Land & Building History

Raper Street is located in the most Northern end of a land grant to Edward Hall Smith (Southern limit, the present Phillip Street). Smith had previously purchased adjoining land (to the NW) from John Palmer in 1814 and was the first owner/occupier farmer to live in Surry Hills (between 1814-1821). In 1822 Smith sub-divided and sold most of his Surry Hills - Redfern land holdings. Part of that land was initially purchased by Joseph Underwood (1822), who sold to Frederick Unwin (1828) who sub-divided and sold. Thomas Walters purchased the lot that is now Crown, Rainford, Bourke and South of Davies in 1829. Walters operated a market garden till 1836 when he subdivided and put the land to auction. The sale failed and in 1837 Waters re-subdivided creating Victoria Street (now Davies), selling the North side in 1837, and the South side in 1840. This sale was at the height of land speculation in Sydney, but by 1842/3 the land boom was over and most of the land remained vacant.

Raper Street first appears in the Sands Directory in 1873. Raper Street divides the land owned by a Mr. Raper. In 1873 a terrace of 6 houses was listed on the West side and from the Land Titles Office map there was an existing pair of houses facing Bourke Street on the East side. By 1880 a pair of terrace houses were built on the East side. In the mid 1880's, it is assumed the existing pair of houses were demolished, as no record exists for residential occupation again until 1904. At this time Mr. R. A. Andrews is recorded having "Stables" on this site (next to the terrace pair). The stables existed into the 1910's and by 1916 Mr. Andrews was using the building for as a "bedding manufacturer", a business that continued until 1933.

The Whiteleys bought the building in 1985 by which time was operating as a T-shirt factory. The courtyard had been enclosed but the floors were concrete and the walls in a state of disrepair. Brett Whiteley initially covered the downstairs floor area with plywood and gyprocked the walls and then had them painted white to create a pristine and formal gallery space. He held a public exhibition in this space in 1988 called Birds. Also in 1988, he added the upstairs studio and bedroom area and put in a kitchen. He lived and worked here from that time on.