Sydney Wigham Smith

Sydney Wigham Smith was an architect who practiced mainly in Melbourne, Australia, from the 1880s to the 1930s. He practiced first under his own name, then as Sydney Smith & Ogg, and lastly as Sydney Smith, Ogg and Serpell.

History

Smith was a son of Sarah Ann Smith, née Carter, and Sydney William Smith, also an architect, and engineer and surveyor, who set up practice in Melbourne when he immigrated in 1852. In 1859 Sydney senior became the first surveyor for the St Kilda Road Board, which then became the City of St Kilda. He designed the first St Kilda Town Hall, and the corner Barkly and Grey Streets, St Kilda, and the adjacent houses at 71 Grey Street, and 73-73 Grey Street, St Kilda in the early 1870s. Sydney W Smith junior was articled to his father, who died June 1886.
Smith then took over his business, and was joined in partnership by Charles Alfred Ogg in 1891, and they are best known for a series of hotels built before and after WW1 designed in a free interpretation of Edwardian style. Some are thought to be wholly or partly designed by noted architect and educator Robert Haddon, who had worked for them c1889-1892, and had set up as a consultant for other architects in 1901. They are also the architects of record for the former private hospital Milton House in Flinders Lane, whose ornamental detail is generally attributed to Robert Haddon, and of another private hospital in East Melbourne, Eastbourne House, which is thought to be wholly Haddon's work, both built in 1901.
In 1921 Charles Edward Serpell joined as a new partner, and the firm prospered, with more hotels, now in Neo-Classical styles, and larger commercial work. Their career culminated in the large office block for the Harbour Trust in Market Street, completed in 1931, which was awarded Royal Victorian Institute of Architects Street Architecture medal in 1933.

Notable buildings

Sydney Smith & Ogg

1893 Windsor Fire Station, Albert Street, Windsor
1901 Milton House, Flinders Lane
State Savings Bank branches including Moonee Ponds, Elsternwick, and Yarraville.
1911 Bendigo Hotel, Johnston Street, Collingwood
1911 Perseverance Hotel, Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
1912 Union Steamship Co. William Street
1912 additions to Oriental Hotel, Collins Street
1913 Dan O'Connell Hotel, Princes Street, Carlton
1913 Terminus Hotel, Williamstown
1913 Kilkenny Inn, King Street, Melbourne
1914 State Savings Bank, cnr Fitzroy Street and Canterbury Road, St Kilda
1915 C. M. Read Stores, Chapel Street Prahran
1918 John Danks & Son, Bourke Street

Sydney Smith, Ogg & Serpell

1922 Queens Walk arcade, within the 1880s Victoria Buildings, Collins and Swanston Street corner.
1923 Harley House, Collins Street
1923 Mitcham Post Office, Mitcham, Victoria
1923 Citv Club Hotel, Collins Street
1923 London Inn, Market Street
1924 Colonial Mutual Insurance offices, Collins Street
1928 Richmond Club Hotel, Swan Street, Richmond
1931 Harbour Trust, Market Street

Other interests

Smith was

a member of the Australian and Yorick Clubs and of the Royal Melbourne Golf Club
honorary architect to the Melbourne Orphanage
honorary architect to the Melbourne Athenaeum and made an honorary life member after his conversion of the old Athenaeum Hall into a theatre
a director of the Royal Humane Society of Australasia
a member of the Armadale Bowling Club and of the team which won the Australian championship in Brisbane in 1914
a champion billiard player, as "Toorak" winning the Victoria Club tournament
the first secretary of the St Kilda Football Club

Family

Smith married Maude Eleanor Wood on 22 May 1891, and had a home at 1 Erskine Street, Malvern, Victoria.
Their only daughter Dorothy "Doff" Smith married Harold Bloom Cowles on 16 February 1921.
Smith was a brother of Rev. Godfrey Hull Smith, curate of St Philip's Church, Sydney and vicar at Ivanhoe; Herbert Henry Smith M.L.C., and Clifford J. Smith, of Armadale, Victoria.
Sisters were Clare Elizabeth Smith, who married Charles Englebert Propsting in 1917; Sadie Smith, who married Charles Forbes in 1914; K. H. Smith and A. E. Smith.