Surreyhills

Distinguished and Famous people from Surreyhills

🏘️ Bill Chandler

Bill Chandler combined a major professional career in urban design with fifty years of community life in Surrey Hills. He became chief planner for Melbourne Docklands and helped establish the Australian Urban Design Awards, but also put energy into the Surrey Hills Neighbourhood Centre, local festivals and community publishing. He edited the Surrey Hills Neighbourhood News and later helped establish Eastsider News. A parliamentary tribute recalled that in January 2020 he managed to have different letters published in three metropolitan newspapers on the same day. The planner clearly had thoughts to share, both about the shape of cities and the neighbourhood outside his door.

📐 Thomas Hendy

Architect Thomas Hendy moved to Surrey Hills in 1907 after work and travel in Europe and South Africa. His Public Works Department projects included the 1909 extensions to Surrey Hills State School. That year he also started the 1st Surrey Hills Scout Troop, drawing on a personal acquaintance with Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell. Hendy designed a family house in Barton Street after purchasing the site in 1913. His local contribution joined architecture with community organisation: classrooms, a home and opportunities for young people, all within the suburb where he had settled.

🎞️ Clive Lord

Clive Lord designed the Surrey Hills Theatre, a 762-seat picture house that opened in 1939 with shops incorporated into its Art Deco frontage. After the cinema closed in 1960, the building found new uses as squash courts and later offices. Lord's career also included houses and churches, followed by service as the Commonwealth Bank's chief architect from 1949 until 1968. The theatre gives Surrey Hills a direct connection with his design work and with a time when a suburban night at the pictures could support a substantial purpose-built auditorium.