Housing Board Building, Former factory, store and dwelling in The Rocks, Sydney, Australia
The Model Factory and Dwelling, also called the Chung Lun Building, is a four-level brick building at 120 Gloucester Street in The Rocks, designed by George McRae and built in 1912–1913. Its floors held a basement store, ground-floor warehousing, first-floor workrooms and a three-bedroom flat on top, with fireproof construction and a staff dining room.
Plans for a "Factory and Dwelling" were drawn by George McRae's office in 1909, and the building went up in 1912–13 on land resumed after the 1900 plague outbreak. It replaced Frog Hollow, twelve substandard dwellings demolished between 1901 and 1905. Chung Lun, soft-goods warehousemen, was rated for the store and factory from 1911 to 1926.
The name "Housing Board Building" is a misattribution: the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage confused it in 2011 with the actual Housing Board building at 16–18 Grosvenor Street. The site is better known as the Chung Lun Building, after the soft-goods warehouseman rated there from 1911 to 1926. From the mid-1920s to the mid-1940s Ella Beatrice Steward ran refreshment rooms here.
The building sits centrally in Sydney and is easy to reach on foot or by public transport. Since it is now mainly protected as a heritage site, visitors can appreciate it from the outside while exploring the historic architecture and the older structures surrounding it.
The name "Housing Board Building" is a 2011 error by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, which confused 120 Gloucester Street with the real Housing Board Building at 16–18 Grosvenor Street. The building's documented alias is Chung Lun Building, after the soft-goods warehouseman rated here from 1911 to 1926.
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