The Manor (Mosman, NSW)

The Manor is a mansion in the Sydney suburb of Mosman. Built circa 1911 loosely in the Federation style, it stands in the harbour front street of Iluka Road, in the Mosman locality of Clifton Gardens.

Built by its owner, a Mr Bakewell, who originally planned a cottage of eight rooms. However, the cottage kept growing until it was a mansion with over thirty rooms, most of which were lined with beaten copper. It was known locally as Bakewell's Folly. ["The Theosophist", magazine (Theosophical Society) August 1997, pp.460-463] In 1922, the Theosophical Society rented The Manor for a community of some fifty people. The community was headed by Charles Leadbeater, an alleged clairvoyant and heavyweight in the Theosophical Society. The Manor became an important centre in the Society and was regarded as a great "occult forcing-house".

The English writer Mary Lutyens stayed at The Manor in the 1920s and described it as "a huge and hideous villa". [To Be Young, Mary Lutyens (Corgi Books) 1959, p.153] The young Indian Jiddu Krishnamurti, who was presented as the new "World Teacher", stayed in nearby David Street with his brother Nitya while Lutyens—his eventual biographer—stayed at The Manor. [Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening, Mary Lutyens (John Murray) 1975, p.202]

The Theosophical Society bought the house in 1925, holding it under a trust deed. In 1951, they set up The Manor Foundation Ltd to own and run the house. The Society still uses The Manor today.

ee also

*Heritage homes of Sydney

References