Potts Point terrace sold at $5.55 million

A Victoria Street, Potts Point landmark terrace - one of the few with views over Woolloomooloo Bay - has been sold for $5.55 million.

The historic freestanding four level residence at 55 Victoria Street dates back to the 1870's, set on the side of the McElhone stone stairs that since 1870 have connect Potts Point with Woolloomooloo.

It last sold in 2000 to the Moloney family for $1.5 million when offloaded by film producer Rebel Penfold Russell who paid $465,000 in 1983, then had to battle the adjoining Victoria Point development project.

It is one of Sydney's earliest heritage protected terrace homes. In the 1870s when number 55 was constructed on a steep, narrow parcel of land extending from Victoria Street to Brougham Street the area to the north was still largely covered with gardens and bush.

The area was described at the time as the "Regent's Park of Sydney". 

It was built for Charles Elouis. The rate books indicate that in 1931 the Catholic Women's Association occupied the place. Alice Elouis was still alive but it became a boarding house known as Rosmoyne Flats.

In 1935 the title transfer of John Peza.

NSW Heritage records show it appears that he continued the use and that the subsequent owners Hamilton (1949-51) and Blok (1951-70) occupied and managed the place as a boarding house and flats.

In 1970 Victoria Point Pty Ltd acquired it for redevelopment. The site then became associated with one of Sydney's most protracted and notorious development disputes involving passionate battles over the rights of tenants and the future of the city fringe. 

The six bedroom, three bathrooms had been listed by VanWhite agent Vanessa White and Richardson & Wrench.

It is the street where battles raged against developers.

The historic terraces might have saved, but the high-rise development got built post-green bans.

The magic of Victoria Street - with the sunlight filtering through the plane-tree-lined Parisian-style strip - has pretty much survived.

It was among the first of the inner-city earliest heritage listings, though not until the 1980s. The initial ones were made on the 1962 County Register, including Elizabeth Bay House, University of Sydney Main Building and Victoria Barracks, Paddington and St. Paul’s College at Sydney University.

The earliest Register of the National Estate listings date from 1978, and were mainly a re-listing of the existing National Trust lists, including Tranby in Glebe, Juniper Hall in Paddington, Rockwall in Potts Point and Cleveland House in Surry Hills.

State statutory listing in the inner city began in 1979 with the making of a Permanent Conservation Order No. 6 over Elizabeth Bay House, followed in the same year over Rockwall, Tranby and over Tusculum in Potts Point.

In 1981 a permanent conservation order was applied to Boomerang at Elizabeth Bay, followed by the terraces at 197-201 Albion Street, Surry Hills and over the terrace at 55 Victoria Street, Potts Point.