Opening the door to Sydney’s residential history

When Amanda Stelcova began taking photographs of inner Sydney heritage homes and their vintage doors in 2019, she was drawn to telling residential stories from a historical perspective.   

The former Performing Arts teacher made a career pivot after being diagnosed with a debilitating neurological illness that was impacting her ability to work. She found comfort walking the inner streets of suburban Sydney – and being outdoors helped her deal with the diagnosis while leaning into a new hobby.

“I set off on short walks in different parts of Sydney photographing on my phone – looking for the most colourful old doors and houses I could find,” Ms Stelcova told realestate.com.au. 

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“I was so engrossed on these door-finding missions that I was momentarily distracted from the relentless symptoms and my paralysing depression,” she explained.

With more than 21.6k followers on Instagram, Doors of Sydney now has a cult following all keen to learn about her latest residential home unravelling. The site is a snapshot of the beautiful homes that line the streets of Paddington, Surry Hills, Newtown and Redfern to name a few – and what begins as a colourfully painted door often leads into an unexpected tale of the suburban street’s past and those who lived here.

“We never get to see what goes on behind closed doors,” Ms Stelcova said, who never anticipated to find so much colour behind a single door she snapped.

“Walking Sydney’s streets and documenting the city’s residential doors and houses has somehow brought me closer to the beating heart and the indomitable spirit of the people who live here,” she said.

“What started out as an experiment has turned into helping me to feel connected to those who are connected to these areas and homes,” she added.

Capturing the glory of these Victorian terraces has inevitably led to finding out when they were built, context of what was happening in the neighbourhood at the turn of the century, and a lot of research that sees Ms Stelcova work her way through Trove and The Sand Directories to piece the past together.

She reveals how a local man Jim Quayle recently contacted Doors of Sydney after purchasing a tiny colourless terrace in a laneway street of Surry Hills situated next door to a watermelon pink house.

“Jim decided to paint his terrace a rich shade of green to complement the pink, which I thought was an inspired choice,” Ms Stelcova said of the way her site is connecting community together.

But it’s also the haunting past of some of these homes that intrigues her too.

“Some of my favourite stories behind these homes and doors have involved magic gin pills, poisonous cigars, the night men of Sydney, illegal gaming houses and money lenders, as well as tragic stories of backyard abortions, the bubonic plague and extreme hardship,” says Stelcova.

Redfern home

I love this unusual free standing terrace house in Redfern.  It was built around 1900 when speeding offences often occurred on horseback – dubbed ‘furious riding’ offences at the time.  

Penalties were proportionate to how furious one was riding. There were numerous cases of furious riding offences recorded all around Sydney. One such case was in 1901, when Morgan Flaherty appeared at Redfern Court and pleaded guilty to furious riding down Bourke Street Redfern, straight past this newly built house.

He was fined 20 shillings or four days hard labour for “endangering the safety of persons passing therein”.

Balmain home

This is the most unusual entrance to Lilliwill in Balmain. Liliwill was built by Neil McIntosh in 1905 who lived in the house across the road called ‘Cartley’ with his daughter Jessie – a spinster. There was much discussion after I posted this, and my followers who include architects, concluded that the most unique cast iron filigree awning must have been added on later, as it is very different in style from the actual house. 

The stories I discover never cease to astound me. In 1909, McIntosh’s daughter Jessie who was aged in her 50’s, died under mysterious circumstances after smoking a poisonous cigar. The coroner was unable to ascertain whether Jessie had willingly smoked the cigar herself. Her brother Gregory testified that although she was fond of Schnapps, Jessie was averse to smoking.

Dr. Sheldon attended to Jessie after her untimely death, and testified that he had found approximately two inches of the offending cigar inside her mouth.

Paddington Home

This is one of my favourite terrace houses found at the end of a tiny street in Paddington.

In January 1900, the dreadful Bubonic plague came to Sydney via rats which arrived on ships from overseas cargo. Michael M’Hale was diagnosed with the plague in May 1900, and survived. He was a 28-year-old night watchman who lived in this little street in Paddington.

There were 12 Bubonic plague outbreaks in Sydney between 1900 and 1925. M’Hale also survived being shot through the right cheek during a robbery whilst on duty at the Oxford Street Post Office in 1914. In 1917, his luck ran out when he was sentenced to two years imprisonment for scamming money from the Post Office through a Tattersall’s Lottery ticket scheme.

Woolloomooloo home

This is one of my favourite Victorian gingerbread style houses in Woolloomooloo. Much of this area is part of the Woolloomooloo Redevelopment area – where most of the housing including this was used as social housing. In the early ‘70s this area had been approved for development – with all its houses to be demolished to make way for high rise office blocks, skyscraper hotels, a 3400-space car park and retail, recreation and a Convention and Exhibition centre. 

In October 1972, local residents came together at a street meeting led by Edmund Campion who requested a Green Ban. The BLF granted their request, refusing to bulldoze or work on any construction to take place. An alternative plan was eventually decided upon which provided medium density living, incorporating building new housing, as well as preserving the old houses, including this one pictured. 90% of the remaining terrace houses were saved and restored as a result of this action.

After sharing this history, one of my followers told me her father grew up in this area – and she perfectly summed it when she said Woolloomooloo has a very tight community spirit that money can’t buy.

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