Detail of the the dining room at Elizabeth Bay House 11 August 1987. Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Sydney Living Museums. Photo Andrew Payne Photographix

This week we’re back at Elizabeth Bay House, in one of Sydney’s grandest dining rooms. After the departure of the Macleays, Macarthur-Onslows and Michaelises, its years as a reception house and then as flats, the ‘Lion of Sydney’ began its new life as a house museum. But, as this continuing ‘Then and Now’ series shows, it certainly wasn’t without controversy!

Add one tablespoon

7 May 2018 The Curator Leave a comment

Detail of a table setting at Elizabeth Bay House. Photograph ©Nicholas Watt for Sydney Living Museums

We’re all familiar with recipes that call for ‘a tablespoon’ of an ingredient – but what exactly does that mean? Continue reading →

A spot of shopping before we head home

21 August 2017 The Curator 1 Comment

Sauce ladle handle in fiddle and shell pattern. Photo (c) Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums

This week John Macarthur is heading home to Sydney after eight years away. That’s means it’s time to go shopping! Continue reading →

The festive table

14 December 2016 The Cook 2 Comments

The annual Christmas Fare at the Hyde Park Barrack. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums

As we delight in the edible joys on offer at our annual Christmas artisan food fare at Hyde Park barracks, it is interesting to reflect on what our colonial counterparts were putting on their tables for Christmas. Continue reading →

The most superb, best ever dinner table gadget!

3 November 2016 The Curator 5 Comments

What is the best ever piece of table paraphernalia? Photo (c) Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums

I may be slightly biased in this, but today I’m talking about the guaranteed, best-ever, most superb piece of dining accoutrements ever – grape scissors! Continue reading →

A bit on the side

26 May 2016 The Curator 2 Comments

Table setting at Rouse Hill House & Farm with a folded napkin held in the wine glass. Photo (c) Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums

If you’re out at Rouse Hill this weekend for the Autumn Harvest you may see the dining table set with some unusually-shaped dishes, can you guess what they’re for? Continue reading →

Setting the Macarthur’s table at the Spring Harvest festival

12 November 2015 The Curator 3 Comments

Place setting created at Elizabeth Farm. Photo © Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums

Recently we celebrated the Elizabeth Farm Spring Harvest festival. It was a great day of artisan food, talks and demonstrations, and lazing about in deckchairs. Continue reading →

Eat your history – the book!

5 November 2015 The Cook 4 Comments

Jacqui Newling, author of Eat your history: stories and recipes from Australian kitchens Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums

Handwritten recipes passed through the generations, tales of goats running wild in colonial gardens and early settlers’ experimentation with native foods…
Eat your history dishes up stories and recipes for Australian kitchens and dining tables from 1788 to the 1950s.

Jacqui Newling, resident gastronomer at Sydney Living Museums, invites you to share forgotten tastes and lost techniques, and to rediscover some delicious culinary treasures. Continue reading →

Then and now – the dining room at Elizabeth Bay House part 1

3 September 2015 The Curator 1 Comment

Jean Gillespie with her 21st birthday cake at Elizabeth Bay House, June 1939 (detail). State Library of New South Wales, Hood collection: Home and Away - 19758

Of all the dining rooms in Sydney Living Museums properties, perhaps none have had so many incarnations as that in the Lion of Sydney – Elizabeth Bay House. Continue reading →

Then and now – the dining room at Elizabeth Farm

12 August 2015 The Curator 1 Comment

Elizabeth Farm 'then and now'. A combination of a view from 1926, by E.G. Shaw, and one taken in 2015 by Scott Hill.

The dining rooms that visitors experience at our properties are very different: some are relatively intact, some are complete recreations, while some are evocative interpretations. Today I’m looking at the dining room at Elizabeth Farm, and how it was known by the Macarthurs, by the 20th century Swann family, and how we experience it today. Continue reading →

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Posts in the category: Our tables

Then and now – the dining room at Elizabeth Bay House part 2