Highbury is a heritage-listed residence located at 20 Martin Road in the inner eastern Sydney suburb of Centennial Park in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by William Nixon and built from 1912 to 1913. Highbury was the home of Australian novelist Patrick White for approximately twenty-six years, until his death in 1990. It is also known as the Patrick White House; Patrick White's House. The property is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 19 November 2004.
Patrick White moved into Highbury in 1964 and lived there with his partner, Manoly Lascaris, after leaving his home in the suburb of Castle Hill. The house and the environs of Centennial Park became significant elements in White's novels. White and Lascaris were socially active and hosted many dinner parties in the house. White's biographer, David Marr, described White as a genial host. Following White's death in 1990, the house was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register due to its association with White, who was the first Australian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Lascaris continued to live in the house almost until he died in 2003.
History
This was the home of Nobel laureate for Literature, writer Patrick White and his partner, Manoly Lascaris from 1964 until White's death in 1990.
Highbury was built on an early twentieth-century subdivision of the western perimeter of Centennial Park. William Kerr, a jeweller, purchased the land in 1908 and, in approximately 1913, occupied the house designed for him by William Nixon, a well-known Sydney architect.
William Mark Nixon (1859-1931) entered private practice in partnership with J. S. Adam in the early 1890s, having previously worked in the Colonial Architect's Office and the Railways Department. Commissions undertaken with Adam included additions to St Andrew's College, University of Sydney and a new residence for its Principal, the remodelling of St George's Hall, Newtown, St Clement's Anglican Church, Mosman, Presbyterian churches at Singleton and Newcastle, hospitals, schools, stores. He is said to have designed "many fine residences in the suburbs and country". Nixon later practised in partnership with his son, Chales Ashwin Nixon until his death after service in World War I. Nixon worked until his retirement in 1930.
Highbury was built in the new residential area known as Centennial Park, which had been hived off by the state government and sold to pay for the creation of a new park, also to be known as Centennial Park. The government specified that certain types of buildings could not be built, for example, terraced houses, to raise the standard of housing in the new suburb. Large detached homes like Highbury became the norm in the area. Kerr lived in the house until his death in 1954, after which it was acquired by the electrical contractor, Frederick Angles. In 1964 the property was transferred to Patrick White.
Patrick White (1912–1990) is regarded as Australia's most famous writer. He is the only Australian to have been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature and is widely studied in schools and universities around the world. White is also recognised for his attempts at an Australian approach to English literature.
White and his partner, Manoly Lascaris, moved to Centennial Park from their previous home at Castle Hill. White's mother died in 1963 around the time Patrick and Manoly were preparing "Dogwoods" (at Castle Hill) for sale. The suburbs had started to encroach on the property (at Castle Hill) and White decided to leave for a house closer to the centre of Sydney where his interests - music, theatre, film and friends - were concentrated. They used some of White's inheritance money to buy 20 Martin Road and moved there in 1964.
White was attracted by the open environment of Centennial Park, the proximity to the life of the inner city, the opportunity for a large, light and airy living area, combined sitting room, hall and dining room, modern furniture, polished floorboards with rugs and large wall spaces for painting. Patrick White chose the house and the neighbourhood very carefully for the purpose of his writing in 1964, at which time he wrote to his publisher "I hope to take root in this new house... It will be closer to the source of something I want to write during my remaining years.".