Gorman House, Canberra


Gorman House in Braddon, Australian Capital Territory is an Art Deco landmark house located in inner Canberra. It operated as a hostel from 1924 until 1972 and has subsequently become a popular centre for theatre and the creative arts in fields such as photography, dance, acting and music. It is listed on the National Heritage Register which describes it as "a fine and externally intact example of John Smith Murdoch's garden pavilion style, which makes a creditable contribution to the townscape." The garden pavilion style is characterized by low buildings, covered paths and open courtyards.
When it was constructed in 1924 the hostel was known as “Hostel No. 3” and in early 1925 was renamed the “Hotel Ainslie” and then in 1927 Gorman House. It was to provide accommodation for public servants and initially accepted both men and women. The first residents had moved in by 1925. The original structure consisted of single story pavilions with the dining room as the central focus but this accommodation was found to be insufficient so in 1928 two double story buildings were added at the western and eastern ends which enclosed the inner courtyards. It was mainly used to provide accommodation for young women but if demand fell men were also allowed to become guests. However if there was an increase in female clients the men were asked to leave.

Early history

The building was named after Clarence Hardie Gorman who was a Commissioner of the Federal Capital Commission and electric irons. Beautiful verandahs surround a spacious sunny courtyard abloom with lovely flowers and front verandahs look over rolling green hills. The five sitting rooms are furnished with Chesterfields and easy chairs and many light chairs are available for the verandahs. There are no restrictions on the boarders whose only duties are to keep their rooms clean and tidy. They have all meals at the hostel."
The 1929 article which describes Gorman House after the two end buildings were added is as follows.
 "Gorman House, is an unusual and attractive building on the pavilion plan, surrounded by delightful gardens. In design it resembles in miniature the Canberra Hotel. When it became a girls’ hostel it was enlarged to its present considerable dimensions.

The house consists now of eight pavilions or separate cottages, one of which is reserved for the staff. Each contains ten rooms. In this total of eighty there are twenty double-rooms— that is, they contain two beds and are shared by two girls. There are also two two-storey buildings of seventeen rooms each, one at each end of the grounds. The pavilions are built between these blocks, four facing the frontage and four facing a road at the back. The buildings are surrounded and divided by well-tended gardens that ensure plenty of sunlight and fresh air in each room—a necessary provision, for cold weather is experienced in Canberra in Winter. All rooms are further provided with outside shutters on the windows for use in the extreme heat of Summer.
Gorman House buildings cover about three acres of ground. Two long sheltered walks with open verandahs, connect the several pavilions. They pass through delightful lawns and flower-beds, and the supporting posts are covered with creepers that give a most picturesque effect by day. At night multifold electric lights along the verandahs convey an illusion of fairyland. There are about a hundred girls from several States now in residence at Gorman House, but before long the full capacity of one hundred and twenty-four will be reached.
Eight comfortable sitting-rooms are provided for the girls’ use, in six of which are large open fireplaces, with huge log fires, laid ready tor lighting the moment the girls return home in the evening. The other two sitting-rooms are heated by radiators, so that there need never be complaint of cold. The bedrooms are all of good size, airy and bright, and well furnished with good suites that include wardrobes. All have modern basins with water laid on. Floors are well covered and carpeted, and an eiderdown is provided for very bed.

A large laundry is set apart for the girls own use, with numerous troughs and coppers. Huge boxes of split wood are filled ready for use, and there is electric light and power for ironing. A man’s services are available to light fires and clean up generally—all this without extra charge to hostel guests.

The dining-room is large and roomy, with windows along two sides. These lookout on the gardens. On another side large, modern glass doors, screened with the latest craze in ecru-colored curtains, open on to the passage-way. The dining-room is furnished with small tables, restaurant style, to seat four or eight persons. The tables are very attractively set out with good napery, cutlery and silver, and dining-room chairs are of leather-seated oak very comfortably upholstered. Waitresses attend to guests’ wants; none need ever rise to serve herself.

The girls are required to attend to their own bedrooms, but a staff of women and a couple of men are kept to do all work outside the girls’ own rooms. The girls are encouraged to invite and entertain their friends, both male and female, and no serious restrictions are placed in the way of having dances or card parties, many of which are organised for charitable and other social objects in the Capital."
At about this time one of the residents of the hostel wrote to The Sydney Mail briefly describing her experience living at Gorman House. She said.
"The post-office, where our office is, is two miles away from Gorman House, the Government, hostel for typists, where we stay. The hostel consists of a number of pavilions all linked together with latticed walks, and there are rose trees all around and creeping roses up the pillars. We walk to and from work, but get a bus at dinner time.'. The, air is so fresh and bracing, and the walks are beautiful."''
Courtyard at Gorman House in 1927Gorman House courtyard, 1927Clarence Hardie Gorman

Later history

One of the most notable residents during the 1930s was Eileen Lenihan who was Private Secretary to Sir Robert Menzies, She was a resident for almost ten years. Another was Edwin Charles who wrote many letters to his mother describing his experience. Some of these were published in The Canberra Times fifty years later. They were also included in a book called “Capital Correspondent”. In one of the letters he describes the food in the following terms.
"The meals here have been getting better. Brekker yesterday, chops, lambs fry and bacon and then later steak and sausages. Lovely cream puffs, for sweets, rainbow and ribbon sponge puddings."
In 1937 Edwin and the other men over 21 were asked to leave when more young women came to Canberra. Gorman House then became a hostel for women only.
In the 1940s during the war years one of the residents was Nancy Ward (later Metcalfe