The Long's Lane Precinct, also Longs Lane Precinct, comprise a series of heritage-listed terrace houses located at 130 Cumberland Street, 132–134 Cumberland Street, 136-138 Cumberland Street, and 140–142 Cumberland Street, in the inner-city Sydney suburb of The Rocks in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The terrace houses were built from 1888 to 1914, and they are also known as 130 Cumberland Street, 132–134 Cumberland Street, 136–138 Cumberland Street, Watson's Butchery, and 140–142 Cumberland Street. The properties are owned by NashCap, an Australian-based real estate private equity firm. The precinct and the terrace houses were added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 May 2002.
, 140–142 Cumberland Street operated as the Sydney Harbour Bed and Breakfast.
History
130 Cumberland Street
Occupation on this site dates from when George Cribb constructed a row of tenements along Cumberland Street to Longs Lane. These were demolished and replaced by a row of single-storey terraces around 1834. The first recorded grant was to Benjamin Ford in January 1839, and the site of No. 130 was then known as Allotment 10, Section 74, comprising 2.5 perches.
In 1845, the City Council noted the building on Allotment 10 was a two-room brick and stone house with a shingled roof in "middling repair". The "date of taking" is noted as 1833, which may imply a date of construction or earlier assessment by the Town Surveyor. The tenant in this year and until was the owner, Benjamin Ford, described as either a dealer or a cooper. Between 1845 and , the demolition date, the building was described as a letted "shop" or "house and shop" of brick and/or stone construction. In 1861 Council noted that the "floor (was) under (the) footpath".
In 1888 the site's present building was erected as a speculative venture (owner not determined) and was first tenanted by William McGee, a tobacconist. Council described it in 1891 as a three-storey seven-room brick house with an iron roof. Magee resided in the house until 1895. In 1903 the land and building were resumed by the NSW Government under The Rocks Resumption Act, 1901.
The building at No. 130 remained tenanted as a residence until 1976. In the 1980s, the building was boarded up, with squatters intermittently occupying the building for the next ten years. Accordingly, a period of vandalism ensued during which much of the joinery and many fixtures were stolen. The timbers were subject to termite activity during this time. The original plan of the building has remained intact together with some of the authentic architectural detailing.
The Sydney Cove Authority undertook extensive work in the precinct in the mid-1990s. The work included the conservation and restoration of the buildings and rear yards of 103-117A Gloucester and 130-142 Cumberland Streets, the construction of four new sensitively sited and designed infill dwellings, and the conservation and reopening of the two historic laneways, namely, Long's and Caraher's Lanes. The work involved retaining as much of the significant fabric as possible from the various stages of the buildings' lives and was carried out in several stages from 1992 to 1997. The conservation work carried out on the Long's Lane precinct won the Royal Australian Institute of Architects 1998 Lloyd Rees Award for Outstanding Urban Design.
132–134 Cumberland Street
In 1807, this site was shown on Meehan's Survey to contain what appears to be a well-defined building line. Artists' views of this section of The Rocks from confirm a cluster of modest houses in the region. However, in 1822, the date of Harper's Plan, only one building outline is apparent in this section of Cumberland Street. Occupation on this site dates from when George Cribb constructed a row of tenements along Cumberland Street to Longs Lane. These were demolished and replaced by a row of single-storey terraces around 1834.