Grafton Bond Store. Hickson Rd, Sydney, NSW, Australia - Australian Heritage Sites on Waymarking.com

The Grafton Bond Building, originally constructed in 1881, is claimed to have been the largest bond store complex in Australia. It is an excellent example of urban commercial utilitarian design, by an eminent Australian architect, William Wardell and its design displays the Northern European influence. Its recent refurbishment and well contrived juxtaposition with modem glass towers is a most successful conservation project. The building stands monument-like in Hickson Road below the glass towers in Kent Street; a juxtaposition of new and old which, when seen from the west across the water, is one of the most engaging views in Sydney.

The building is long and narrow, four and five storeys high at Hickson Road, and three above the rock shelf behind. The walls are built in English bond, of cream bricks believed to have been brought from Newcastle-on-Tyne as sailing ships' ballast. The Dutch gables bear the date 1881 and a monogram formed in red bricks, presumed but without certainty, to be John Frazer's. The depressed pointed-arches and round arches over openings, and banding in the walling, are laid in red-orange bricks. The interior and exterior are in good condition. Intrusive Elements:Modern bullnose roof of access gallery cutting across loading bays.

The Hickson Road facade three bays with plain parapeted gables, one with eaves and two with stepped parapets, one of which curves gracefully around the Napoleon Street corner. The lowest storey is sandstone. The east side, which once faced Jenkins Street, has three stepped gable parapets in the northern European manner, with catheads at the top. Internally the structure is of heavy hardwood posts and girders, with joists, herringboning and timber flooring. Some of the king-post roof trusses are visible.

In 1881 the building was bought by John Frazer & Co and was greatly enlarged, so that by 1886 it had a frontage to the east side of Darling Harbour of 430 feet, and three piers `capable of receiving and shipping cargo of any character and weight'. In 1886 there were 14 warehouses, with a storage capacity of some 44 000 tonnes of cargo and facilities for pressing 1 600 bales of wool a day. It was claimed to be the largest bond warehouse in Australia. The building now known as Grafton Bond was part of this complex. In 1888 the stores became the property of Burns Philip & Co Ltd.

The Grafton Bond Building we see today is a remnant of a much larger complex. The other components of the complex that survived the dramatic changes brought about by the 1893 depression and the redevelopment by the Sydney Harbour Trust, were demolished with the formation of Hickson Road in 1925, which cut across the whole Grafton Wharf site. At that time even this last large building was altered, though it remains largely as it was designed by William Wardell, one of Australia's greatest architects. Incorporated into the new Maritime Centre in the late 1980s, the refurbished Grafton Bond has been successfully adapted for this reuse.

Location: 201 Kent Street, corner of Napolean St. and Hickson Road, Sydney. Access via Kent Street.
Source: visitsydneyaustralia.com.au

Register of the National Estate (Non-statutory archive)
Class Historic
Legal Status Registered (21/03/1978)
Place ID 2160
Place File No 1/12/036/0358

List: Register of the National Estate Place ID: 2160 Place File No: 1/12/036/0358 URL database reference: [Web Link] Status: Registered Year built: 1881

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