Durham Hall, Surry Hills

Durham Hall is an historic house in Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales. It is a Colonial Georgian brick residence constructed in about 1835 for George Hill, a wealthy merchant. The house has had many owners and has had varied uses including a club. Over the years it was subjected to very unsympathetic alterations and additions. By the 1950s the building was almost unrecognisable. However, in 1983 major renovations were done to the house and many of the unsuitable additions were removed. The property is now classified by the Heritage Council of New South Wales as a house of historical significance.

George Hill was born in 1802 near Parramatta. He was the son of William Hill and Mary Johnson both of whom were convicts. His father obtained a pardon in 1813 and became a butcher. Hill also became a butcher and acquired considerable wealth by owning his own abattoir, purchasing several inns in Pitt Street and holding tracts of land.

In 1832 he married Mary Ann Hunter who was the recently widowed wife of Alexander Hunter, a warehouse owner in Pitt Street.

In 1835 Hill built Durham Hall on several lots of land that he had purchased. A few years after moving into Durham Hall his wife died aged 26 years.

On 24 March 1841 he married Jane Binnie, the daughter of Richard Binnie and Jane Studdart. Over the years the couple had a very large family. Two of their daughters married into notable families of that time. The eldest daughter Mary Jane married Fitzwilliam Wentworth, the son of William Charles Wentworth in 1868. Another daughter Alice Helen married Sir William Charles Cooper, the eldest son of Sir Daniel Cooper.

In 1842 Hill was elected to the Sydney Municipal Council and two years later became a magistrate. For a short time he was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council and returned to municipal politics and in 1850 was elected Mayor of Sydney.

Hill died in 1883 at age 81 after his buggy collided with a tram. His wife Jane lived at Durham Hall for another six years and in 1889 rented the home to women who used it as a boarding house. Jane Hill died on 25 January 1896.

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