Lidcombe Hospital Precinct is a heritage-listed former hospital and home for the aged, now converted to private housing, located at Joseph Street, Lidcombe, Cumberland Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by James Barnet, Walter Liberty Vernon, Cobden Parkes and Ken Woolley and built from 1885 by the Government of New South Wales. It is also known as Rookwood Asylum for the Aged and Infirm; Rookwood State Hospital and Asylum for Men; Lidcombe State Hospital & Home; Rookwood Boys Reformatory & Model Farm. The property is now owned by Australand Industrial No. 18 Pty Limited and the Sydney Olympic Park Authority. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 24 February 2006.
History Six key phases of development demonstrate the evolution of the site, from proposed reformatory and model farm for wayward boys to an important teaching hospital that specialised in geriatric care and rehabilitation until its transformation into the Media Village for the 2000 Summer Olympics. An innovative aspect of the development of the site was Sydney's first septic tank with associated facilities, constructed in 1897–1898 to alleviate the inadequacies of the existing system. A summary of key development dates is provided below:
1885–1892: Boys Reformatory and Model Farm (proposed). 1893–1913: Rookwood Asylum for the Aged and Infirm. 1914–1926: Lidcombe State Hospital and Asylum for Men. 1927–1966: Lidcombe State Hospital and Home. 1966–1995: Lidcombe Hospital (Note: the Jack Lang Wing remained in use for hospital purposes until 1997). 1998–2000: Olympic Media Village.
The Lidcombe Hospital Recreation Hall and Chapel was designed by architect Ken Woolley.
Demolition of the less significant hospital buildings and structures from the hospital site began in 2004. From 2006 to 2011, seven hectares of total 44-hectare hospital site underwent adaptive reuse, with the former historic core of buildings converted to apartments. 10 single level cottages became nine strata-titled homes as part of the new "Botanica" master-planned community by developer Australand. The two storey superintendent's house became a five-bedroom house on a Torrens title.Wellings, in SMH, 13-14/8/2011
Description
The Lidcombe Hospital site contains a variety of buildings and landscape features in a landscaped setting. It also contains historical archaeological features which provide physical evidence of the development of the site from the late nineteenth century to the present day. The site boundaries have changed substantially since the proposed Boys Reformatory and Model Farm was proposed in 1885, having expanded and contracted during its evolution.
Buildings include: Herdsman's Cottage;Building 94 Gatehouse;Building 90 Barnet-designed dormitory wards;Buildings 7, 9, 66A and 89 Barnet-designed Dining Hall and Kitchen;Building 66 Barnet-designed Superintendent's Residence;Building 53 Barnet-designed Toilet Block (Building 89A) and ablutions facilities (Building 9A); Vernon-designed nine pavilion wards;Buildings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12 and 13 Vernon-designed No.1 Nurse's Home (and 1919 annex);Buildings 72 and 69 Vernon-designed Gatehouse; Vernon-designed dormitory ward additions;Buildings 6 and 8, to Building 7 Vernon-designed ablutions facilities (Building 8A); Boiler House attributed to Walter Liberty Vernon;Building 59 Parkes-designed Nurse's Homes Nos 2 and 3;Buildings 73 and 74 three fibro buildings; the Male Nurse Amenities (Building 96, the two Red Cross Buildings (Buildings 95A and 95B); WWII Air Raid Shelter;Building 91 1953 Memorial Clock in the village green;Building 92 three Parkes-designed 1930s/1940s ward buildings;Buildings 34, 35 and 36 and Woolley-designed Recreation Hall.Building 64
Road and landscape elements include: Village Green, Areas 1 and 2 and vistas within the Village Green; Farm Road; Main Avenue; Mance Avenue; Brooks Circuit; Copeland Road; Church Street; Sussex Street; Peden Lane; Chapel Road; Palm Circuit; hoop pine and open space (site of former Administration Building) at junction of Main Avenue and Brooks Circuit at the entry to the historic core (32); avenue of hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii) and phoenix palms (Phoenix sp.) ((33); avenue of tallowwoods (Eucalyptus microcorys) (14); remnant plantings (hoop pine, pepper tree (Schinus areira), flame tree (Brachychiton acerifolium) (15); Moreton Bay fig (Ficus macrophllya) and row of tallowwoods (Eucalyptus microcorys) (16); avenue of plantings at rear of historic core, Moreton Bay figs (Ficus macrophylla) and brush boxes (Lophostemon confertus) (17); petticoat and cotton palms in eastern area of historic core (Washingtonia robusta and Washingtonia filifera) (20); mixed plantings east of Superintendent's Residence (21); mixed plantings in Area 1 of Village Green opposite Superintendent's Residence (25); Chinese juniper (Juniperus chinensis) (37); hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) and phoenix palm (Phoenix sp.) (38); avenue of Canary Island palms (Phoenix canariensis) (41); plantings at Palm Avenue (south end of triangle) (42); northern end of Sussex Street (roadway and palms) (43) red ironbark (Eucalyptus fibrosa) (46); plantings associated with Nurses Quarters No. 1 and No. 3 (18); plantings associated with Nurses Quarters No. 2 (19); boundary planting south of Superintendent's Residence (22); plantings for Olympic Media Village in Village Green Area 1 (24); double row of brush box (Lophostemon confertus) (28); row of cypresses (Cupressus species) (29); mixed plantings northwest corner of historic core (30); mixed plantings to southern sector of original triangle (39); eucalypts and palms (40); triangular bed at fulcrum of Mance Ave and Sussex Street (48); plantings for Olympic Media Village along Mance Avenue (62); landscape feature north of Vernon-designed wards (63); pond, bridge and plantings north (rear) of Vernon-designed wards (64); and plantings for Olympic Media Village near Chapel Road (65). grove of mixed gums (Eucalyptus spp.) (57) on a separate portion of the former hospital site to the remainder of the listing.Godden Mackay Logan 2004
Condition
The physical condition of the buildings, roads and plantings was reported as generally stable as at 7 August 2003. The site has been well secured. Archaeological potential resources are associated with the initial establishment of the proposed Boys Reformatory and Model Farm.
Archaeological features and deposits associated with the development of the Asylum and State Hospital have the potential to enhance the available information relating to the care and hospitalisation of the aged, infirm and destitute.
There is little research potential in archaeological remains associated with the development of the site after WWII. This period is well known and understood in the development of health care facilities in NSW.
Archaeological remains of the first institutional septic tank constructed in Australia are located within the neighbouring University of Sydney Cumberland College campus. Associated archaeological elements may be located within the Lidcombe Hospital site.
The Lidcombe State Hospital – Aboriginal Archaeological Survey prepared by Mary Dallas Consulting Archaeologists for Devine Erby Mazlin in 1997 found no evidence of Aboriginal cultural material and concluded that there were no archaeological constraints to the proposed re-use of the Lidcombe Hospital site.
The majority of buildings outside the Lidcombe Hospital Precinct have now been demolished and substantial changes have been made to the landscape to prepare the site for a residential development. The Lidcombe Hospital Precinct contains all early extant buildings to the 1940s and other built elements from the 1950s and 1960s, and the most significant parts of the road network. While hospital infrastructure has been adapted to accommodate new technologies and uses, the essential character of the Precinct remains intact. The core of the Precinct, centred on the Village Green very strongly reflects the key values of the site.
All of the buildings and roads of exceptional and high significance are located within the curtilage of the precinct. The majority of significant landscape elements are also located within this precinct. The precinct retains substantial evidence of all periods of development of the site from Boys Reformatory, through State Hospital to Olympic Media Village.
Heritage listing
Lidcombe Hospital is of outstanding significance in the history of NSW health care, operating for over a century from 1893 to 1995 as a major State Asylum for the aged and infirm, then an important State teaching hospital specialising in geriatric care and rehabilitation. Lidcombe Hospital became a leader in geriatric care and rehabilitation practices in the 20th Century. The expansion, then the closure, of the hospital reflects the changes in State and Commonwealth government health care policies over the twentieth century. The site has significance for its association with innovative medical practitioners, specialists in geriatric health care, nurses and the local community for over a century. As the site of the Media Village, the place also has associations with the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, which provided short-term accommodation for approximately 5,000 visiting journalists.
The precinct contains an exceptional and rare collection of fine, intact architecture and landscapes of the Victorian, Edwardian, Interwar and late-20th Century styles, together with outstanding examples of asylum and institutional planning from leading Colonial, Government and private architects from the 19th and 20th Centuries. The asylum and hospital planning is an exceptional example of the 19th century advancements in health care along the principles of Florence Nightingale, where it was considered healthy to surround hospital and asylum buildings with gardens as part of patient treatment and the buildings were designed with particular attention to natural light, ventilation and climate control for the care of patients. The collection of reformatory, asylum and hospital buildings include dormitories designed by James Barnet (1885–1887), the former Dining Hall (1885), the Superintendent's Residence (1887) and nine wards designed by Walter Liberty Vernon (1893–1906). All reformatory and asylum buildings are designed in harmony around the central Village Green and unite qualities of shelter and surveillance, community and destitution, within a landscape both picturesque and functionally self-sufficient. The Recreation Hall and Chapel (1963) designed by Ken Woolley, the No. 1 Nurses Quarters (1910), Herdsman's Cottage (), Boiler House and Chimney (1901) and the later Nos 2 and 3 Nurses Quarters (1931 and 1939) all contribute to the aesthetic and historic qualities of the place.