club has remained less than 90 mell ' Cs from the General Post Office .
The club senled inro the Galatea Room and began a hnppy , smooth operation that has existed for six ·
teen years to the mutual benefit of the Sydney Club and ! 11e Royal Prince Alfred Yncht Club .
The remaining city area . from the enstem wall of the Sydney Club through to King Street , and then down to Pin Street and along to Rowe Sll ' Cet , then up to the nonh ..: asrem corner of the Sydney Club build · mg at 9 Ro "' e Street , is now completing development and will complement the MLC development bordered by Martin Place . Castlereagh and King S1reets . Fonunately , the fine old building that houses the Sydney Club has been classilicd a Heritage Bullding . It will be completely surrounded by the new development but the Sydney Club in Its beauli · ful building will be preserved for all time . Royal
Prince Alfred members are proud of the association with the Sydney Oub that provides them with the
best of city premises .
As we have wrillen so much about Rowe Street it may be of interest if we record a little of the history of that remarkAble street . In its early ' oflicial ' days , Rowe Street was named Brougham Pince but before that it was a track leading to a well . On 4 May 1836 a Government Grant ofland between Pin and Castle · reagh Streets was made to Joseph Wyatt . A narrow private lane meandered down the centre of this block
liul .. i11g th .: lwo '"""'"· Tlti > w11 > Bruugham Place . Later , Wyatt built a double line of COltllgcs down the sides of this lane . These were quaint little collages similar to those buih by Macquane . The lane re · muined priv111e property but it provided pedestrian traflic and was later renamed Rowe Street after · niomns Rowe , a young architect who arrived in Sydney in the 1850s . He was promoted to a Lieutenant . Colonel in the Engineers Corps and had 21 children . He was also the first mayor of Manly and supervised theplantingof theNorfolk pines tlicrc . lo
1854 he set up as an architecl and designed Newing · ton College , Sydney H ~ lJital , Sydney Arcade and some 200 churches .
On 2 October 1890 the great fire of Sydney swept uwuy almost all of the buildings between Hosking Pince and Moore Street ( Martin l ' luce ) ns well as severely damaging buildings between Pitt and Cas · tlereagh StreeL Rowe Street was badly damaged . The 1890 fire probably changed Sydney for the beucr- before the fire it h : id been impossible to drive a vehicle or ride a botsc bet ,. een Hunter and King Sll ' CctS a . s there was no thoroughfare , just three lanes for pedestrians .
Rowe Street was some place . Otic old club history
recalls :
Sailors , thugs and street women coloured the night with their btawls and abuse . The speccacle
u ~ ua lly ended with the arrival of the police can io which was attached a Jong pole-ihe offenders were unceremoniously lashed to the pole by Ll1cir wrists and marched off to the lock up . This happened outside the home of Torn Rowe ' s brother Richard , at the comer of Rowe and Pitt Sll ' CCt . Starkeys ginger beer factory was where the Aus · tralia Hotel stood . Maude Craig at the age of six could tell how many days the beer bud brewed by itS flavour . She lived nexr 10 the brewery .
In rebuilding Rowe Street and other buildings after the fire of 1890 the original mud walls were found to contain rushes 1houghl to have been brought from Rusbcuttcrs Bny . At theturnofthccentury a Russian with n bear used to stand on the comer of Rowe Sm : ct . When he made a collecdon or pennies he would ! al . e the bear to a nearby ho < el and buy it a pint of beer . In 1880 there \\ ere five pub >, between Rowe and King Street and beer was 3d a ptnL
At this time , and well inco the twentieth cemury , Moore Street and later Martin Place were happy hunting grounds for the ' ladies of ill fame '. Rowe Street wllS where the prostitutes paid off the police . if this did not occur there would be a raid whh the girls disappearing into buildings in Rowe Screet . losing themselves in the Australia Hoccl or escaping across Piu Sll ' CCt • nd biding in the General Post Office !
The ponals of the clubrooms at 9 Rowe Street . Sydney . The
RP A YC shares these rooms with the Sydney Club .
Some of the tr0phies in the Galatea Room in 1he SydneyOub .
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