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John Frederick Hilly (c.1810 – 3 September 1883) was a surveyor and architect who designed commercial buildings, churches and houses in mid-nineteenth-century Sydney. He was born in Warwickshire and arrived in Australia in 1839. On 8 January 1842 Hilly married Ellen Morgan at Christ Church St Laurence in Sydney. Hilly Street in Mortlake, New South Wales, is named in his honour. Works attributed to Hilly include:

• In 1842 Hilly designed a Victorian Gothic Revival sandstone house for the widow of Thomas Smith. The property is now part of the Ascham School campus in Edgecliff.
• The 1844 designed St Patrick's Catholic Church in The Rocks, Sydney, is his earliest known ecclesiastical building.
• In 1846 Hilly designed a two-storey stone cottage known as Percyville and that house forms most of the front of the present house is that is now Bishopscourt at Darling Point.
• In 1847 Hilly designed St Thomas's Anglican Church in Enfield consisting of a sanctuary, chancel, nave and vestry, surmounted by a spire on a square Norman tower.
• In 1852 Hilly designed a Victorian Rustic Gothic style house known as Greycliffe for members of the family of William Charles Wentworth at Vaucluse.
• In 1853 Hilly designed the Sydney Exchange which in 1901 became known as the Royal Exchange of Sydney and was demolished in 1964.
• In 1854 Hilly designed a bank building for the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney on the corner of George Street and Barrack Street, Sydney. In 1923 Leslie Wilkinson dismantled the building stone by stone and rebuilt it on the campus of the University of Sydney where it now houses a Post Office and the Sydney Pharmacy School.
• In 1856 Hilly designed Carrara at Vaucluse for John Hosking who had been the first elected mayor of Sydney. The house is now known as Strickland House.
• In 1856 Hilly designed Bomera in Potts Point a two-storey Sydney sandstone house in the early Italianate style with a two-storey building serving as stables and coach house.
• In 1860 Hilly designed the first grandstand at Randwick Racecourse. It was constructed for the first race meeting and was built of American timber. Although it was intended to be temporary it stood for 15 years.
• In 1864 Hilly designed Fiona for Edward Knox of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company and it is also part of the Ascham School campus in Edgecliff. It has an identical front elevation to Bomera in Potts Point.
• Hilly designed two Victorian Rustic Gothic style stone houses that have since been demolished in the Inner Western Suburbs of Sydney. The Sydney physician, Dr George Fortescue, bought an estate on the Parramatta River in 1851. He named the area Chiswick after the village on the Thames River in Devonshire. His home Wymston was built in the 1860s on Blackwall Point Road. In the same era Hilly designed Barnstaple Manor on Rodd Point in Iron Cove for the Sydney solicitor Brent Clements Rodd.
• The 1860s additions to the John Verge designed mansion Tusculum in Potts Point, including the cast iron balustrade design, are attributed to Hilly. The design is very similar to his work at Fiona and Guntawang.
• In 1869 Hilly designed the homestead at Guntawang at Mudgee. The building is a single-storey version of his design for Carrara at Vaucluse.
• The 1863 Hilly designed Prince of Wales Theatre in Castlereagh Street, Sydney, was burnt down in 1872.
• In 1870 Hilly designed The Oddfellows Hall at 38 Queen Street Woollahra for the Lodge of the Manchester United Independent Order of Oddfellows. It was restored in the 1970s by Leo and Anne Schofield as Queen Street Galleries.

Gallery

• Dower House at Ascham School
• Greycliffe House in Nielsen Park
• Strickland House in Vaucluse
• Commercial Banking Company Sydney
• St Thomas Anglican Church in Enfield

References

1. Dictionary of Sydney John Frederick Hilly Retrieved 11 September 2023.
2. "Family Notices". The Sydney Herald. Vol. XIII, no. 1449. New South Wales, Australia. 10 January 1842. p. 3. Retrieved 12 September 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
3. Hilly Street Canada Bay Retrieved 11 September 2023.
4. Dictionary of Sydney Dower House Edgecliff Retrieved 12 September 2023.
5. Dunn, Mark (2008), "St Patrick's Catholic church, Church Hill", The Dictionary of Sydney, retrieved 11 September 2023.
6. "Bishopscourt". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Department of Planning & Environment. H00362. Retrieved 1 June 2018. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) under CC-BY 4.0 licence. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
7. Strathfield Heritage St Thomas’ Anglican Church Enfield Retrieved 11 September 2023.
8. "Greycliffe Flats – house, grounds and sandstone retaining wall to street". New South Wales Heritage Database. Office of Environment & Heritage. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
9. Dictionary of Sydney Royal Exchange of Sydney Retrieved 12 September 2023.
10. Camperdown, University of Sydney, Bank Building Retrieved 12 September 2023.
11. "Strickland House". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Department of Planning & Environment. H00722. Retrieved 11 September 2023. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) under CC-BY 4.0 licence.
12. "Bomera & Tarana". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Department of Planning & Environment. H01400. Retrieved 11 September 2023. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) under CC-BY 4.0 licence.
13. Racecourse Architecture: Royal Randwick
14. Dictionary of Sydney Fiona Edgecliff Retrieved 12 September 2023.
15. Wymston Blackwall Point Road, Chiswick Retrieved 12 September 2023.
16. Bay Run history Retrieved 12 September 2023.
17. Historical Guntawang for sale – Cullen Royle Retrieved 11 September 2023.
18. Dictionary of Sydney Prince of Wales Theatre Retrieved 11 September 2023.
19. 38 Queen Street Woollahra Retrieved 11 September 2023.

• 1810 births
• 1883 deaths
• New South Wales architects
• People from Warwickshire (before 1974)
• British emigrants to Australia
• Surveyors