Commercial Banking Company of Sydney (CBC), Campbelltown Branch is a heritage-listed former restaurant, offices and bank building and now medical centre located at 263 Queen Street, Campbelltown,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, an outer suburb of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia. It was designed by Mansfield Brothers and built from 1874 to 1881. It is also known as Old CBC Bank; CBC Bank. The property is privately owned. It was added to the

New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...

on 2 April 1999.

History

Permanent European settlement in the Campbelltown area had begun in 1809 as an alternative to the flood-prone Hawkesbury district. Work on a road from

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

was started in 1811. It was opened in August 1814 and was soon extended further south to

Appin Appin () is a coastal district of the Scottish West Highlands bounded to the west by Loch Linnhe, to the south by Loch Creran, to the east by the districts of Benderloch and Lorne, and to the north by Loch Leven. It lies northeast to southw ...

. This road, variously known as Campbelltown Road,

Appin Road Appin Road is a New South Wales secondary highway linking Campbelltown and Sydney's western suburbs with Wollongong. It is named after Appin, which lies on its path. Route Appin Road commences at the intersection with Oxley Street and Narell ...

or the Sydney Road, passed through Campbelltown. The section through the town was called the High Street until the last decade of the 19th century when it was renamed Queen Street.Orwell & Peter Phillips, 1995, vol.2, 1-2. The land on which the Queen Street cottages stand was part of a grant of to Joseph Phelps in 1816. He had been working the land for some years before receiving formal title to it. Phelps was one of the farmers of

Airds Airds is a predominantly residential suburb of Campbelltown. Houses within the suburb are owned by Housing NSW. The land and houses are being sold off to a company and the area redeveloped to build private housing. Public Housing will only be a ...

and Appin who subscribed funds for a Sydney courthouse in July 1813. His grant was seized, possibly as soon as it was formally issued, by the provost marshal, William Gore, in lieu of payment by Phelps of debts totalling £170. The land was auctioned in January 1817 to William Bradbury for £100 plus twelve cattle and the grain produced from the crop growing on the land. Immediately north of Phelps' grant, Assistant Surveyor James Meehan had informally reserved for a village (AMCG, 1994 say "in 1815".) In 1816 most of the land in the area was granted, leaving a portion of unalienated, and surrounded by several grants.AMCG, 1994, 9. The reserved land was formally declared a town by

Governor Macquarie Major General Lachlan Macquarie, CB (; ; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, and had a leading role ...

in December 1820 and named Campbelltown in honour of his wife (Elizabeth)'s family. William Bradbury (1774-1836) a native of Birmingham, was transported to NSW aboard the ''

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

'' in 1812. His wife Elizabeth remained in England but his daughter, Mary (1797-1852) followed her father to Australia in 1815. Bradbury had no other children in NSW, though he established a relationship with a woman named Alice and in April 1836 married a Campbelltown widow, Catherine Patrick, née Acres (-1883). Bradbury died two months later. Governor Macquarie visited Campbelltown in January 1822. He and his party ate a "hearty" breakfast at 'Bradbury's', indicating that Bradbury had built an inn. This was probably the inn later known as the Royal Oak, on the western side of the High Street. Macquarie noted in his journal that 'Bradbury is building a very good two storey brick house on his own farm and on a very pretty eminence immediately adjoining Campbell-Town as an inn for the accommodation of the public, and having asked me to give his farm a name, I have called it Bradbury Park. In 1826 Bradbury Park House was considered by

William Dumaresq William John Dumaresq (25 February 1793 – 9 November 1868) was an English-born military officer, civil engineer, landholder and early Australian politician. He is associated with settler colonisation of the areas around Scone and Armidale ...

, inspector of roads and bridges, as the best building in Campbelltown when he reported on buildings suitable for military use. As the main street of Campbelltown, High Street or Sydney Road and later Queen Street, was at the edge of town, one side of the street was not within the town boundary while the other was. Canny traders soon realised that either side of the main road was as good as the other and leased or bought land from the grantees bordering the town proper. By the 1840s more than a few shops and hotels occupied the western side of the High Street. The coming of the railway in 1858 also aided in securing the commercial focus of the town on Queen Street. The Queen Street terraces were identified by Helen Baker (Proudfoot) in the early 1960s as a unique group of two-storey late Georgian vernacular buildings which were considered to form the only surviving late-1840s streetscape within the County of Cumberland. The buildings were acquired by the Cumberland County Council and its successors, the

State Planning Authority The Sydney Region Outline Plan (SROP) was a land use and infrastructure scheme for metropolitan New South Wales released by the State Planning Authority in March 1968. The SROP superseded the 1948 County of Cumberland planning scheme. Whereas ...

and Department of Planning, to ensure their preservation.

CBC Bank

Joseph Phelps was granted adjoining the future site of Campbelltown in 1816. His was one of a group of the first grants made that year. The subject property (the future 263 Queen Street) represents a small portion of the original grant. Phelps did not develop the portion of the grant that is the subject of this study. In fact no plan shows any development before 1881. Phelps increased his holdings to in 1817, and that year conveyed the larger property to Thomas Clarkson. It passed through several hands up to 1870, however it appears was not developed in any way. It was presumably used for agricultural purposes.AMCG, 1994, 14. Samuel Parker, blacksmith, bought the subject property as part of a larger parcel in 1870 from Charles Morris. Parker owned the adjoining property (south side) and appears to have worked and resided on the property. What use, if any, he made of the subject site is unclear (Parker's house can be seen to the left of the bank in an 1881-83 photograph).

The Commercial Banking Company

The Commercial Banking Company (CBC) of Sydney opened its first Campbelltown office in leased premises, McGuannes House at 286 Queen Street (across the road from no. 263) in 1874, with George L. Jones as manager. McGuannes House is separately listed on the State Heritage Register. It is owned by the Department of Environment & Planning and is at present leased as a doctor's surgery. AMCG (1994, 14) states that CBC bought the property (263 Queen Street) from Samuel Parker (not Morris) in 1876 and had the present building built in 1881. AMCG states that the bank's first permanent manager from 1874 was A. J. Gore, who served until he retired in 1904.Branch Manager's report, 100/85, 26 March 1985. The bank moved into its own premises at 263 Queen Street in 1881. This building (built between 1874 and 1881) was designed by the Mansfield Brothers who were important Victorian architects employed by the CBC Bank on a number of projects designing many bank chambers, examples surviving in many country towns. It is a fine and restrained Italianate style rendered and painted building symmetrically designed about a small portico. The bank sold a portion of the land it bought from Parker in 1880. The land was purchased in the name of the Queen for a new post office. That building was completed the same year as the CBC chambers. In 1959 the bank sold off another portion of its 1876 purchase to the Commonwealth of Australia, presumably for the creation of a telephone exchange. The banking chamber has been altered, but it is understood that the building still contains a stone domed vault, and the original staircase and other joinery. There is a large yard behind the bank which contains a stable/ coach house, now used as a garage. The CBC sold the bank cahmbers and property at 263 Queen Street in 1986, moving to new premises (as the

National Australia Bank National Australia Bank Limited (abbreviated NAB, branded and stylised as nab) is one of the four largest Banking in Australia, financial institutions in Australia (colloquially referred to as "Big Four (banking), The Big Four") in terms of mar ...

). In recent times the former bank building at 263 Queen Street has been leased by a Pancake restaurant and is today (1994) used as the offices for a local newspaper.AMCG, 1994, 19

Description

;Site: There is a large yard behind the bank which contains an 1874 stable/ coach house, now used as a garage. ;Bank: A fine and restrained Victorian Italianate style rendered and painted building symmetrically designed about a small

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

. The banking chamber has been altered, but it is understood that the building still contains a stone domed vault, and the original staircase and other joinery. C-shaped building around a

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...

. It includes a stone-domed bank vault.

Condition

As at 8 July 2008, the banking chamber has been altered, but it is understood that the building still contains a stone domed vault, and the original staircase and other joinery. There is a large yard behind the bank which contains a stable/coach house, now used as a garage.

Modifications and dates

*1950s - extension on the north side to the rear, alteration with

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

walls to the existing string course level and fenestration in keeping with the old building's style. *1960s - newer commercial building built to the rear of the site - there is no physical connection between the buildings. *1985 - The banking chamber has been altered (original bank fittings removed), but it is understood that the building still contains a stone domed vault, and the original staircase and other joinery. There is a large yard behind the bank which contains a stable/ coach house, now used as a garage. *1985 - approval for internal modifications being removal of some existing walls, reuse of existing cedar joinery with additions to match, restoration of a magnificent plaster ceiling, over the former banking chamber. *1992 - major redevelopment in the former rear yard. 1874 Stables/coach house was demolished after being archivally recorded.

Heritage listing

As at 26 October 2011, The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney set up its first Campbelltown office in McGuannes House in 1874 and moved into its own premises at 263 Queen Street, in 1881. The Italianate style building was designed by

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

's Mansfield Brothers, the architects responsible for a number of the bank's projects. The bank complements the old Post Office next door in period, scale and style and together these make an important contribution to this area of Queen Street.Press release, Michael Knight, MLA for Campbelltown, 19 April 1985. CBC Bank was listed on the

on 2 April 1999.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *

Attribution

External links

{{commons category-inline, Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, Campbelltown Branch (former) New South Wales State Heritage Register Campbelltown, New South Wales Commercial buildings in New South Wales Clinics in Australia Former bank buildings in New South Wales Office buildings in Sydney Restaurants in Sydney Articles incorporating text from the New South Wales State Heritage Register Commercial buildings completed in 1881 1881 establishments in Australia