Gannon House
Gannon House is a heritage-listed retail building at 45–47 Argyle Street in the inner-city Sydney suburb of The Rocks in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Michael Gannon and built from 1839 to 1840 by Michael Gannon as residential houses and stables. It is also known as Michael Gannon's House. As of 2019, it contains a Gannon House Gallery (an art gallery) and La Renaissance Patisserie (a cafe). The property is owned by Property NSW, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 May 2002. History The site had initially been part of the Hospital grounds, as part of the Assistant Surgeons residence and garden. When the hospital moved to Macquarie Street, Francis Greenway occupied the site as part of his salary as colonial architect under Governor Macquarie. When he was dismissed in 1822, he claimed that the residence and land had been promised to him by Macquarie. It appears even though the Government tried to repossess the site Greenway, remained there until . The subject site lays just to the east of the residence. Land title documents indicate that an allotment of land bounded by Argyle and Harrington Streets, Harrington Lane and Greenway's residence was leased by Governor Brisbane in 1823 to John Gleeson, a labourer for a period of twenty-one years. By 1826 the lease was apparently conveyed to Thomas Ryan; however, no transfer record has been located. In 1830 William Reynolds apparently purchased part of the land from Ryan for £100, and in the same year, the subdivided land on the corner of Argyle and Harrington Streets was sold by Ryan to Frederick Wright Unwin. Unwin leased part of the site and building that occupied it, a stone tenement and boarding house, to Caleb Slater, who conducted a public house called the Kings Head. When City Section 84 was drawn up in 1834, most of the land between Harrington and George Streets on the southern side of Argyle Street was claimed by Francis Greenway. Greenway was unable to prove his title to the land, and it was sold to Unwin for by the Colonial government. By 1840, only a few years after the sale, hotels stood on both the Harrington and George Street corners of the block. In 1839 he leased about two-thirds of his allotment to Michael Gannon for 21 years for a ground rent of per year. The lease required that Gannon build and erect on the line of frontage to George Street within two years as many houses that could occupy the frontage, three storeys exclusive of cellars and built of "substantially of good materials". Per the lease, Gannon built on the Argyle Street part of the allotment very quickly, and he had constructed the New York Hotel on the corner of Argyle and George Streets, which opened in February 1841. Gannon built the two houses on the subject site