Town Hall House

Connected to the rear of Sydney Town Hall by an enclosed glass corridor, the Marconi Room and the Southern Function Room on Level 4 of Town Hall House provide overflow accommodation for venue hirers using the Vestibule and Centennial Hall or separate meeting rooms with an attractive sheltered outdoor terrace.

Venue

The Marconi Room and adjoining Terrace and the large Southern Function Room overlooking Sydney Square provide unique inner-city venues perfect for meetings, training sessions and business registrations. Used in conjunction with the Vestibule and Centennial Hall, these rooms can offer overflow space, practice rooms, support and storage space for large-scale events, performance groups, graduations and exhibitions.

Architectural Landmark

Town Hall House, designed by Ancher Mortlock and Woolley, was opened on 28 June 1977 and replaced an earlier building which housed the Sydney County Council’s Electricity Department and sales showroom on Druitt Street. In sharp contrast to the hand carved sandstone ornament and delicate wrought iron tracery of the Town Hall, this modern concrete office building with its striking repetitive angular geometry, has been identified as an important local example of Brutalist architecture fashionable in the 1950s and 60s.

Function

Before Town Hall House was built, Council staff were scattered throughout the Town Hall and in offices in the city, including the Queen Victoria Building (before it was restored in the 1980s). The new building responded to the expansion of council’s administration as it sought to deliver ever increasing community services; and its completion in 1973 meant that council staff could be centrally accommodated thereby improving efficiency.

Marconi Connection

The Marconi Terrace, which connects the rear of Sydney Town Hall to Town Hall House, is dominated by a large stainless steel and glass sculpture by Mike Kitching. Installed in 1976, it depicts a radio transmitter, mast and wave connected to a morse code transmitter and receiver and commemorates the centenary of the birth of Guglielmo Marconi who successfully illuminated Sydney Town Hall by radio signal from his yacht, Elettra, moored in Genoa Harbour, a distance of over 19,000 kilometres away.