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Kingsclere Apartment
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Among the oldest apartment blocks in Sydney, Kingsclere was designed by Maurice Halligan and Frederick Wilton in 1912.
Halligan was already well-established as an architect, having designed the clubhouse of Royal Sydney Golf Club in 1908, but Kingsclere
marked a departure, in the direction of Manhattan.
Occupying a prime site in Potts Point, the grand red-brick building was equipped with the latest technology, such as 'telephonettes', intercoms and automatic passenger and goods lifts. Electric lighting and power were installed, and the building's internal well was fitted with a labyrinthine, New York-style fire escape.
All this was almost unknown in pre-war Sydney and made Kingsclere seem ultra-modern.
But by the 1990s the building had become something of a relic. For 70 years it had been owned by the Albert family, the music dynasty,
who had rented the apartments. That, in effect preserved them:as tenants were allowed to do very little to modernise their homes.
In 1995, the Alberts sold the building to developers, who sold the individual apartments.
The residents found themselves owners of flats that were enormous (250 square metres), wonderfully located and drenched with light, but utterly unsuited to modern life.
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