

depot site. It was then acquired by

Transport for New South Wales Transport for NSW (TfNSW) is a Government of New South Wales, New South Wales Government transport services and roads List of New South Wales government agencies, agency established on 1 November 2011. The agency is a different entity to the NSW ...

. As of December 2017, a planned tunnel entrance for the

Sydney Metro Sydney Metro is a fully automated rapid transit rail system in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It currently consists of the Metro North West & Bankstown Line, running between Tallawong and Sydenham and consisting of 21 stations on of t ...

was nearby, and the

John Holland Group The John Holland Group is an infrastructure, building, rail and transport business operating in Australia and New Zealand. Headquartered in Melbourne, it is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction. History The company was founded in ...

was preparing the building to be office space for the construction project.

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 Federation architecture is the architectural style in Australia that was prevalent from around 1890 to 1915. The name refers to the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, when the British colonies of Australia collectively became the Commonw ...

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. In 1874 the

Mechanics' Institute Mechanics' institutes, also known as mechanics' institutions, sometimes simply known as institutes, and also called schools of arts (especially in the Australian colonies), were educational establishments originally formed to provide adult edu ...

built a School of Arts on the site. From 1878 until 1903, Willoughby Council used the

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

building as its council chambers. The building became the school chapel in 1906. In 1957, due to public pressure, the

Sydney County Council The Sydney County Council (SCC) was a County council (New South Wales), county council established in 1935 to produce electricity and operate the electricity network in a number of municipalities in metropolitan Sydney. SCC was established by t ...

took possession of the site, and the building was dismantled and relocated stone-by-stone to 44Beaconsfield Road, Chatswood, where it is now Holy Trinity Anglican Church.

References

{{commons category, Mowbray House, Chatswood

External links

Mowbray House School Images
Defunct schools in Sydney Educational institutions established in 1906 Defunct boarding schools in New South Wales Defunct boys' schools in Australia 1906 establishments in Australia Educational institutions disestablished in 1954 New South Wales Heritage Database Chatswood, New South Wales Relocated buildings and structures in Australia

History

Buildings

See also

References

External links