The Campbell's Stores is a heritage-listed former warehouse building in the inner city Sydney suburb of The Rocks, New South Wales, Australia. The Victorian Georgian building previously served as store houses and maritime bonded warehouses. It was built from 1850 to 1861. It faces Campbells Cove, an inlet in the north-west of Sydney Cove. In the 1970s, along with the general decline of commercial shipping activities in Sydney Cove, the building was converted for use as tourist-orientated restaurants and bars.
It is also known as Old Metcalfe Bond; Campbells Store. The property is owned by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 May 2002.
The lease to the building is held by private hospitality company Tallawoladah Pty Ltd. From 2015 to 2018, the leaseholder undertook a refurbishment costing 32 million. Restaurants began opening in the refurbished building from autumn 2019.
History Robert Campbell was born in Scotland, and went to India in 1798 to join his elder brother in the Calcutta business partnership of Campbell and Co. The firm had sent a speculative cargo to Sydney Cove in 1796. Robert Campbell followed in 1798, with another cargo. He bought land at Dawes Point overlooking Sydney Cove from John Baughan and commenced trading gradually building up a reputation as a shrewd but honest merchant.
In September 1801, he married Sophia Palmer, sister of John Palmer, who became Commissary of New South Wales. By November 1801, some of Campbell's Storehouses were complete, as was a stone wall and small wharf at right angles to the main warehouse. It was claimed to be the first privately owned wharf in Australia. In 1802, Campbell and Sophia moved into Wharf House which was then incomplete. Beneath their house, vaults to store goods were excavated in the sandstone rock face. John Lewin's watercolour of 1808 showed the jetty completed out from the vaults, a two-storey storehouse and an access road to Wharf House running behind this jetty.
Governor Lachlan Macquarie was anxious to grant land to settlers who were building large and substantial improvements on their Sydney leases. Hence on 29 June 1814, Robert Campbell was granted 3 acres, 3 roods, bounded on the south by the premises occupied by the Naval Officer, on the southwest by a road leading to Dawes Point Battery, and on the east by Sydney Cove, "in consequence of his having erected thereon several large and expensive Buildings". A right to make streets was reserved to the Crown.
In May 1807, Campbell had been appointed Naval Officer and a magistrate. As a result of his sympathy for Governor Bligh, he was marked for persecution by the rebel administration after Bligh was deposed. Campbell was later restored to full control of his business by the arrival of Governor Macquarie in 1810, but he was forced to leave it in the hands of Charles Hook, when he went back to Britain to give evidence at the trials following the rebellion. He returned on 18 March 1815 to find his business bankrupt and many of his ships wrecked. He sought compensation from the government. Campbell operated as a commission agent until he was able to operate as merchant again. On 4 January 1822 Campbell formally received compensation from the government for the loss of his ships while he was in England from 1812–15. He built warehouses along the edge of the water, they were all complete by 1825 and they are shown in Stewart's 1825 copy of Harper's map of 1823. These are not the subject Campbell's Stores.
Robert Campbell, senior, signed a partnership agreement with his sons who were gradually coming into the management of the firm in 1828. By about 1830 his son, John Campbell, had virtually taken over the business. Equipment for the wharf was also acquired. The Magistrates Returns of Manufactories, Mill etc, in 1831 showed Robert Campbell senior, of Campbell's Wharf, has one hydraulic pump at wharf. By 1838, R Campbell & Co was listed as possessing one crane.
John Campbell officially took over as head of the firm in 1836, when it was in financial difficulty. On 6 May 1836, Campbell's Wharf was advertised for sale in the press. It was followed by an injunction to prevent the sale of Campbell's Wharf shortly afterwards. Whatever further action was necessary seems to have been successful, since the wharf remained in the hands of the Campbell family.
Although control of the firm was largely in the hands of Campbell's sons, the title to the land on which the wharf was situated was in Robert's name, and so he continued to be involved in matters regarding the land. On 21 January 1841 Robert Campbell formally applied to the Colonial Secretary for permission to enlarge part of his wharf so that ships could unload at low tide, by using a large rock which could not be removed by dredging as the foundation for the enlargement of the wharf. The Colonial Engineer, George Barney, minuted that he could find no objection to the enlargement of the wharf. Over the years, the area of Campbell's Wharf increased as more land was reclaimed.
On 29 June 1843, Robert Campbell senior, of George Street, Sydney, mortgaged the wharf to The Australian Trust Company for for three years with interest. The area was specified as being 3 acres 3 roods as in the 1814 grant. The need to mortgage the wharf indicated two alternative strategies being applied by the family to their interest. One was that they were mobilising all their available assets for improvements to their property and business to create a better liquidity. Alternatively, the dating of the mortgage, in the wake of one of the most devastating financial depressions in early Australia, may indicate an attempt to salvage their business using their land as a source of working capital. Whatever the reason for the initial mortgage, it was renewed again and again in following decades, so that the Campbell family did not hold complete equity in the wharf again. There eventually appears to have been some dispute between the Campbells and later mortgagees who took over the loan in later years. Only in 1877, after taking the matter to the Supreme Court, were the Campbells to regain possession of Campbell's Wharf again.
Robert Campbell senior was not to know anything of these travails regarding the wharf. On 11 October 1845, he drew up his will leaving his property in six parts to be divided amongst his sons John, Robert, Charles, George, and daughter Sophia Ives Campbell and Arthur Jeffreys, the husband of his daughter, Sarah. On 15 April 1846, Robert Campbell senior died at Duntroon.
The first rate assessment of the City of Sydney taken in 1845 showed the following structures on Campbell's Wharf: a house, stores, warehouse and wharf valued at . At the "north end of Campbell & Co wharf" were three stores plus an office and store, all of three storeys, with slate roofs, valued at each, two of which were vacant and two occupied by Smith and Campbell. Additionally, there was a cottage for the overseer George Atherden, and an empty timber woolshed. The stores identified here appear to be the older stone stores on the waterfront built in the 1820s and not the subject stores which were constructed in the early 1850s. Between 25 August 1851 and 27 September 1852, the Sydney City Council Rate Assessment Book shows that on Campbell's Wharf, J Campbell had added five stores which were built of stone, with slate roofs, all provisionally assessed at a net value per annum of . These are the first five bays of Campbell's Stores.
The 1858 Rate Assessment Book shows that the three-storey stone warehouses on the water's edge from the 1820s were still extant. Amongst the array of other wharf buildings were five warehouses of stone with slate roofs, built as two storeys with two rooms in them. Three operate as warehouses while two are conducted as a combined warehouse and office, with four rooms. Soon afterwards, construction of additional warehouse bays commenced. A photograph from the MF Moresby Album dated between 1856 and 1860 showed ten bays with the base of the eleventh bay under construction and awaiting its roof, as well as what appear to be construction materials in front of it. The construction of the additional bays is confirmed by the 1861 Rate Assessment Book which shows that a further six bays had been added to the five bays of the warehouse which were extant in 1858, making eleven bays in all. All bays are of two storeys with two rooms in each. This work is further confirmed by the 1865 Trig Survey of Sydney, completed by the City Council as the prelude to constructing sewers.
As construction work on the stores was being completed, Robert Campbell junior died at Duntroon, on 30 March 1859 leaving his elder brother John in charge of the firm.
A wide range of tenants took up warehouse space at Campbell's Wharf, some of them in Campbell's Stores. In 1858-59, Sands Directory lists the following at Campbell's Wharf: Campbell & Co; Sugar Company's stores; JC Dibbs & Co, commission agents and wharfingers; Robert Nash, storekeeper; WH Eldred, Capt, Chili Flour Co; Chilian Consulate - Consul, WH Eldred. In 1861, it shows: Campbell & Co; Colonial Sugar Refining Co, stores; Peruvian guano stores; George Lloyd & Co stores; Robey & Co's stores; George Lewis custom house officer; and WH Eldred, broker & general agent. In 1863, it shows: 4. Merry Willis and Co, merchants; 3. Henry Fisher & Son, sugar factors; 2. Brown & Co, merchants; 1. EM Sayers & Co, merchants; Robert Nash; WH Eldred, merchant; 4. Joseph Kendall, marine surveyor; JA Buttrey & Co, merchants; 5 and 6, Daniel Thacker & Co, merchants; 22 Campbell's stores; and John Campbell, merchant. Commercial tenants continued to occupy the stores. A photograph of 1870 showed the eleven bays of the completed warehouse. As late as 1875, the cemetery which had been established on part of Campbell's land in the 1790s before he took possession of the site was still visible at the rear of the store, where a tombstone of a marine, John Jones, who died in 1792 could be made out.
A description of Campbell's Wharf in November 1875 stated that it had a landing area of which was backed by 22 very strong stone stores which, along with two sheds on the wharf, could hold . An accompanying engraving based upon some of the extant photographs showed eleven bays of the stores which are two storeys high.
Relationship with the Australasian Steam Navigation Company
Negotiations for the purchase of Campbell's Wharf by the Australasian Steam Navigation Company (ASN Co.) appear to have been well advanced by early 1876. The company's old wharf at Sussex Street had become too small for its expanding trade and it needed a newer more central one. On 18 February 1876, the company applied to the Minister of Lands to extend Campbell's Wharf, which they had recently purchased, by running out jetties on piles into the harbour. An accompanying diagram showed that they had already reached the specified limit for reclamation from the harbour. Their application was approved on 1 May 1876. A plan was drawn by Surveyor Wansborough of reclaimed land claimed for purchase by ASN Co. on 19 October 1877.