From the ‘Lion of Sydney’, to an artists’ squat, reception house and bedsit apartments: Elizabeth Bay House – the grandest house in the colony – has seen a chequered and Bohemian life since it was the residence of Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay (1767-1848) and his family. Now restored to interpret its heyday during the 1840s, the recreated colonial Regency interiors of this harbourside villa set the scene for tales of obsessive collecting, matchmaking and intense political rivalry, and of a family maintaining the appearance of prosperity and social position, whilst balancing precariously on the edge of financial ruin.

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