[Leica] Two Panos of the staircase of Elizabeth Bay House Sydney

[cummer at netvigator.com (H&ECummer)]

Hi Luggers,

We are in Sydney for the next few weeks and staying at a friend's  
house on Elizabeth Bay. This morning we went to visit Elizabeth Bay  
House which is just around the corner and spent a couple of hours with  
the well informed docent. Here is some background from the guidebook  
of the house.
The Finest House in the Colony

Conceived as "the finest house in the colony" Elizabeth Bay House was  
built for New South Wales' senior civil servant, Alexander Macleay.  
Macleay's appointment as Colonial Secretary reflected the expansion of  
the colony's administration during the 1820s, which gave rise to a  
colonial middle class. Elizabeth Bay House, similarly, reflected the  
rise (both in Britain and the colonies) of the detached villa set  
within several acres of landscaped garden as the ideal form of middle- 
class housing. The house was associated with a series of Greek Revival  
villas built for the heads of the departments of the colony's civil  
service, on the adjacent Woolloomooloo Hill. The builder and  
architect, John Verge, was responsible for many of the Woolloomooloo  
Hill villas, although the extent to which he may be regarded as the  
designer of Elizabeth Bay House is unclear.

Macleay appears to have had plans for the house by 1832, although its  
commencement was to be delayed until 1835. The house was not made  
habitable until 1839, possibly as a result of Macleay's loss of his  
post in 1837. At the time of its conception Elizabeth Bay House was by  
far superior to the house occupied by the governor but it was to be  
eclipsed by the new Government House completed in 1845. As with many  
of Verge's commissions, its construction was curtailed as a result of  
the looming financial crisis of the early 1840s, which devastated  
early colonial society.

The Villa Plan
Its rooms are arranged around a central stair hall, connecting with it  
and with each other. The principal rooms, located on the ground floor  
and the French windows of its three principal elevations, emphasize  
the house's relationship with its garden.

The villa form allowed architectural experimentation with shaped  
interior spaces. Elizabeth Bay House's cubic entrance hall leads to an  
elliptical, domed, top-lit saloon containing the stair.

Here are two vertical 4 panel panorama views taken from opposite sides  
of the staircase with the GF 1 and the 20mm f1.7.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Australia2010/ElizBayVertStair4PanW.jpg.html

http://tinyurl.com/yj7ytjd

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Australia2010/LizBayStair4Pan130210W.jpg.html

http://tinyurl.com/yk2mhrx

Please enjoy

C&C welcome as always.

Cheers

Howard (in extremely wet Sydney)