Hastings, Heritage building in Neutral Bay, Australia

Hastings is a Federation Arts and Crafts residence in Neutral Bay featuring textured facades and asymmetrical design across multiple levels. The building at 2 Hayes Street now comprises three separate residential apartments following approved renovations.

The present house was built between 1904 and 1913 as a boarding house run by successive proprietors, on a site that also holds remains of earlier structures: a stone wall linked to Thrupp's Cottage or Craignathan of the 1830s, a woolstore of about 1831 demolished in 1884, and a pre-1842 reservoir. In 1956 the Commonwealth acquired it for the Royal Australian Air Force, which added a south porch and reworked the interior. The government sold it in the late 1980s and it was converted into three apartments.

The house is also known as Thrupp's Cottage, Craignathan, The Hastings and Milton, names carried over from the earlier buildings on the site. In the grounds stand a stone wall possibly from the 1830s, stone stairs that once led to Thrupp's Cottage, and the cellar walls of Craignathan, one of the earliest formal houses on the North Shore.

The residence is located on a main street in the neighborhood and can be easily spotted from the roadway. Keep in mind this is a private residential address, so viewing should be done from outside the property.

The pioneers linked to the site, Alfred Thrupp, John McLaren and Benjamin Boyd, are tied to the grounds and earlier buildings, not to the architect: the 1904 house is only attributed to E. Jeaffreson Jackson. In the garden, stone stairs once led to Thrupp's Cottage, possibly the earliest building on the North Shore, and the remains of a woolstore built around 1831 and demolished in 1884 survive.