Although clock towers are mainly admired today for their architectural aesthetics, they were once pieces of essential community infrastructure which people relied upon
to set the correct time, make appointments and carry out commerce. Before the middle of the twentieth century, most people did not have watches and often
did not even have home clocks.
Now people rely upon their smartphones to not only tell the time but to automatically manage their day to day appointments and activities. Fewer and fewer
people are wearing wrist watches and it is increasingly uncommon to find wall mounted clocks in homes and businesses. When was the last time you were
approached by someone in the street asking if you had the time?
The first clocks didn't have faces, but were solely striking clocks, which sounded bells to call people to work or prayer and placed in towers so the bells would
be audible for a long distance. Clock towers were placed near the centre of towns and were often the tallest structures there. Advances in horology
allowed designers to include a dial on the outside of the tower so that people could read the time whenever they wanted.
Clock towers once commonplace
From the mid-19th century, the publicly visible clocks and clocks towers were commonplace in Sydney City, suburbs and towns. Important
buildings carried clock towers including churches, town halls, government buildings, post offices, hotels, and railway stations. They
allowed people to keep appointments and carry out commerce.
Among Sydney's best known clock towers are the ones on Sydney Town Hall, Central Railway Sydney and the Lands Department Building
in Bridge Street. The Lands Department building was constructed in 1892. The Town Hall clock tower was completed in 1873 and the clock was installed in 1884.
The Central Railway Station clock was an 85.6-metre-tall clock tower in the free classical style added at the north-western corner of the
building and in operation on 3rd March 1921. The clock was designed by Richard Lamb and Alfred Fairfax, the co-founders of the Sydney
jewellery firm of Fairfax & Roberts.
GPO Clock Stored at Maroubra 1942-1964
The General Post Office (GPO) had its clock tower installed and completed by 1891. Its clock tower was dismantled in 1942 at
the outbreak of the war with Japan so that it could not provide a visual landmark for any potential enemy bombers. Its stone
pieces were stored on a vacant lot at Maroubra on the corner of Storey and Loch Maree Streets which is now the site of Maroubra
Public School. I remember as a child playing on the site and climbing over the numbered blocks of shaped rock. It was reassembled at the GPO
in 1964.
Some of the increasingly fewer public clock faces in the local area include:
St Judes Anglican Church, Avoca Street Randwick
- in the bell tower. St Judes is a large Victorian Gothic Church masonry building completed in 1865.
The tower increased in height and chiming clock was installed 1877.
Maroubra Junction Hotel in Maroubra Road,
which opened in 1927, is surmounted by a clock tower that also includes a flag pole.
Commerical Building at 181-191 Maroubra Road
, former squash courts built in the 1960s and now known as Maroubra Court. The clock on this relatively modern white painted
squat tower is actually in Ferguson Street, but is visible from Maroubra Road. Alas, of late, it is not working, the face stuck on 5 past 2.
Apex International commemorative clock
- free standing double-faced, Seiko brand, clock mounted on a stainless steel pole located in the southern
side of Goldstein Reserve. According to the bronze plaque on the sandstone base the clock was "A gift to the community from the Rotary Club of Randwick Inc.
to commemorate the centenary of Rotary International, 12th June 2007
Coogee Beach Surf Club clock - perhaps the most useful publicly visible clock because people tend not to take valuables,
such as mobile phones or watches to the beach or in the surf. It is very useful, and visible, when you are in the surf - a quick
glance to the right shows you the exact time. Probably this is also the reason you can see a large clock face affixed to the promenade of Wylies Baths.
A low squat tower at Coogee Oval also holds a clock tower - handy for sports people exercising on the grass.
Memorial clock old Prince Henry Hospital Site, Malabar. This clock tower is a memorial to World War Two airmen Norman Dwyer and Stanley Stilling. The
bronze plaque on the tower reads:
Greater Love Has No Man - in everlasting memory of our dear Son Norman Falkner Dwyer RAAF and his cousin Wing Commander Stanley Gordon Stilling, DFC, RAF
who were killed in action together in the Celebes on 1st October, 1943. In loving memory from William and Edith Dwyer.
William Dwyer was at one time the manager of the hospital
The Monuments Australia website quotes author Clement Broughton in his book: A Coast Chronicle : the History of the Prince Henry Hospital (1963) :
The clock was brought to Australia for the Sydney Exhibition of 1879. A disastrous fire destroyed the Exhibition building however the clock was salvaged, unharmed
and intact. After a brief time in Sydney's Botanic Gardens it was sent to Bourke for use as the town's clock. Eventually it made its way back to Sydney and was kept
in government stores until it was decided that it would be a suitable addition to The Coast Hospital.
In 1898 the clock was mounted in an "artistic" tower built by Henry Tucker Jones. The tower was demolished in 1930 as the Coast Hospital began to undergo a
transformation. The clock was stored at the hospital until 1953 when it was later installed in an elegant three storey high, square, brick tower complete with
a copper roof and wind vane.
Commercial building at 730 Anzac Parade, Maroubra on the corner of Holmes Street.
In 1965, the New South Wales State Labor Government had been in power continuously since 1941 and was seen by the electorate as being tired and out of touch. A
resurgent Liberal opposition headed by Bob Askin fought that year's election with a "nuts and bolts" campaign which included issues such as fixing
highway pot-holes. One policy related to ensuring public clocks displayed the correct time. When the Liberals won the elections, legislation was soon enacted
to have public clocks either repaired or set permanently at 3am. It is probably a mark of the importance public clocks had in those days, but also
meant the clock at 930 Anzac Parade has been set at 3 o'clock for over 55 years!
