Yesterday, The New York Times plublished a story on the Sydney suburb of Potts Point mentioning the gorgeous mix of Art Deco apartments and Victorian terraces sitting among the restaurants and cafes of Macleay Street. One of the best Art Deco apartment blocks in Potts Point is Macleay Regis at 12 Macleay Street. Designed by architect Eric C Pitt and built in 1939. The Library of NSW has a series of photos taken by Sam Hood in April 1939 showing the interior and exterior of this fabulous building.
I took my photos on a typically glorious Sydney winter's day in July this year, 70 years after the construction of Macleay Regis.
I love the Macleay Regis entrance and verandas because they are smart, geometrically interesting and make the building definitively deco (in my Melbourne eyes). In fact Potts Point is rather special altogether, as your article says.
ReplyDeleteMy husband was a Sydney sider who grew up in Waverley. By the time I was in and out of his parents' flat in the late 1960s, Waverley was a very sad area. It was full of tall, dark red blocks of flats of course, but no verandas, no trees and no long, horizontal windows to break up the wall space.
Thanks Helen,
ReplyDeleteYou have picked out the two aspects of Macleay Regis that my Melbourne eyes like the best as well. My most recent trip to Sydney I just had an afternoon wandering around Paddington, Darlinghurst, Kings Cross, Elizabeth Bay and Potts Point. It was good fun taking photos of some very nice deco buildings.
I don't know Waverley at all. So is/was there deco or just dark red brick flats?