Albert Edmund Bates (1862-1929), an early 20^th century Sydney architect, was a busy person.

He was born in New Zealand and designed flats, as they were then referred to because of their flat roof design, and many hotels, apartments and churches along the east coast of Australia.

Mr Bates formed an initial architectural  partnership with George Thomas Eaton in Rockhampton in about 1894 and developed a successful Central Queensland practice in the late 19th century. They had established branch offices at Mount Morgan and Longreach by 1898, Clermont in 1900, Gladstone in 1901, Maryborough in 1902, and Townsville by 1902.

Arthur Beckford Polin of Sydney joined the partnership in Townsville about 1901, as Eaton, Bates & Polin. After 1902 their head office was moved to Brisbane, with branches retained at Rockhampton and Townsville. A branch operated briefly at Toowoomba in the early 1900s.

They undertook a wide variety of architectural work, from hotels and commercial buildings to residences, hospitals and masonic halls, and received a number of commissions from the Catholic Church for churches, schools, convents and presbyteries. One of their most glamorous commissions was for the new Queen’s Hotel in Townsville (1901–04).

Cremorne, a luxury home at Hamilton in Brisbane (1905–06) was one of their larger residential designs. It still retains its internal stained glass windows, four-metre high ceilings, three fireplaces, chandeliers, two-storey gazebo pavilion with its stained glass clerestory and polished timber flooring. The firms’ style was eclectic, drawing upon both eastern and western classical traditions, with a particular emphasis on verandahs and pavilions, both as a decorative device and as appropriate to the warm and humid Queensland climate.

Bates came to Sydney in 1905 and practised regularly up to the time of his final illness from Eldon Chambers, Pitt Street, Sydney. He was a member of the Institute of Architects.

Among Mr Bates’s New South Wales works were Somerset House, Martin-place, Sydney, St Augustine’s Church, Balmain, St Mary’s Church, Grafton, Council Chambers, North Sydney, Hughes Motor Service building, Phillip Street, Sydney, the Checker Cab building (a taxi company HQ), St Brigid’s Church, Coogee, St Mary’s church, Concord and Kelburn Hall apartments, Elizabeth Bay.

His Elizabeth Bay Apartments, 51 Elizabeth Bay Road, were carefully thought out. Original archival plans for his client, Mr C Fitzgerald, Esquire, are still held by the City of Sydney Council. They show a four-storey building with tower, three flats per floor, some with a maid’s room, a manager’s office in the vestibule, a “motor garage” with modern roller shutters, two chimneys, a flag pole with a fluttering flag and, for the convenience of occupants, a “smoke room” accessible by stairs above the third floor.

The design was approved by council on 23^rd March 1918.

Mr Bates died aged 62 having lived in Shirley Road, Wollstonecraft. The Sydney Morning Herald of 27^th July 1929 reported his death noting he had worked until very recently.

By Andrew Woodhouse Heritage Solutions

With thanks to Meredith Clarke