Take a visual journey through Woollahra’s past and present in this special exhibition celebrating postcode 2025 in 2025. Through historical and modern photographs taken from the same vantage point, see how the suburb’s buildings, businesses, and streets have changed - or stayed the same - over time.
The suburb of Woollahra is on the land of the Gadigal peoples and derives its name from their word for ‘lookout’: Woo-la-ra. The word was recorded by Daniel Southwell, a midshipman on the First Fleet, who was in charge of the lookout station at South Head in 1790.
Unless otherwise specified, ‘then’ photographs are from a heritage survey commissioned by Woollahra Council in the early 1980s; and ‘now’ photographs were taken by Alex McClintock, a Woollahra Council photographer.
This element requires javascript to be enabled.Please wait while we load your map...
Built in 1929 by S.E. Coleman, these 12 residential flats and six shops on the corner of Oxford and Queen Street are a local landmark.
Their name derives from their location opposite the main entrance to Centennial Park. They have an eclectic mix of architectural features including a Dutch gable over the main entrance, Edwardian stained glass, and Spanish Mission style arched windows and columns.
From 1872, postal services were run out of Henry Ford’s drapery shop near the corner of Queen and Ocean Streets. As the local population grew, so did the volume of mail and telegrams, necessitating three deliveries per day from 1891.
In 1905, the Postmaster-General’s Department approved plans for a brick post office and residence to be constructed on the corner of Queen and Moncur Streets at a cost of £1958 (plus £1000 for the land). There were four bedrooms upstairs and a kitchen, dining and storage rooms behind the post office. In 2011, despite a campaign from local residents, the post office closed down. Ten years later the building sold at auction for $9.6 million.
‘Then’ photo from early 1900s.
The classic corner shop with a residence upstairs and ‘mixed business’ at street level is a thing of the past. Do you remember walking through those plastic, rainbow-coloured strips that hung over doorways that were meant to let the breeze in while keeping the flies out?
Guilio (Julio) Bonassi purchased this building in 1962 and also ran a tow-truck business.
A shop existed on the corner of Wallis Street and Bowden Lane from the 1920s but today it is a residence. This building and the seven terrace houses beside it were owned by the same family until 1960.
This Tooth & Co. hotel makes the most of its location on the corner of Jersey Road and Oxford Street. Substantially expanded in 1924 and renovated in 1939-40, it noses its way onto the street with its curved central column and illuminated finial.
Its symmetry, linear balcony rails, and brick work around the name of the hotel are inter-war functionalist stylistic elements.
This building harks back to earlier days when Woollahra was more than a residential area with a boutique high street. The first floor was built in 1947 with additional floors added in 1950 and 1952.
John Newton leased the first floor of the building in 1952 before buying it in 1961. He had an electrical business.
The land was owned by members of the Dorhauer family from 1925-1947. You might have heard of Dorhauer Lane, which is nearby.
This humble cottage on the corner of Spicer and Morrell Streets is at the end of a row of five workers' cottages, which was known as ‘Hart’s Row’. The cottages were built between 1858-1870 and James and Isabella Hart (or their estate) owned them for about 80 years.
They were sold as individual properties in the 1950s and subsequent owners have extended and renovated them without altering the streetscape.
Woollahra is a suburb associated with grand villas and mansions, but these cottages are a reminder that it has also been home to blue-collar workers.
Built in 1875-1877 as the Woollahra Congregational Church, this Victorian Gothic building was reduced to rubble following an arson attack on 27 January 1989. The church was designed by local architect and politician Benjamin Backhouse and once housed the first Forster and Andrews pipe organ to be imported to Australia.
Following the fire, the Uniting Church, which had several churches in the area, decided to sell the site and the shell of the building was restored and converted to a suite of upmarket apartments by a property developer. This former church is on the NSW State Heritage Register.
These photographs show how Ocean Street has gone green in the past 50 years. Where ‘Ranelagh’ dominated the skyline in the 1970s, it is now almost obscured by trees. Built in 1967, this 29-story apartment block replaced a three-story guest house that was built in the early 1850s.
The stone gate posts with religious motifs (near the jasmine hedge on the right of the recent photograph) are a link to the 19th century and possibly the nearby St Joseph’s Catholic Church.
This site at 48 Oxford Street has been a motor mechanics business since 1924. There were once three kerbside petrol pumps, but these were all removed by 1963.
The following year, a new owner planned to add a second floor so he could set up a showroom to sell Renault cars. This expansion didn’t proceed, and John Lacherdis took over the business in 1970.
Diagonally opposite the former Woollahra Post Office is a building that was previously known as Macdonald’s Corner - named after the glass, chinaware and ironmongering business established on the site around 1898 by William and Sara Macdonald.
Solomon’s Pharmacy was in the coveted corner position in 1973 when the Victorian-era building was renovated and extended along Moncur Street. Today the building, known as Queens Court or Queens Square, has seven commercial tenants and a central, leafy courtyard.
‘Then’ photo by Ian Scott, 1958.
37 Queen Street: This long, slim building is not the first building on this narrow strip of land. It was built in 1938 for Mrs Emilie Sabbi as a duplex with a two-bedroom home upstairs and a mirror image downstairs. Architectural plans and blueprints for this house show how plans for the front façade and rear were changed. Can you see the front balcony on the blueprint? This was not built.
39 Queen Street: This was the first of these three almost identical buildings to be constructed. In 1935, a Dutch seaman and his wife, Mr and Mrs Kiiwramees, purchased this land and applied to build two flats on it. The front façade features patterned brickwork, a rising sun motif and symmetry, all of which are features of the art deco style. The plans for this building were then reused to build no.37, except the windows and side passage were on the other side.
41 Queen Street: In December 1937, Arthur Coleman Esq. applied to remove the shop and house that was originally built on this land and replace it with a guest house with 9 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and communal living areas. He then sold the new building to an investor in 1938, who sold it five years later. Today this building contains four, one-bedroom apartments.