View to the north from “The Towers”, Arncliffe, circa 1910. Notice the amount of original vegetation still present.
This photo is one of a series taken from “The Towers” at Arncliffe in the early part of this century. Standing forlorn and neglected atop the Forest Road ridge, “The Towers” has sweeping views of the whole of Arncliffe. The series of photographs was taken sequentially in a 360 degree radius and present a clear picture of what the area was like circa 1910.
Surprisingly, the overall impression is one more reminiscent of a country town than that of a Sydney suburb. The area still “undeveloped” and covered in native vegetation is interesting considering the concentration of population and industry of today’s Arncliffe.
A circa 1882 sketch of Forest Road, Arncliffe (courtesy Bayside Library)
Forest Road, Arncliffe, circa 1910 (courtesy Bayside Library)
The house itself was built for Thomas Lawless about 1890. It was acquired by Edward William Esdaile in 1910. Mr Esdaile was an optical goods manufacturer and a prolific photographer. The sequence of photos in question were taken from the castellated parapet at the rear of the house.
Photograph taken by Edward Esdaile Junior from the Esdaile home, “The Towers”, circa 1910 (courtesy Bayside Library)
“The Towers” later became a private school and in later years was subdivided into flats.
The home “The Towers” in Towers Place, Arncliffe, circa 1910. It was the home of Peregrine Fernandez Smyth. (courtesy Bayside Library)
It stands well back from the road at 105 Forest Rd and although still occupied has now fallen into a state of considerable dilapidation.
This article was first published in the August 1990 edition of our magazine.
by R. W. Rathbone (based on the research of E. C. B. McLeurin, former Head of the Department of Semitic Studies, Sydney University)
Early in 1989, I was asked by the Council to compile a list of the streets in the Municipality of Rockdale and how they received their names. Many are named after the district’s pioneers or members of their families; some are descriptive geographical names; royal and vice-regal names abound as do the names of former mayors and aldermen. The principals of the development companies which subdivided the land after the opening of the Illawarra Railway Line are well represented and there is a smattering of aboriginal names. The origins of many of them were easy to track down but others took many hours of research. A number had very unusual origins and one of these was Wazir Street, Arncliffe. The origin of this name has fascinated local residents for years.
Dr. Wazir Beg (courtesy Bayside Library)
Wazir Street, Arncliffe was named after Dr. Wazir Beg, a noted Presbyterian divine and the Minister of the Chalmers Street Free Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Street, Redfern from 1865 until 1882. He was born in India at Poona in the State of Bombay some time in 1827. His parents were devout Moslems and he received a typical Moslem middle-class education. About 1842 he became secretly converted to Christianity and was befriended by a Scottish Presbyterian missionary family. He then became a teacher in the mission school in Poona and decided to become a missionary.
He was an outstanding linguist, speaking Hindustani, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Latin, Greek and English. In 1853 he completed his theological training and was licenced as a Minister. He then went to Edinburgh where he decided to study medicine. In 1861 he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London.
In 1864 he arrived in Melbourne as a ship’s surgeon but his great interest was not medicine but Semitic History. The Semites were the descendants of Shem, one of the three sons of Noah born after the Great Flood and included the Jews, Arameans, Phoenicians, Arabs and Assyrians. No university in Australia provided studies in this area but the University of Sydney had a readership In Oriental Languages and Literature based mainly on the Arabic language. Beg successfully applied for the position and was also appointed Oriental interpreter to the Government. The University position did not last because of the lack of students and in 1865 he accepted the Ministry at Chalmers Street.
There he became a noted scholar on Presbyterianism and his Manual of Presbyterian Principles, published in 1870 was probably the most in depth study of the Presbyterian Faith published in many years. He was also a political activist taking a leading part in the campaign against State Aid for denominational schools. He became a prominent Freemason and rose to become Grand Chaplain of the N.S.W. Lodge as well as being editor of its journal, The Freemason. He was also an Orangeman, editor of that organization’s paper and a bitter critic of Roman Catholicism and the ritualism of the Anglican High Church.
He had suffered from Bright’s Disease for many years and died aged 58 at his home in Woolloomooloo in January, 1885. He was survived by his wife Margaret Robertson, a Tasmanian widow whom he had married in 1873, and five children. He purchased the land in Arncliffe in 1882 as an investment and it was sold by his widow in 1887 as Beg’s Estate.
(courtesy Bayside Library)
This article was first published in the August 1990 edition of our magazine.
Smithson’s Wine Bar in Stoney Creek Road was a feature of Kingsgrove’s life for about 50 years. (Smithson’s Tobacco Factory, run by Thomas Smithson, is a separate story).
James Edward Smithson was a son of Thomas Smithson, and was born on 26 February 1844 at Leeds, Yorkshire. On 7 May 1867, he married, at St. Mary’s Cathedral Sydney, Martha Jane Craven, who had been born on 29 March 1849 at Cork, Ireland. She was orphaned at a very young age and was brought to Australia by her foster parents.
After the marriage, the couple went to live at “Pembroke Cottage” in Stoney Creek Road (Now No.9 Bennett Street). J.E. Smithson bought land on the opposite side of Stoney Creek Road and built a stone house there and moved in about 1869. (Land Records indicate that he bought 2 acres 16 p an oblong block, part of lot 12, in 1871. He extended his holdings in subsequent years).
On his marriage certificate, J E Smithson’s occupation was given as tobacconist. However, he developed an extensive farm with fruit trees, vegetables, cows, pigs, fowls, horses, bees, lucerne etc. He was also a fine builder, and constructed many buildings in the St. George District and elsewhere, including “Holt House” at Sylvania. Besides his own house, he also designed and built a solid bridge in Stoney Creek Road near Laycock Street, and he built other country bridges. He also added weatherboard additions to the back of his house as the family grew.
In about 1880, they begun to sell wine on the property. At first, the wine was sold from a closed-in section of the verandah at the front of the house. A window announced “Smithson’s Wine Bar” to all passing along Stoney Creek Road. Business prospered. Christmas periods were particularly busy and saw horses and carriages lining both sides of Stoney Creek Road. Around the turn of the century, a separate building was erected for the wine bar, but it was attached to the house on the western side and the roof alignment was altered to incorporate this room. The wine bar was about 2 metres forward of the original house, with a verandah in front of that again. The original “Smithson’s Wine Bar” window was transferred from the verandah room to the new bar.
Smithson’s home and wine bar, believed to be decorated in honour of returning serviceman, Les Townsend, Bexley NSW, 1918 (courtesy Georges River Libraries Local Studies Collection)
The grapes (thought to be about 5 tons in the 19201 s) were brought in fruit boxes by train from Mudgee each year. In the early 1920’s prices were:
for port and sherry 2/- a pint, 3/0 a quart, 14/- a gallon in stone jars.
Muscat was slightly dearer at 2/3 a pint.
All the wines were naturally fortified – no spirit concentrate was ever added. There were 50 large 100 gallon casks in the cellar and there was a bottling room at the rear of the bar. James Edward Smithson had four sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Charles, was born in “Pembroke Cottage”, and the other children were born in the cottage which was to be associated with the wine bar. Charles became the wine maker. A son-in-law Fred Ball, who had married Ethel, managed the business from about 1920.
J.E.Smithson died in April 1926. The wine bar continued until it was sold by auction on 11 June 1934. The land was acquired by Bexley Municipal Council and became Kingsgrove Park for a time, prior to Bexley Golf Course being established. After Bexley Golf Club built it club house behind the wine bar building, the sturdy old stone house was demolished in the 19501s. The wine press had been sold about 1933 or 1934 to a German wine maker in Orange.
When the Smithson family first built their house in Stoney Creek Road, there was an ironbark forest on the flat. This was later cleared and the timber sold. This area became the holding yards for C. J. Stone’s slaughterhouse, the land being leased from Smithson.
This article was first published in the April 1981 edition of our magazine.
