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Business operation system (BOS); Archives investigator

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Series (45)

Plan

Plans in this Series (2)

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Boxes in this Series (2)

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This item is no longer under copyright in Australia and is in the public domain. It may be used freely. When using or sharing this item attribution should be given to the City of Sydney Archives.

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Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880

Description

Unique IDAS-0150Start date1st January 1879Start date qualifiercircaEnd date1st January 1879End date qualifiercircaFormatMapDescriptionDove’s Plans of Sydney were executed by licenced surveyor H. Percy Dove in 1879. The main focus of the survey was to provide an accurate physical description of the City’s buildings. Dove’s survey work was encouraged by City insurance companies, who used his plans for rating insurance risks – particularly fire. The plans cover the Sydney CBD area from Circular Quay and Millers Point in the north to the Haymarket in the south, Macquarie and Elizabeth Streets in the east, to Darling Harbour to the west. They provide complete wharf, street, and building plans showing street numbers, business names, ground floor plans, outhouses and rights of way. The number of storeys in a building is also provided and appears on each allotment as a circled number. When SH is added to this number it indicates a shingle roof, otherwise the roof is of slate or metal. The plans were prepared at a scale of 40 feet to the inch (1:480). Dove also utilised the standard colours to denote different materials: pink for brick or stone, blue for iron, and yellow for wood.Relationship legacy dataRELATED TO: Surveying AY-46 (01/01/1880 to 01/01/1880) LanguageEnglish (eng)More informationThis plan appeared in the City of Sydney's 2017 exhibition "Our City - 175 Years in 175 Objects" - Item 92 - Building - Develop - Plans of Sydney by H Percy Dove, 1880 (page 112 in exhibition catalogue)Archivist noteMicrofilm is available in the following cancelled series: CRS 151, Master Negative Aperture Cards of CRS 150, 1986; CRS 152, Duplicate Negative Aperture Cards of CRS 150, 1986; CRS 160, Reference Aperture Cards of CRS 150, 1986

Map

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 9 - Blocks 24, 25, 26

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 8 - Blocks 19, 22, 23

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 7 - Blocks 20, 21

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 6 - Block 18

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 5 - Block 17

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 45 - Blocks 110, 111, 112, 113

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 44 - Blocks 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 43 - Blocks 101, 102, 103

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 42 - Blocks 94, 95, 96, 97, 97A, 98, 99, 100

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 41 - Blocks 92, 93

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 40 - Block 91

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 4 - Blocks 14, 15, 16

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 39 - Block 90

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 38 - Blocks 88, 89

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 37 - Blocks 77, 87

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 36 - Blocks 84, 85, 86

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 35 - Blocks 82, 83

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 34 - Blocks 80, 81

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 33 - Blocks 78, 79

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 32 - Blocks 73, 74, 75, 76

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 31 - Blocks 71A, 72

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 30 - Blocks 68, 69, 70, 71

Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880: Map 3 - Blocks 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Plan

Dove's Plans of Sydney, coloured, 410mm x 570mm x 50mm.

Dove's Plans of Sydney, coloured, 410mm x 570mm x 30mm, with original Percy Dove stamp on each page.

Box

CSA028451 - MULTIPLE SERIES

MULTIPLE SERIES - CSA058395

Access

Public access statusOpen to public accessPublic access noteAccess Notes:Access is normally provided through the reference microfilm
Restriction Category:

Identification and Arrangement

Source system ID150System of arrangementSingle numberCopiesMicrofilm is available in the Archives Search Room

Disposal

Disposal statusArchived

Data Quality

Legacy dataRegistered by: Angela McGing
Registered date: 09/09/1986
Amendments: Angela McGing 24 Oct 2007
Last amendment date: 24/10/2007
Other Disposal Instruments:
Bridging aids:
System of arrangements: Single number
Series control status: All items are listed in Archives Investigator.
Repository:
UpdatedDate: 31/10/2007
UpdatedUser: Oct 31 2007 11:01AM

BOS Series Description:
This series contains two sets of coloured plans published by H Percy Dove, a licensed surveyor, in 1880. The plans give complete wharf, street, and building plans showing street numbers, business names, ground floor plans, outhouses and rights of way. The number of storeys in a building is also given and appears on each allotment as a circled number.

Lisa Murray, one of the City's Historians, compiled the following research on Dove's Plans in 2001: "Letters from Percy Dove to the Town Clerk confirm that his plans of Sydney were completed in 1879. The purpose of the plans, as stated by Dove in a letter dated 21 October 1879, was "to make a survey of the City in order to shew the buildings". This survey was being carried out "for the Insurance Co'ys". (CRS 26/160/1258).

"Dove approached Sydney Municipal Council in November 1879 requesting that Council consider purchasing a set of his plans. In support of their worth, Dove reported that his plans had already been purchased by "the Government for the City of Sydney Improvement Board, and by a number of Insurance Companies". He also foreshadowed a second series of plans "which will include the greater portion of the City - the work being of too gigantic a nature to allow me to do the whole of the City at one time". (CRS 26/160/1351). It does not appear as though this second series was completed. Council resolved on 19 July 1880 not to purchase four copies of Dove's plans. Nevertheless it appears that the City Engineer's Department purchased a commercial copy at a later date, as this black and white set of plans with advertisements on the reverse has survived." The colour set of Dove's plans in the City of Sydney Archives collection was purchased in the late twentieth century. (The black and white set and a coloured set referred to were borrowed from the Archives by the Engineer's Department in 1986 and unfortunately never returned).

The following is an extract of a talk by Lisa Murray in 2007 about Dove's Plans:

"H. Percy Dove was a licensed surveyor who surveyed the city of Sydney in 1879 and produced detailed plans of the roads, passageways and buildings of the city. Dove accessed the 1865 Trignometrical Survey to assist in his survey of buildings. (CRS 26/1258/1879).

The year 1879 was a significant year for Sydney cartography. The 1879 Sydney International Exhibition was hosted in the Garden Place and a number of tourist guides and maps were published for visitors. More significantly, for the urban grain of the city, the 1879 Sydney Corporation Act and the City of Sydney Improvement Act both came into force. Both these acts had a role to play in building regulation and condemnations. The Sydney Corporation Act of 1879 also impacted upon the control of streets. Section 67 provided among other things: “All public ways in the City of Sydney now or hereafter formed shall be vested in the Council …”. The City Building Surveyor busied himself identifying lanes and roadways. And it appears that in response to the corporation act (which came into force on 1 August 1879) all buildings in the city were re-numbered.

Like the trig survey before it, Dove’s Plans of Sydney had a practical purpose. The main focus of the survey was to provide an accurate physical description of buildings. Dove’s survey work was encouraged by city insurance companies, who used his plans for rating insurance risks – particularly fire. (CRS 26/1258 and 1351 of 1879).

Dove’s plans were also extremely accurate in noting rights of ways, passages, laneways etc. This may be partly in response to the 1879 Sydney Corporation Act – there was increased interest in whether a lane now belonged on private title or to the municipal council. Obviously fire insurance companies were also interested in laneways for access purposes in fighting fires and rating fire risks.

Dove’s plans also recorded the new street numbering that was applied across the city at this time. The change in street numbering undoubtedly caused confusion, and the issuing of Dove’s plans so speedily after the change in numbering would have been extremely helpful.

Dove published two editions of his plans. Both cover roughly the same area: from Circular Quay and Millers Point in the north to the Haymarket in the south, Macquarie & Elizabeth Streets in the east, to Darling Harbour to the west. A watercolour version, for the benefit of the insurance companies, government departments and the like, was published first in 1879. This is generally referred to as the Plans of Sydney. The plans were prepared at a scale of 40 feet to the inch, so that (in the words of Dove) “frontages and depths can be scaled off to within a few inches”. (H. Percy Dove, A new and complete wharf, street and building plan directory of the city of Sydney 1880, explanation.) The plans were coloured to show the construction material of each building.

Dove utilised the standard colours to denote different materials: Pink for brick or stone, blue for iron, and yellow for wood. But Dove’s plans provide even more constructional information. Windows and doors are indicated, as is the number of storeys. The number in the circle indicates the number of storeys. SH added means shingle roof, otherwise the roof is of slate or metal.

The number outside the frontages to streets is the street number. The street numbering shown on Dove’s Plan was the new numbering system applied by the city council in 1879. Right of ways, archways and passages are all indicated. The name of the shop proprietor, business or building name was also recorded.

This watercolour edition is held by many repositories, including the City of Sydney Archives, the Mitchell Library (SLNSW), and the Society of Australian Genealogists. The City of Sydney Archives aims to make these plans available as part of the Digital Atlas of Sydney project.

A commercial version was published by Percy Dove in the following year to provide the general public with “an easy reference as to the Locality of any Building, Shop, Wharf, &c., in the City.” Dove was capitalising upon the new street numbering. The plans were titled A New and complete wharf, street and building plan directory of the city of Sydney 1880.

The main differences from the earlier watercolour edition are the scale of the plans is smaller, the plans are only black and white, and advertisements of local businesses appear throughout the volume. These advertisements probably financially supported this commercial edition.

This edition is also held by many repositories, but more importantly for researchers is also available online through the National Library. It allows researchers to browse through the plan page by page, choose a particular page, and zoom in.

Start Date qual: c.
Start Date: 01/01/1880
End Date qual: c.
End Date: 01/01/1880

Relationships

Collection175 Exhibition CollectionSource systemBusiness operation system (BOS); Archives investigatorRelated activitiesSurveying

Registration

Date registered5th December 2018Registered byData Migration UserRegistration statusApproved

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Plans of Sydney (Doves), 1880