Site Politics
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| Sydney's 1st Mayor,
John Hosking
(image: Sydney Mail, 30 November 1889, p.1204. State Reference
Library, State Library of New South Wales)
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Sydney City Council was formed in 1842. From the first days of
its incorporation, when it met in the George Street Markets, the
Council was anxious to obtain a grant of suitable land on which
to build a Town Hall. Its preferred location was the Old Burial
Ground on the corner of George and Druitt Streets. But when difficulties
arose as to the legality of the colonial government granting this
site, the Government offered various other sites to the Council:
the George Street Markets, the Police Office, the old Government
House site, even Hyde Park, were floated as potential sites. While
deputations and petitions negotiated to secure the perfect site,
for over thirty years the Council met in various pubs and buildings
around town.
City Council Chambers
Before
the Town Hall was built, the Council met in series of different
rooms and hotels. The first meeting of the Council on 9 November
1842 was held in the Market Building on George Street. For the
next couple of meetings the Council met in the Royal Hotel in
George Street. The Council’s first stable residence was
the Pultenay Hotel in York Street, opposite the George Street
Markets. This sketch by Joseph Fowles (dated c.1843) titled
the City Council Chambers, is probably the Pultenay Hotel. The
Council occupied this building from 1843 to 1853. From 1854
to 1860 the meeting place was the Oxford Hotel in King Street.
Between 1860 and 1868 the Council met in two buildings in Carrington
Street, on the eastern side of Wynyard Square. Following the
Council’s departure in 1868, this building was known as
the Town Hall Hotel. The Council’s final temporary home
was two houses at the northern end of Carlton Terrace on York
Street, on the western side of Wynyard Square.
(image: Joseph Fowles, Original Sketches,
ZPX*D 123f2b, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales)
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York Street, 1842
John Rae’s
sketch of York Street in 1842, looking south from midway between
Market and Druitt Streets. The brick wall enclosing the Old
Burial Ground can just be made out at the end of York Street,
and the temporary St Andrews church. The Old Burial Ground was
the Council’s preferred option for a Town Hall site. It
was first suggested to the government in 1843. The proposal
met with the Governor’s approval, but was blocked by the
Legislative Council which doubted that the Governor had the
power to grant ‘a public and sacred site’ for secular
purposes. Governor Gipps proposed introducing a bill to clarify
the situation, but after receiving a petition from the Bishop
objecting to the proposed use, the idea was deferred. The Council
also considered the George Street Market and Police Office site
(shown to the left in the drawing) as a possible location. Edward
Bell the City Surveyor drew a ground plan of the site in 1865
(City of Sydney, Engineers Plans, S4-46/3) but the government
wouldn’t agree to this site either.
(image: DGV* Sp.Coll/Rae/2, Dixson Galleries,
State Library of New South Wales)
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The Bent Street site
The removal
of the Governor’s residence to the Domain and the demolition
of the old Government House in the second half of the 1840s
appeared to provide a possible location, and in 1848 the Council
formally requested the land bounded by Bridge, Bent, Phillip
and Elizabeth Streets. Eventually the land was granted to the
Council in 1851. But this site was never the Council’s
first choice, and the granting of it did not stop the petitions
requesting other sites. In 1853 the sum of £3,000 was
included in the estimates for commencing the building of a Town
Hall on Bent Street. Plans were prepared, moves made to lay
foundations, but nothing more happened. By now the Council was
embroiled in acrimonious debate with the government over the
administration of its affairs, and it 1853 the Council was sacked.
This particular ground plan drawn by the City Surveyor, Francis
Clarke, on 16 April 1850, shows the space proposed for the Town
Hall at Bent Street. As well as the public hall, there were
offices for Council staff, meeting rooms for aldermen, stores
and stabling.
(image: City of Sydney, Engineers Plans, S4-46/4)
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Battle for urban control
When the
Council was re-instated in 1857 it had no Town Hall site. Grumbling,
the government re-issued the Bent Street site grant, but the
Council persisted in asking for alternative sites. The Bent
Street site (outlined in red on the plan), close to Macquarie
Street and to the Colonial Secretary’s office, may well
have suited the colonial government’s purposes, but in
the very real battle for control of urban functions, the Council
was clearly anxious to acquire land which was physically and
psychologically located in the commercial centre of town. The
enduring interest in the Old Burial Ground site arose from its
proximity to the George Street Markets, the Haymarket and the
Corporation Wharf. To build a Town Hall there would be to strengthen
the municipal precinct and create a symbol of city government
in the heartland of commercial Sydney. The experience of their
sacking and rule by commissioners could only have clarified
the aldermen’s thinking on the strategic importance of
building in the right place. The Bent Street site was a valuable
one, and by now the Council was manoeuvring to sell it. This
would allow the purchase of a more acceptable site, at the Council’s
discretion. Eventually, in 1862, the Town Hall Exchange Act
allowed the Council to establish a ‘more convenient site’
either by selling or swapping it.
(image: City of Sydney, Engineers Plans S7-154/2)
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If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again
In 1865
the Council once again applied for a grant of a portion of the
Old Burial Ground (a.k.a. Cathedral Close). A Government Select
Committee recommended the Old Burial Ground site. Among those
who provided evidence to the Select Committee was Edward Bell,
the City Engineer. Bell showed the committee various plans that
were drawn up for a Town Hall. These early plans for the Town
Hall do not survive in the City Archives collection, however
a tantalising glimpse of what might have been is shown in Bell’s
“Plan of Old Burial Ground shewing Alignment of Streets”
reproduced in the Select Committee Report. Bell drew this plan
to illustrate the amount of land required for a Town Hall and
how it might be positioned. It shows an elegant curved ceremonial
entrance fronting George Street, with a U shaped building. (This
building was also shown on alternative Town Hall site plans
drawn by Bell. As far as he was concerned, one size fitted all.)
But the Council was already conducting an architectural design
competition, and this Town Hall design was just one of many
on offer.
(image: City of Sydney Archives,
CRS 30/1/5)
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At Last!
Finally
in 1869, with the passage of the Cathedral Close Act (32 Vic
No.4, 3 March 1869), the Old Burial Ground was resumed, and
half an acre granted to the Council. By then the foundation
stone had already been laid and an architectural competition
held for Town Hall designs. In terms of government surveillance
of the City Council’s activities, this 1869 legislation
is a showpiece. The Council was obliged to spend at least £25,000
on its building, which had to be completed by 1 January 1872.
The grounds were to be laid out according to the recommendations
of the Director of the Botanic Gardens, the enclosing walls
had to satisfy the Colonial Architect, and any remains of corpses
located had to be removed and re-interred as directed by the
Minister for Lands. Failure to meet any of the standards or
deadlines set out in the Act incurred severe financial penalties.
(image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS 9/3)
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