Terraces

Item details


Name of item:	Terraces
Other name/s:	Longs Lane Terraces/Precinct
Type of item:	Built
Group/Collection:	Residential buildings (private)
Category:	Terrace
Location:	Lat: -33.860476 Long: 151.206705
Primary address:	132-134 Cumberland Street, The Rocks, NSW 2000
Parish:	St Philip
County:	Cumberland
Local govt. area:	Sydney
Local Aboriginal Land Council:	Metropolitan

Property description

Lot/Volume Code	Lot/Volume Number	Section Number	Plan/Folio Code	Plan/Folio Number
PART LOT	21		DP	1169394

All addresses

Street Address	Suburb/town	LGA	Parish	County	Type
132-134 Cumberland Street	The Rocks	Sydney	St Philip	Cumberland	Primary Address

Owner/s

Organisation Name	Owner Category	Date Ownership Updated
Place Management NSW	State Government

Statement of significance:


	The sites and buildings at Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street are of State heritage significance for their historical and scientific cultural values. The sites and buildings are also of State heritage significance for their contribution to the Longs Lane Precinct and The Rocks area as a whole. The relationship between Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street and their neighbours in the Longs Lane Precinct is clear and still within historic street pattern even though many of its nineteenth century neighbours did not survive the twentieth century Government resumptions and improvements. Within the State significant Rocks and Millers Point areas, Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street are important survivors from the late nineteenth century which still retain their tenanted residential use and still clearly demonstrate their historic planning particularly with their service areas. Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street exhibit all the key characteristics of a late nineteenth century pair of modest inner city residential terrace houses. Within the buildings, the original hierarchy is still clearly expressed with the ground floor living areas, first floor bedrooms and rear service rooms. The buildings retain a critical mass of their major fabric and fittings such as their structure, timber stair, walls, decorative joinery and fireplace. The fittings and decoration, which date from the 1990s reconstruction work, and the deliberate retention of the buildings’ external weathered patina, heighten the experience of the buildings’ age. The position of the buildings on an abrupt sandstone and beton brut plinth formed out the lowering of Cumberland Street, has raised the building and its wide bare north wall up as an local landmark in Cumberland Street. The archaeological potential of the site of Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street is high and relates to early development of The Rocks as well as late nineteenth and early twentieth century development. Any subfloor archaeological deposits are a significant resource.
	Date significance updated: 11 Mar 09
	Note: The State Heritage Inventory provides information about heritage items listed by local and State government agencies. The State Heritage Inventory is continually being updated by local and State agencies as new information becomes available. Read the Department of Premier and Cabinet copyright and disclaimer.

Description


Construction years:	1891-1891
Physical description:	132-134 Cumberland Street is a part of the 'Long's Lane Precinct'. Long's Lane is a cluster of nineteenth and early-twentieth houses, rear yards, and laneways between Gloucester and Cumberland Streets, the Rocks. These two storey residential terraces are typical of the 1880's building style. The two five room terraces are built of stuccoed brick with an iron roofs, and have moulded string courses and arched windows on the upper level. They relate in style to the three storey Italianate terraced buildings on either side at Nos130 and Nos 136-8 Cumberland Street. An unusual feature of this infill development is the reduced scale of the building and set back relative to these two adjoining properties. The set back has allowed the incorporation of a front porch. The incorporation of a central passageway between the two to the rear of the buildings is a relatively rare feature on the terraces of Sydney. (Clive Lucas Stapleton 1991: 56; Karskens 1981) Style: 'Italianate' late Victorian terrace; Storeys: 2; Facade: Rendered brick; Roof Cladding: Iron
Modifications and dates:	1992-97: Conservation and restoration of the Long's Lane precinct.


Current use:	Vacant
Former use:	Aboriginal land, dwellings

History

Historical notes:

The "Eora people" was the name given to the coastal Aborigines around Sydney. Central Sydney is therefore often referred to as "Eora Country". Within the City of Sydney local government area, the traditional owners are the Cadigal and Wangal bands of the Eora. There is no written record of the name of the language spoken and currently there are debates as whether the coastal peoples spoke a separate language "Eora" or whether this was actually a dialect of the Dharug language. Remnant bushland in places like Blackwattle Bay retain elements of traditional plant, bird and animal life, including fish and rock oysters (Anita Heiss, "Aboriginal People and Place", Barani: Indigenous History of Sydney City http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/barani).

With the invasion of the Sydney region, the Cadigal and Wangal people were decimated but there are descendants still living in Sydney today. All cities include many immigrants in their population. Aboriginal people from across the state have been attracted to suburbs such as Pyrmont, Balmain, Rozelle, Glebe and Redfern since the 1930s. Changes in government legislation in the 1960s provided freedom of movement enabling more Aboriginal people to choose to live in Sydney (Anita Heiss, "Aboriginal People and Place", Barani: Indigenous History of Sydney City http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/barani).

In 1807, this site is shown on Meehan's Survey to contain what appears to be a well defined building line. Artists' views of this section of The Rocks from c.1800-c.1815 confirm a cluster of modest houses in the region. However, in 1822, the date of Harper's Plan, only one building outline is apparent in this section of Cumberland Street. Occupation on this site is known from c1822 when George Cribb constructed a row of tenements along Cumberland Street to Longs Lane. These were demolished and replaced by a row of single storey terraces around 1834. The first official land grant on the site of 132-134 Cumberland Street (referred to as Allotment 11 of Section 74, comprising 4.5 perches, in the Land Title records), was a Town Grant to Isaac Moore in January 1839. Moore had purchased the two adjoining dwelling houses on this allotment in 1833 from a John Jones. These dwellings were built prior to the first Council Rates being collected in 1845, at which time the houses were described as single-storey stone dwellings with two rooms apiece. These adjoining houses were pulled down in 1880, and the land remained vacant until at least 1891. The existing conjoined twostorey terraces were constructed in the early 1890s; according to the Council Rates records, they were two storey, five roomed brick and cement dwellings with iron rooves.

132-134 Cumberland Street remained in continuous family ownership from 1833 until their resumption by the State Government in the early 1900s. The first owner, Isaac Moore, was the brother-in-law of Edward Brady (owner c1840-1867) and his niece was Mary Ann Smith, nee Brady (owner c1877-1902). Moore sold to Edward Brady in 1840, according to Land Title records. On Brady's death in 1869, his will stipulated that Isaac Moore's sons, Edmund, William and Thomas Moore were trustees and were required to provide for Mary Ann Smith during her life, and for her children after death (Clive Lucas, Stapleton & Partners Pty Ltd, Longs Lane Precinct: Conservation Analysis and Interim Conservation Guidelines, 1991).

Much of the land and many of the buildings in The Rocks, including the subject properties, were resumed by the NSW Government under The Darling Harbour Resumption Act in the early 1900s.
The buildings at Nos. 132-134 Cumberland remained tenanted as residences until the 1970s. The buildings were boarded up in the 1980s, and for the next ten years, squatters intermittently occupied the buildings, and a period of vandalism ensued during which much of the joinery and many of the fixtures were stolen. It is likely that the timbers were subject to termite activity during this time.

The original internal layouts of the buildings have remained intact together with some of the original architectural detailing. (SCRA 1984: CU/04; see also Clive Lucas Stapleton 1991:50-53). The Sydney Cove Authority undertook extensive work in the precinct in the mid 1990s. The work included the conservation and restoration of the buildings and rear yards of 103-117A Gloucester and 130-142
Cumberland Streets, the construction of four new sensitively sited and designed infill dwellings, and the conservation and reopening of the two historic laneways, namely, Longs and Carahers Lanes. The work involved the retention of as much of the significant fabric as possible from the various stages of the buildings' lives (Mountstephens 1997). The conservation work carried out on the Longs Lane precinct won the Royal Australian Institute of Architects 1998 Lloyd Rees Award for Outstanding Urban Design.

The NSW government has sold off a set of heritage-listed Victorian terraces in the Rocks for $36.5m under a 99-year leasehold of the land. Australian-based real estate private equity firm NashCap and its partner Assembly Funds Management bought the 18 properties, all held on a single land title on a 2500 square meter block in Longs Lane after it was re-listed this year. 14 of the terraces are state heritage listed (Razaghi, 2021).

Historic themes

Australian theme (abbrev)	New South Wales theme	Local theme
1. Environment-Tracing the evolution of a continent's special environments	Environment - naturally evolved-Activities associated with the physical surroundings that support human life and influence or shape human cultures.	Changing the environment-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Agriculture-Activities relating to the cultivation and rearing of plant and animal species, usually for commercial purposes, can include aquaculture	(none)-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Commerce-Activities relating to buying, selling and exchanging goods and services	Developing real estate-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Commerce-Activities relating to buying, selling and exchanging goods and services	Tourist Industry-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Environment - cultural landscape-Activities associated with the interactions between humans, human societies and the shaping of their physical surroundings	Developing local, regional and national economies-National Theme 3
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Accommodation-Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation – does not include architectural styles – use the theme of Creative Endeavour for such activities.	Terrace-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Towns, suburbs and villages-Activities associated with creating, planning and managing urban functions, landscapes and lifestyles in towns, suburbs and villages	Impacts of railways on urban form-

Assessment of significance


SHR Criteria a) [Historical significance]	The Longs Lane Precinct is historically significant as it is indicative of mid nineteenth to early-twentieth century residential development of The Rocks, retaining strong associational and geographic links with adjacent community uses such as shops (Susannah Place) and hotels (The Australian and others). Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street are good and mostly intact representative examples of late nineteenth century modest inner city tenanted residential terraces and make an important contribution to the understanding of the historical development of The Rocks and Millers Point, particularly of the areas’ residents. The area now identified with Nos. 130-138 Cumberland Street remains as evidence of the density and character of the early nineteenth century subdivisions in The Rocks. The site commenced as a speculative venture in its initial form as a row of tenements in 1822, replaced in 1834. These single storey terraces were then replaced by the current buildings: Nos. 136-138 Cumberland Street in c1881-82, No. 130 in c1888, and Nos. 132-134 in 1891. The size of the original lot is testament to how lower quality housing came about in the nineteenth century, mostly built by speculative developers which was let to tenants who were attracted to live in the area because of the proximity to employment within the wharves and related industries. The work undertaken by the then Sydney Cove Authority (now the Foreshore Authority) to sensitively conserve and adapt the precinct and the building and rear yards and retain as much of the significant fabric as possible from the various stages of the buildings' lives adds a new layer of historical value reflecting the conservation ethos of the late twentieth century, particularly as it applies to NSW Government management of The Rocks. Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street meet this criterion on a State level.
SHR Criteria b) [Associative significance]	Three families have associations with the Longs Lane precinct as owners/developers: Long, Jobbins and Caraher, each provides an interesting contrast in their approach to the way the different allotments were developed. (Clive Lucas Stapleton 1991: pp52-53). Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street have associations with the Moore - Brady - Smith related families from 1833 until resumed by the Government in 1901. This family is reasonably typical of property owning families in The Rocks who also went to be land owners elsewhere in Sydney, in this case Mosman. These associations are not at the level to be described as strong or special association with significant people who are important in NSW cultural or natural history. Although the Longs Lane precinct group meets this criterion on a Local level, Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street do not meet this criterion.
SHR Criteria c) [Aesthetic significance]	The Longs Lane Precinct contributes significantly to the townscape of The Rocks. This significance rests on the ensemble of buildings dating from the mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth centuries, together with associated laneways and rear yards. In Cumberland Street, the 1880s buildings by their geographic isolation present a varied and characterful collection enhanced by the conjunction with Longs Lane, which is complemented by the Edwardian building at 140-142 Cumberland Street. (Clive Lucas Stapleton 1991: p57) Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street are good representative examples of a modest late nineteenth century pair of terrace houses with some Italianate pretensions but the residences do not in themselves demonstrate a high degree of aesthetic, creative or technical achievement. The buildings demonstrate mostly modest standards of construction in materials and workmanship. The fittings and decoration, which partly date from the 1990s reconstruction work, and the deliberate retention of the buildings’ external weathered patina, heighten the experience of the buildings’ age. The positioning of the Longs Lane Precinct terraces on an abrupt sandstone plinth formed out of the lowering of Cumberland Street, has almost accidentally raised the buildings as local landmarks. Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street meets this criterion at a State level.
SHR Criteria d) [Social significance]	Although The Rocks as a whole is highly valued throughout Australia as a precinct with strong connections to important Australian historical themes, Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street do not have strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in NSW or The Rocks area for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.
SHR Criteria e) [Research potential]	The Longs Lane Precinct is of prime archaeological significance with its continued European occupation from at least the first quarter of the nineteenth century in a relatively undisturbed state. The Longs Lane Precinct is of educational value to specialists and the general public with its ensemble of nineteenth buildings, laneways and rear yards, and its significance is enhanced by the tangible relationship of the buildings and laneways to the documentary and oral historical information. (Clive Lucas Stapleton 1991: 55-58) The archaeological potential of the site of Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street is high and relates to early development of The Rocks as well as late nineteenth and early twentieth century development. Any subfloor archaeological deposits are a significant resource. Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street meet this criterion on a State level.
SHR Criteria f) [Rarity]	Within The Rocks, Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street site are important survivors from the late nineteenth century, which still retain their residential use and demonstrate their historic internal spatial relationships, particularly its rear service areas. The terraces also retain an unusual amount of joinery and other fittings correct to the period, although much was reconstructed in the 1990s. The Longs Lane Precinct dating from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries which together with its open areas, yards, lanes and footpaths dating from the early nineteenth century is rare in the Sydney Region as advised by the Clive Lucas Stapleton & Partners Conservation Analysis (Clive Lucas Stapleton 1991: 58). Importantly, the relationships between Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street and its neighbours in the Longs Lane Precinct is still clear and unobstructed and still within the historic street pattern. Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street meets this criterion on a Local level.
SHR Criteria g) [Representativeness]	Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street are good intact representative examples of a late nineteenth century modest inner city residential terraces. However, the value of Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street as part of the Longs Lane precinct are considered to be rare in New South Wales, and are therefore discussed under Criterion F. Nos. 132-134 Cumberland Street meets this criterion on a Local level.
Integrity/Intactness:	Archaeological Potential high
Assessment criteria:	Items are assessed against the State Heritage Register (SHR) Criteria to determine the level of significance. Refer to the Listings below for the level of statutory protection.

Recommended management:

Buildings: All the extant buildings in the precinct should be retained and conserved. In general this conservation should be guided by the cultural significance of the individual item of the physical fabric. Ideally, this would be a reinstatement of missing fabric with a reconstruction to the earliest known form. Laneways and Rear Yards: The general form of the rear yards should be reconstructed to the period of the houses to which they belong. The fabric of Caraher's and Long's Lanes should be retained and conserved. The pavement and other missing fabric should be reconstructed where known. Gas lighting at the junctions of Long's Lane and Gloucester Street, Long's Lane and Cumberland Street, and probably Long's Lane and Caraher's Lane should be reconstructed. Archaeology: Any intervention of either the physical fabric of the buildings or subsurface of the site should be undertaken in consultation with an historical archaeologist. Such intervention may require archaeological investigation and recording. Interpretation: The differential historical development and use of Gloucester Street (extant mid and late-nineteenth century buildings) and Cumberland Street (extant late-nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings) should be interpreted by means of discrete information signs. (Clive Lucas Stapleton 1991: 103-104)

Procedures /Exemptions

Section of act	Description	Title	Comments	Action date
CMP-Endorse	Conservation Plan submitted for endorsement	Conservation plan from SHFA submitted for endorsement.		Nov 4 2015
57(2)	Exemption to allow work	Standard Exemptions	HERITAGE ACT 1977 ORDER UNDER SECTION 57(2) TO GRANT STANDARD EXEMPTIONS FROM APPROVAL I, Penny Sharpe, the Minister for Heritage, on the recommendation of the Heritage Council of New South Wales and under section 57(2) of the Heritage Act 1977: revoke the order made on 2 June 2022 and published in the Government Gazette Number 262 of 17 June 2022; and grant an exemption from section 57(1) of the Act in respect of the engaging in or carrying out the class of activities described in clause 2 Schedule A in such circumstances specified by the relevant standards in clause 2 Schedule A and General Conditions in clause 3 Schedule A. This Order takes effect on the date it is published in the NSW Government Gazette. Dated this 29th day of October 2025 The Hon Penny Sharpe MLC Minister for Heritage For more information on standard exemptions click on the link below.	Nov 7 2025

Standard exemptions for engaging in or carrying out activities / works otherwise prohibited by section 57(1) of the Heritage Act 1977

Listings

Heritage Listing	Listing Title	Listing Number	Gazette Date	Gazette Number	Gazette Page
Heritage Act - State Heritage Register		01606	10 May 02	85	2865

Study details

Title	Year	Number	Author	Inspected by	Guidelines used
SCA Register 1979-1998	1998	B012	Sydney Cove Authority (SCA)		Yes

References, internet links & images

Type	Author	Year	Title	Internet Links
Written	Clive Lucas, Stapleton & Partners P/L Architects	1991	'Long's Lane Precinct, Conservation Analysis and Interim Conservation Guidelines'
Written	Government Architects Office	2007	132-134 CUMBERLAND STREET Conservation Management Plan
Written	Grace Karskens	1981	National Trust Classification Card - 130-138 Cumberland Street, The Rocks (part of Long's Lane Precinct)
Written	Razaghi, Tawar	2021	Heritage-listed Victorian terraces in historic The Rocks precinct sell for $36.25m	View detail
Written	SCA	1984	Building Data Sheet, CU/05

Note: internet links may be to web pages, documents or images.

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Data source


The information for this entry comes from the following source:
Name:	Heritage NSW
Database number:	5053223

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