Brumby Street Subdivision

G’day, Charles Touma here and today I’m back on Brumby Street in the magnificent Surry Hills to talk about a subdivision that had a massive influence on this area and how it evolved into what it is today. The story starts in 1858 when a local solicitor, and politician called John Dawson built a huge mansion called Brumby House on the corner of Elizabeth Street, and what is now Brumby Street. The enormous block of land stretching across between Belvoir Street and Devonshire Street and up to what was then known as Wilton Place, but later became what we now know as Clisdell Street. Of course, parallel to Brumby is Dawson Street named after John Dawson the owner of Brumby House. 21 years later in 1879 this enormous parcel of land began to be subdivided and the real estate agent’s subdivision map tells us a lot about the area at the time. For example it shows Wheelers Lane was a narrow thoroughfare off Brumby Street, however it has since been built on and no such thoroughfare exists anymore.

The subdivision map also tells us there was an Old Brick Store and a Vinegar Works on the opposite corner of Elizabeth and Brumby. Vinegar became a very valuable product in the 1800s as it was used as a way to preserve foods being transported, so to see a Vinegar factory here on the corner of Elizabeth and Brumby Street just makes sense. The map also shows that a huge block of land was owned by a guy called B.O.Holtermann. Now this guy was a German who made it bigtime in gold mining when he came to Sydney, still to this day he holds the world record for the largest block of gold ever found. It was called the Holtermann nugget and it weighed 290 kg when he discovered it in 1872. Presumably Holtermann invested a small portion of his big win in this block of land which now includes the Belvoir Street Theatre, and the terraced houses on Goodlet Street and Wilton Street. Now as this area evolved and grog became the staple of the working man’s diet, would you believe there was once a pub at each end of Brumby Street.

The block where the Vinegar factory once was had a pub, which was known as The True Briton Hotel. At the other end on the corner of Brumby and Clisdell Street, the pub was called Lloyd’s Hotel, both pubs were closed down in the 1920s as part of a mass culling of Sydney pubs. Now I’ve been selling in Redfern and Surry Hills for 20 years and I’ve sold many properties including 104/38 Waterloo Street, a one bedroom apartment which I recently sold for $645,000, 20/500 Crown Street an amazing two bedroom apartment which we sold for $2.5 million. 477 Riley street, a three bedroom terrace, which I sold for $2.51 million. Now I hope you enjoyed the insights into how Brumby Street evolved. I’m passionate about keeping these stories and our local community alive. My name’s Charles Touma, my office on Thurlow Street is always open for you to come in and have a chat.