Bellevue, Glebe

Bellevue is a Victorian house with Italianate features in Blackwattle Park Glebe, Sydney. It is owned by the City of Sydney Council and listed by the Heritage Council of New South Wales as a property of historical significance. It was built in 1896 by Ambrose Thornley, a notable Sydney architect for William Jarrett who lived in the adjoining house called Venetia (now demolished).

William Jarrett was born in Kent, England in 1829. In 1850 he married Margaret Roberts. In 1853 they travelled on the ship Beejapore with their two infant daughters. Soon after their arrival in Sydney, Jarrett became a publican but over the next thirty years he acquired enormous amounts of land and property. His holdings are listed in an advertisement for the sale of his estate in 1902. In Glebe he owned many houses including the now Heritage listed seven adjoining residences in Glebe Point Road which encompass the houses called Favo and Gaza. In 1870 he founded the Industrial Permanent Building Society and remained as its Manager for the rest of his life. William was also an alderman for Glebe for three years.

In 1873 he bought two lots on Blackwattle Bay foreshore and two years later built a very large house which he called Venetia (see photographs on right). Venetia was described in 1902 in an advertisement in the following terms.

Unfortunately William’s wife Margaret died in 1891 at their country residence called Fairlight in Mulgoa which is now also a Heritage listed property. In 1892 William remarried. His new wife was Lucy A White. In about 1896 William commissioned Ambrose Thornley, an architect to build Bellevue on the adjoining lot fronting the Bay (see photo on right). The house was described in an advertisement in the following terms.

William rented this property from the time it was built. One of the first tenants was James George Warden who took the photograph of Bellevue shown above in 1899. William Jarrett died in 1901. His wife Lucy lived at Venetia until 1903 and then moved to another house in Glebe.

James George Warden rented Bellevue from 1898 until 1903. He was born in London in about 1860. He immigrated to Sydney in 1878 on board the ship Christiana Thompson. In 1886 he established the firm of Warden Hotel Brokers in Pitt Street. In the following year he married Mary Jane O’Dwyer. The couple had five sons and one daughter over the next 12 years. Their youngest child, William was born at Glebe in 1899.

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