5 Lauderdale Ave, Fairlight: Push to bulldoze harbourfront home on historic Manly subdivision

Plans are in the works to demolish one of the first houses built on a historic Sydney harbourside residential subdivision, to make way for luxury units.

The location of the house on Lauderdale Ave, Fairlight, on a block that was part of the historic harbourside Fairlight Estate subdivision dating back to 1900. Picture: Supplied

Plans are in the works to demolish one of the first houses built on a historic harbourside residential subdivision in Manly.

Developers want to bulldoze the three-storey home, originally called “Bonnie Doon”, on a block that was part of the Fairlight Estate created in 1900.

Northern Beaches Council is calling for public submissions on the $13m development application for what is now 5 Lauderdale Ave, Fairlight, which would see the brick and sandstone house replaced by a four-storey block of luxury apartments.

The property, which went to auction in 1900, and its house built around 1910, backs onto popular Fairlight Beach and has stunning views across North Harbour to Dobroyd Head and South Head.

When it sold for more than $16.6m in December last year, property agents described it as “one of the last great untouched harbourfront estates”.

An artist's impression of the proposed apartment development at 5 Lauderdale Ave, Fairlight, (with the pine tree in front), with Fairlight Beach in the foreground. Picture: Platform Architects

The house, on Monday, at the site of a proposed apartment development at 5 Lauderdale Ave, Fairlight. Picture: Jim O’Rourke

“The property offers scope to design the ultimate harbourfront mega-mansion,” Belle Property Manly stated in marketing material.

The block had been subdivided from the grounds of Fairlight House, a two-storey sandstone mansion built for Henry Gilbert Smith, the founder of Manly, in 1860. Colonial architect Edmund Blacket designed it.

An artist's impression of a proposed apartment development at 5 Lauderdale Ave, Fairlight. Picture: Platform Architects

Smith was the first person to see the potential of Manly as a seaside resort.

“He created Manly’s first ferry service and laid out central Manly much as it is today,” the council’s website states.

In 1880, the mansion and its 14ha grounds were sold to John Woods, whose family then subdivided the estate, leading to the creation of the block at 5 Lauderdale Ave.

Fairlight House survived until March 1939 when it was sold to a builder, who demolished it two months later to make way for a block of units.

Fairlight House before it was demolished in 1939. Picture: Manly, Warringah and Pittwater Historical Society

Documents lodged with the development application show the now rundown house at 5 Lauderdale Ave is not heritage-listed.

An advertising poster for the sale of land in the Fairlight Estate, dating from 1910, showed a property called “Bonnie Doon” at 5 Lauderdale Ave.

A poster advertising the sales of residential building blocks in the Fairlight Estate at Manly in 1900, with the vacant block at 5 Lauderdale Ave in the bottom right-hand corner. Picture: State Library of NSW

A poster advertising the sales of residential building blocks in the Fairlight Estate at Manly in 1910, showing the "Bonnie Doon" property, near the “D” on the right side of the poster. Picture: State Library of NSW

The latest owners of the property, including a Mosman-based developer, want to build five three-bedroom apartments on the site, with parking for 11 vehicles.

If approved, there would be four storeys, on the sloping 981sqm block, facing the beach, and two storeys on Lauderdale Ave.

“The proposal will provide a notable increase to the supply of premium housing on a site ideally suited to increased residential densities,” a statement of environmental effects lodged with the development application states.

Public submissions close on January 21.