‘Electricity Sub Station No. 133’ – Surry Hills, NSW

Listing galleries

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Listing details

What

‘Electricity Sub Station No. 133’ namesign. The substation is also known as Goodchap Street substation.¹

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Listing description

Substation 133 – also known as Goodchap Street Substation⁷ – was built around 1922 by the then Municipal Council of Sydney. The namesign for the substation reads, ‘Electricity Sub Station No. 133’. It is prominently displayed in a sans serif font styled in all cap on a rendered cement panel above the main entry to the substation which sits diagonally facing the corner of Little Riley Street and Goodchap Street.⁸ Substation 133 is still used as part of the electricity network operated by Ausgrid.⁹

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Trivia

• The spelling of substation varies across the City of Sydney area. Variations include a hyphen between (-) between the prefix ‘sub’ and ‘station’ (i.e. sub-station), but there are also examples with no hyphen between them (i.e. substation) as well. This sign is unusual because it has a space between the parts (i.e. sub station).
• A Council plan for the substation shows an architectural illustration showing a namesign that would have read, ‘S-M-C Electricity Sub-station Goodchap St Surry Hills No 133’.¹⁰ This would have been consistent with other substations erected by the council around the same time. It is possible the substation had a name sign similar to this plan at some point and perhaps it was replaced by the current signage at a later date.

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References

1. Referred to as ‘Goodchap’ in a LinkedIn post by Ausgrid: Ausgrid, How it started [pencil emoji] VS How it’s going [office building emoji] Can you believe our Surry Hill’s substation turned 100 this year?, 2022 [Images attached] [Post], LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ausgrid_connectingcommunities-empoweringlives-activity-7009004186885390336-oBSf/ ↩︎
2. Goodchap St Substation No. 133 [A-00543869], Sydney Municipal Council, 1922. Collection: City of Sydney Archives, https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1225910. ↩︎
3. R. H. Broderick was City Architect and City Building Surveyor: The Dictionary of Sydney (n.d.) Brodrick, Robert Hargreave, https://dictionaryofsydney.org/person/brodrick_robert_hargreave. It is assumed Broderick is the architect. The signature ‘R. H. Broderick’ is visible in the bottom right-hand corner of the plans for Substation 133: Sydney Municipal Council, 1922. ↩︎
4. A Sydney Morning Herald article about the death of James Henry Merriman dated 1 December 1927 referred to Merriman as the ‘deputy city architect and building surveyor’ and stated that, ‘Ten years ago, he was appointed to the position which he held up to the time of his death …’: The Sydney Morning Herald, Death of Mr. J. H. Merriman., 1927, 1 December, p 16. Collection: Trove, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16423230. It is assumed Merriman was the assistant architect. The initials ‘J. H. M.’ are visible in the bottom right-hand corner of the plans for Substation 133: Sydney Municipal Council, 1922. ↩︎
5. Ausgrid, 2020. ↩︎
6. Sydney Municipal Council, 1922 and Ausgrid, 2020. ↩︎
7. Ausgrid, 2020. ↩︎
8. Sydney Municipal Council, 1922. ↩︎
9. Ausgrid, 2020. ↩︎
10. Sydney Municipal Council, 1922. ↩︎

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Attribution information

Photos

Users’ photos

Photos in the ‘Users’ photos’ gallery in order of appearance:

• Photo: Elliott Bledsoe, ‘Electricity Sub-station No. 133’ at 32 Goodchap Street, Surry Hills, 2012 [digital photograph]. Taken at 12:39 pm AEST on Sunday 24 June 2012. © and image courtesy: Elliott Bledsoe. Licensed for reuse under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0)

Other photos

Other reference material

• Building plans: Goodchap St Substation No. 133 [A-00543869], Sydney Municipal Council, 1922. Includes a stamp dated 7 July 1922. Sourced from City of Sydney Archives, https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1225910.