202
Victoria Street is one of a group of three terraces erected in the 1850s on the former Telford Lodge estate in
Darlinghurst. In 1828
Governor Darling assigned to his senior government officials 15 exclusive villa estates on land he had subdivided from the governor's former reserve which lay immediately east of the town boundary of Sydney. This area was initially named
Woolloomooloo Heights and later renamed Darlinghurst. A condition of the land grants was the building of a villa. In 1829, the deceased
Colonial Treasurer's grant was reassigned to Edward Hallen (1803–80), a draughtsman to the
Surveyor General. Hallen built his villa, Telford Lodge, in 1832. (The building survives in a much modified form, on Brougham Street, Potts Point). Darling's plans for the establishment of exclusive villa estates on the eastern boundary of Sydney were short-lived. Subdivision of these estates began in the early 1840s, driven by the onset of the colony's first economic downturn coupled with an increasing demand for land for housing from Sydney's rapidly growing population. Hallen was among the first of the villa landowners to subdivide his holding and sell his villa. Subdivision of the Telford Lodge estate between 1841 and 1843 created the northern end of Victoria Street which was included within the boundaries of the newly created City of Sydney in 1842. Victoria Street was aligned in 1848 and by 1854 allotments had been set out on both sides of the street. Larger lots were created at the northern end of Victoria Street, for residences with harbour views. The southern end of Victoria Street (towards
William Street) was characterised by small narrow lots for workers cottages and terraces. By 1854 the allotments immediately south of No. 202 had been built on. Victoria Street was renumbered in the 1870s. From the mid 1850s until 1870 the three terraces at 198-202 Victoria Street were numbered as 204-208. The City of Sydney Rate and Valuation records indicate that Nos 204-208 Victoria Street were constructed between 1855 and 1858. They were in common ownership and are described as two storey "brick and shingled" with two rooms. The 1865 Trigonometrical Survey shows the three terraces built flush to the street with no verandah and each with an outhouse (toilet) in the rear yard. Nos. 198-202 Victoria Street are typical of the development on the small lot subdivisions that characterised the southern end of Victoria Street in the mid nineteenth century. The terraces were mainly occupied by working men and their families in a succession of tenancies until the mid twentieth century. Few tenants stayed for long periods. Until the 1890s, the majority of larger residential buildings along Victoria Street were occupied as private residences. But by the 1890s, large numbers of "residential" and boarding houses were listed along Victoria Street and surrounding streets. The demographic change was in part due to the steady move of those who could afford to into the newly developing outer suburbs. This move was promoted by improvements in public transport, which made it possible (and affordable) to travel from the suburbs into the city on a daily basis. It was also promoted by the rhetoric of social reformers. The inner city area developed an unfavourable reputation that was only reinforced by the bohemian lifestyles of some of the "fringe-dwellers", artists, writers etc. who were attracted to the area during the interwar period and the presence of American servicemen during World War II. Among the late nineteenth and early twentieth century owners of the terraces was the winemaker, Isaac Himmelhoch, who owned the terraces between 1893 and 1913. Himmelhoch was a businessman who owned a large amount of inner city property.
Thomas Playfair, who owned the terraces between 1916 and 1925, was a member of a Sydney butchery and meat provedore family, who had served with distinction in
World War I. In 1927 he became a member of the
New South Wales Legislative Council and was influential in the establishment of the
United Australia Party. In 1926 Playfair sold the five terraces to Anna Hindmarsh who retained ownership until 1958. The titles for the jointly held properties at 198–202 Victoria Street and 11–13 Earl Street were separated in 1958. Rate and Valuation Records indicate that Nos. 198 and 202 Victoria Street were, as were many of their neighbours, occupied as mixed commercial/ residential buildings at various times from the 1950s through to the 1980s. In 1958 Gregory Psaltis purchased 202 Victoria Street. He had been a tenant there since 1939 and been granted a wine and spirit license for this address in 1951 when he converted the front room for use as a storeroom for wine and cigarettes. In 1966 Psaltis sold No. 202 Victoria Street to Swiss Restaurants Pty Ltd which sold the property in 1968 to
Juanita Nielsen.
202 Victoria Street and Juanita Nielsen: 1968–75 In 1968 the City of Sydney Council, then being managed by three State appointed City Commissioners, announced the preparation of a new comprehensive planning scheme. Certain key areas, such as Woolloomooloo, Potts Point and
Kings Cross, were highlighted for redevelopment. Under the plans put forward, it was proposed to revitalise Kings Cross and Woolloomooloo through the demolition of old residential buildings and the construction of high density developments. Victoria Street's place in this scheme was hotly contested by residents. Also in 1968, 202 Victoria Street was sold to Juanita Joan Nielsen, journalist of Brougham Street, Potts Point who was born in 1937 and was a great-granddaughter of businessman
Mark Foy. Nielsen's father bought the house for her, together with the local newspaper "NOW" which she published from 202 Victoria Street. "NOW" was originally a local issues and advertising newspaper, promoting local businesses and services and reflecting the bohemian lifestyle of Kings Cross. Initially Nielsen continued this writing style, making limited editorial comment on serious issues. Sometimes she included photographs of herself modelling the latest fashions for local stores. By mid 1973 the focus of the paper began to shift as Juanita Nielsen became involved in a number of local issues that she saw as threatening the lifestyle and harmony of the local community. One of the issues was the growing pressure by developers on the working class tenants of the terrace houses along Victoria Street to vacate their homes for demolition and redevelopment. Through 1973 and 1974 many low income tenants were forced or intimidated into leaving as the developers bought up properties. Nielsen's tenant neighbours at 204 Victoria Street were evicted to make way for demolition for the multistorey redevelopment of the site under the Parkes Development Company. Nielsen was also approached by the developers for the inclusion of her property in the development. She refused and later claimed to have been intimidated. In addition to the new focus of her newspaper, Nielsen also formed the Victoria Street Ratepayers Association and became its secretary. This enabled her to lobby the City Council against the Parkes Development and effect the delay that eventually saw the proposal lapse. Confrontation between developers and residents of Victoria Street intensified over the summer of 1973-74, often becoming violent, over the redevelopment of Victoria Point at the northern end of Victoria Street by developer Frank Theeman. Many of the tenants threatened with eviction lived in low cost rental accommodation. They organised themselves into the Victoria Street Residents Action Group to protest. In late 1973, the abduction (and later release) of one member of the Action Group, Arthur King, and the attempted eviction of one tenant, Mick Fowler, and his mother, brought matters to a head. Fowler had been away at sea when his mother was forced out. On his return from sea, and finding his mother evicted and his house boarded up, Fowler gathered members of the
Seamen's Union of Australia and the
Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) to gain re-entry to his house, despite the developer's security guards having been placed around it. Fowler's actions were the beginnings of an ongoing and often violent campaign between residents and unions and the developers, culminating in the BLF, led by
Jack Mundey, imposing a
green ban on any development on Victoria Street in late 1973, which effectively halted all work on the sites. Nielsen strongly supported the fight to save Victoria Street and the impositions of Green Bans and used her newspaper to bring attention to the battle and to the violence and menace that accompanied the struggle. The battle over the demolition and redevelopment of Victoria Street in the early 1970s was by now highly politicised and generating wider public debate as one of the main campaigns in urban conservation in Sydney during this period. Victoria Street was one of the ongoing Green Ban sites being organised by the Builders Labourers Federation. Green Bans became synonymous with urban conservation in Sydney at this time, with
Kelly's Bush (
Hunters Hill),
Glebe,
The Rocks, Woolloomooloo and Victoria Street being the main sites to be eventually protected through this process. Nielsen maintained a high media profile, despite her concern with increasing threats to her safety. She joined the Woolloomooloo Residents Action Group who were fighting similar development pressures and campaigned against development in Woolloomooloo in her paper. Her concern was primarily for the tenants of low cost rental accommodation who were being pushed out of their neighbourhoods. Interviewed by the "
Sydney Morning Herald" in October 1974 she was quoted as saying 'she has no time for ratbags interested in publicity or pushing some political line, but she has real concern for the little people pushed out by developers.' In early 1975 the NSW branch of the BLF was taken over by the federal branch and the Green Ban was lifted. There were allegations that the developer Frank Theeman had met with the federal BLF leader
Norm Gallagher to effect the lifting of the ban. Nielsen, however, through her activism, had by then been instrumental in organising a ban by the
Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen's Association of Australasia (FEDA) which effectively continued the stop on development. Her campaign intensified and stalled the development. In April 1975 Theeman claimed that his company was losing up to $3000 a day in costs from the stalled development and was facing financial ruin. Nielsen disappeared on 4 July 1975, following an appointment at the Carousel Club in Kings Cross to discuss advertising in "NOW". Her disappearance was widely reported in the Sydney media. Her body has never been found. A 1983 coronial inquest into Nielsen's disappearance returned an
open verdict. It found that Nielsen was dead but could not say how, when or where she died. In 1994 the Commonwealth Parliamentary Joint Committee on the
National Crime Authority investigated Nielsen's disappearance. The Committee's report noted: 'Because of her newspaper campaign, her links with a supportive union and her position as a Victoria Street property owner and ratepayer it was possible to see Nielsen in July 1975 as one of the few significant obstacles to the plans of developers. The case remains unsolved. == Description ==