UNTIL cars began swamping Sydney’s streets nearly 100 years ago, verandahs on poles were one of the city’s most notable architectural features.
As roads were widened to make room for cars, footpaths were shaved, and the poles and verandahs they supported went with them.
Many that weren’t sacrificed for wider roads disappeared when new building regulations were brought in to ban verandahs held up by poles that could crush pedestrians if they were knocked by a car.
Now the City of Sydney is winding back the clock, carrying a resolution moved by the councillor John McInerney to ”support in principle the restoration and reconstruction of post-supported verandahs and balconies” on buildings that originally had them.
Cr McInerney said there is ”something fabulous” about getting back the older character of buildings. He wants the verandahs and poles returned to many Sydney streets with an easing of the safety restrictions.
He became involved in the issue when helping a constituent, Peter Murphy, who is renovating a heritage-listed hotel in Redfern and wanted to replace the verandah that was removed some time after 1949.
Without it, the building ”looks unbalanced”, and replacing it would restore its beauty and give his family an outdoor area.
While the council was happy to grant Mr Murphy permission, it did so on the proviso the verandah was not held up by posts but was cantilevered. This expensive process would have required the insertion of steel rods through the house to carry the verandah’s weight.
Poles could be erected on the pavement but they would be only decorative.
Mr Murphy thought cantilevering was ridiculous and with Cr McInerney’s help successfully challenged the requirement. His verandah can now be supported by poles, provided engineers guarantee it will stay up if one of them is knocked out.
Cr McInerney hopes the resolution, and changes to the council’s development control plan, will mean a ”renaissance in balconies and verandahs” in older suburbs.
”These buildings were designed for them and when you see them now they have little strips of metal where the verandahs used to be attached to them. King Street, Newtown, looks bald without them,” he said.
Many owners have replaced verandahs with awnings supported by ties attached to the face of the building. While these protect pedestrians from rain, Cr McInerney said they don’t have the same appeal. ”Verandahs improve the look of the street and the amenity of the people living in the building,” he said.
A heritage architect, Ian Stapleton, from Clive Lucas Stapleton & Partners, welcomed the proposal but doubted how much impact the new policy would have.
Under Cr McInerney’s resolution, posted verandahs must be designed not to fall if any one post is knocked down, which Mr Stapleton said would make it difficult to engineer when a verandah went round a corner and had a corner post.
Source: SMH
