Author: Liz Gorman, Emily Pickering [research]
Client: Private Client
The object of this Heritage Impact Statement was to assess the impact of alterations to 8 Stephen Street Balmain on the heritage qualities of heritage listed properties in the vicinity and on the Balmain East Heritage Conservation Area.
The proposal seeks to remove the existing rear addition of the 1850s weatherboard cottage and replace it with a timber clad single, attic and double storey rear addition.
8 Stephen Street is located within the site of a 550-acre grant made to Surgeon William Balmain by Governor John Hunter in 1800. Balmain only held the grant to 1804 when it was clandestinely transferred to Dr John Gilchrist. The area encompassed the entire Balmain peninsula. Subdivision commenced in a highly unregulated manner from 1836, with Balmain being described in 1843 as having grown from having only “three or four buildings to a large and rapidly increasing village”. By the 1850s, Balmain’s population reached 1,397 and a growing industrial presence made the area attractive for working class housing for those employed in the area. The building of Mort’s Dock in 1855 and the opening of the Pyrmont Bridge in 1857 further escalated the area’s development.