The Mint Museum
Macquarie Street, Sydney
1811-14 architect unknown
Closed: Christmas Day
The Mint Museum and the NSW Parliament House are the two surviving ‘bookend wings’ of the very early triple wing General Hospital commenced in 1811, barely 20 years after first settlement. Refused both funding and permission by London, Governor Macquarie accepted a proposition by three businessmen to provide a hospital in exchange for three years’ exclusive rights to the importation of rum.
The architect is unknown, but the design is typical of barracks designed by military engineers for warmer climates. Unfortunately, the buildings were badly built by the entrepreneurs, using stone-faced rubble rather than solid stone and faulty roof framing design, which was later rectified by Francis Greenway. The entire centre wing, erected on poor foundations, was demolished in 1879. (As the result of an 1880 competition, a new building was erected in its place to accommodate the Sydney Hospital. The two veranda-faced wings, originally surgeons’ barracks, are what remain today.
A branch of the Royal Mint was located in the southern building from 1852-1927, immediately after the New South Wales gold rush, making it the first British currency mint established outside Britain. After 1927, when the Mint moved to Canberra, a variety of taxation and judicial offices were haphazardly housed inside. The building was repaired and conserved between 1975 and 1982.
Information appearing in this section is reproduced from Sydney Architecture, with the kind permission of the author, Graham Jahn, a well-known Sydney architect and former City of Sydney Councillor. Sydney Architecture, rrp $35.00, is available from all good book stores or from the publisher, Watermark Press, Telephone: 02 9818 5677.
Last Updated: Friday 14 October, 2011