These buildings, along with adjoining Lilyvale (176 Cumberland St) & Hart's Building (10-14 Essex St) form a group of surviving historic buildings occupying the block bounded by Cumberland, Essex and Gloucester Streets, south of the Cahill expressway. Collectively they illustrate the range and diversity of small scale development in this area of The Rocks between 1840 and 1900.
They combine with nearby pockets of buildings to the south of Essex Street to extend that diversity into the 1920s. The buildings on the site combine to form an interesting group, reminiscent of the lively and diverse early streetscapes and urban scale of The Rocks.