[6] Another was the enlargement of the Right Rev Dr Higgins, Roman Catholic Auxiliary-Bishop of Sydney’s residence Mount Eagle in Forbes Street Darlington.
[7] Late in the 1890s Tidswell went into practice on his own using numerous premises until he took space in Challis House in Martin Place in Sydney.
[12] In 1914 Tidswell designed a factory in Annandale for Starkeys[13] who at the time were the largest ginger beer manufacturer in the Southern Hemisphere.
He designed his own home Greycliffs at 29 Musgrave Street, Mosman in 1899[16] and his brother’s house Deloraine on the northern tip of Point Piper in 1903.
[17][18] While the house still stands at 132 Wolseley Road, it has been substantially altered and is now known as Cordoba having been redesigned in a Spanish Revival style by the architects Esplin & Mould.
[19] In the same era he designed a holiday house in the Blue Mountains for himself named Briar Hill at 41 Park Street, Glenbrook.
The weatherboard house in late Federation and early Californian bungalow style has an Arts and Crafts inspired face brick inglenook and is on an extensive landscaped block.
The house remained in the ownership of Tidswell family until this century[20] and is an important element in the built environment of historic village of Glenbrook.
In 1902 a reserve named in honour of Sir William Lyne was reclaimed from tidal sand flats at Rose Bay and in 1904 harbour baths were designed by Tidswell.
[27][28] The centre hosted the Australasian Championships (now the Australian Open) and the International Lawn Tennis Challenge (now the Davis Cup) in both 1909 and 1919.
His school friends, Old Newingtonians Herbert Curlewis and Percy Colquhoun, were also bowlers, tennis players and members of the recreation club and his neighbours in Mosman.
Sydney was a small and parochial city until World War II and this was Tidswell’s Protestant, professional and social milieu.