Top End Of Town Fond memories of the tropics infuse a sensitively renovated inner-Sydney terrace.

A rejuvenated inner-Sydney terrace joins all the dots, with views of the city skyline plus a garden to stoke memories of time spent in the tropics.

As a young journalist, Wendy Carlisle spent four years living in Darwin, and strong hints of that Top End lifestyle can be traced through her subsequent homes. When she and her partner Lesley renovated their first home, in Sydney’s inner west, they added a typically tropical feature in the form of a glass and timber pavilion that opened up to a lush garden on two sides. They loved living there but yearned to shorten the commute to their city-based jobs. “We wanted to be able to walk or cycle to work, and live in a more vibey place,” says Wendy.

Their search led to a two-bedroom, Georgian-style terrace on the edge of the CBD. Before buying it, they consulted the architect who’d worked on their first renovation about its prospects. He reassured them that the house, while old and in poor repair, had good orientation and was structurally sound – but he wasn’t available to work with them on a second project. “So we looked at the work of a few other architects and the minute we met Caroline Pidcock, who designed a house in Rose Bay we’d seen and loved, we put ourselves in her hands,” says Wendy.

The house’s heritage listing prevented any major structural changes, but Caroline helped turn it into a contemporary home by improving the flow of spaces inside and by connecting the living spaces to the garden.

“One of the things they’d loved about their previous home was the fact that it was surrounded by an oasis that referenced Wendy’s time in Darwin,” says Caroline. “This 173m2 property is long and narrow, and it’s much harder to create a garden oasis in a terrace than in a villa. Also, this house was very rundown. The only bathroom was downstairs and was in a terrible state. So the challenge was to make it all work better.”

In an unconventional move, Caroline shifted the kitchen to the centre of the ground floor, with living and dining areas located

on either side. “In a terrace, the middle room is always a walk-through room, so it might as well be a kitchen,” she says. “Upstairs, we added a dressing room, which allowed the middle room to become a bathroom; it’s above the kitchen, so it was easy to get plumbing up there.”

The existing attic space was enlarged to house the new main bedroom, which sits level with the canopy of a large jacaranda tree outside. At the rear, a studio/guest bedroom suite was built above the new garage, complete with its own laneway entrance.

Caroline deliberately retained the existing footprint to avoid encroaching on the owners’ precious garden space. “I work a lot in the garden,” says Wendy. “I like getting my hands dirty out there.” The previously unused side passage now provides a sheltered spot for her collection of native orchids, with clumps of mature bamboo positioned to ensure privacy. A Top End-style covered outdoor room sits alongside what they call the ‘bathhouse’, a separate room with an indulgent tub for soaking.

The garden was terraced and landscaped using recycled bricks, sandstone and a massive timber beam, all salvaged from parts of the house that were demolished. Near the back gate, a new water tank is concealed in a structure beneath timber shingles that once covered the original roof. “It was really important to keep these old parts of the home on site,” says Wendy. “They remind me of the rich history of this house. Maybe the famous Sydney madam Tilly Devine spent time within these walls?”

Both owners are extremely content with their old-made-new home and the improvements they’ve carried out in order to make it more sustainable. “This house dates from the 1850s, but what we’ve done has brought it into the 21st century,” says Wendy. “And made it very comfortable in the process.”

Pidcock Architecture + Sustainability, Millers Point, NSW; (02) 8090 8836 or pidcock.com.au.