Sydney's rows of terrace houses represent one of the most sophisticated architectural vernaculars the Commonwealth has produced - and also one of the most simple. They are usually two - storied and built on a plan that closely resembles the English `tunnel - back`, with its two rooms up and two rooms down and a tail of sculleries and so forth at the back; yet they differ from their English counterparts in the treatment of the façade. The party walls between the houses are brought forward, sometimes as much as four feet, to support the ends of the balcony. The roof is brought forward to the same extent, and usually brought well down over the upstairs windows, like a hat pulled well down to shade the eyes. In fact, shade is the basic aim. The two horizontal projections - balcony and roof - give shelter from the high midday sun, while the projecting party walls on either side give shelter from the `light that kills`, that low evening sun which is, for some reason, so much more a problem in the southern hemisphere than in ours. But this façade in a picture - frame is also an architectural element that can be assembled with other like it to form a convincing terrace. Even when it has to step, house by house, up or down a hill - and in Sydney most of them seem to do just that. But, better still, each picture - frame can contain a façade of a different colour without destroying the continuity of the terrace.
Most of the terraced areas are now sixty or more years old and have suffered the vicissitudes of fashion; as a result, the colours in a single terrace may range from ochre's and ambers, to surprise pink, chrome yellow, and blue - and - white. The projecting walls between one house and the next keep each colour neatly compartmented, as in a child's paint-box, so that the architecture is not blown apart by contrast. No architecture-fancier from Northern Europe could fail to be captivated by such a combination of order and spontaneity.
