Haberfield: a VERY early Garden City in Sydney (1901)

From my books on Arts and Crafts, I was fascinated with the new movement in architecture and design that was being pro­m­oted by John Ruskin and William Morris as early as 1885-9. At that very early stage, Ruskin seemed to have predicted the Garden City movement, specific­ally favouring a] an improved living environ­ment and b] an integration of town and country. Morris promoted the concept of "decency of surroundings" which included: "Ample space, well built clean healthy housing, beautiful garden space, preservat­ion of natural landscape, pollution and litter free".

It was Ebenezer Howard who pulled all the ideas together in Britain; in 1898 he publish­ed the definitive book called Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Ref­orm. Later, in 1902, Howard revised his book and retitled it Gard­en Cities of Tomorrow, clearly based on ideas of social and urban reform. In this blog I have already examined the development of planned, garden cities that were found in Tel Aviv, Chandigarh and London. But I had not looked at Sydney.

9 ks west of Sydney’s CBD, C19th landowners Dr David Ramsay and his son loved parklands and gardens, and joined the Linnean Society for Natural History. Their heirs did not sell up the land (50 acres) to Richard Stanton until 1901. Stanton was inspired by Britain’s town planning movement which sought to develop beautiful healthy towns, and to regulate houses and streets. Stanton was already a co-founder of the Town Planning Institute of NSW, and the Real Estate Institute. So he could make it happen!

Haberfield

Single storeyed Edwardian homes with verandas, 

each on its own quarter acre block.

When the bubonic plague threatened Aus­­t­ralia for the first time, the response was one of terror in the face of an imminent catastrophe. Health authorities in Sydney were aware that plague epidemics were associated with rat-transported infections and devised prevent­ative techniques to close the ports to sick foreigners. Alas bubonic plague still reared its ugly head in Sydney, in mid January 1900. And people were correct - most of the 1371 deaths from plaque that year lived in Inner Sydney. Any family that had the resources to get out of Sydney’s crowded and slummy CBD.. did so. Quickly.

Timing is everything! When Stanton started subdivid­ing his land in 1901, it was always going to be based on Garden Suburb Movement principles. Called Haberfield, this new suburb quick­ly became noted for its tree-lined streets and substantial Ed­wardian homes of limited height. But it would have been a beautifully laid out Garden Suburb, even had the bubonic plaque not arrived in Sydney.

Richard Stanton promised families that the new development would be "slumless, laneless and publess". His Model Suburb was for the rising middle class; it ensured fresh air, no shared facilities with neighbours and plenty of access to natural sunlight. He ended the negative impacts of unregulated and ad-hoc subdivision, and he banned poor building practices that gave rise to overcrowding. Sewerage to each home meant they no longer needed rear lanes and shared outhouses.

Green spaces rather than formal parks

The Heritage Council of NSW is very specific about what was allowed and what was not allowed in Haberfield from 1901-1917. Houses were typically detached double-brick dwellings that sat on substantial blocks of land (15 m x 45 m). The houses did not have to be identical, but the roofs had to be either slate or tile. Each house had to have a front veranda, encouraging fresh air and green views. Decorative features could include leadlight windows depicting Australian flora and fauna, Art Nouveau timber detailing and tuck pointed brickwork.

Some 1500 houses were built in this area to the architectural plans of J Spencer Stansfeld and D Wormald, partners in the architectural firm Spencer, Stansfield and Wormald. The character of Haberfield was firmly established during those 16 years, and has remained so ever since. The entire suburb of gorgeous late Victorian, Federation, Arts & Crafts houses and Californian bungalows eventually became heritage-listed as one Conservation Area in 1985. In 1991 it became part of the Register of the National Estate of Australia.

To see which of the public buildings are on the State Heritage Register, see Ashfield Council - I will just mention St David's Church Hall (1862). And to see other community resources from the Edwardian era, visit Sydney City and Suburbs blog for the picture theatre, St Oswald's Anglican Church and the shops in Ramsay St.

Haberfield

Note the wide nature strips, tree lined streets and side drive ways

The Dictionary Of Sydney notes the unique historical significance of Haberfield. It was Australia's first plan­ned Model Suburb, embodying the still-evolving intern­ational garden suburb principles. Begun at the time of Federation in 1901, it act­ually pre-dated the best British examples of Letchworth (1904) and Hampstead (1907). The Sydney social experiment was so financially success­ful that it helped define the great Australian dream i.e that each family would own a quarter-acre suburban block. Richard Stanton was not just an early town planning advocate and real estate entrepreneur; he was quite visionary.

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To retain Haberfield's historical integrity into the future, each house will always have to stay a low, single-storey place with traditional hip and skillion roof forms, and it will have to remain within its garden setting. Other asp­ects to be retained include low see-through front fences, side driveway wheel strips and garden size. Each colour scheme will have to be appropriate to the architectural style and era of the building. The Development Control Plan will continue to look after streetscapes, trees, nature strips and public elements.