Haymarket’s little terracotta-and-brick corner tower is easy to walk past on the way to Paddy’s or the Capitol — which is a shame, because it is one of the most highly decorated small municipal buildings Sydney ever put up. 181–187 Hay Street, better known as the Corporation Building (also the Municipal Building), was designed in 1892 by City Architect George McRae for Sydney Municipal Council and built in 1893–95 as a service building for the new Belmore Markets. It gave the market clerk and produce agents offices, refreshment rooms and toilets.
The Federation Anglo-Dutch façade is rich in face brick, sandstone and glazed terracotta, with that distinctive corner tower. Together with neighbours such as the Capitol Theatre, Haymarket Chambers and the Palace Hotel, it forms a late-Victorian / Edwardian streetscape tied to markets, the railway terminus and nearby retail. The building is on the NSW State Heritage Register (SHR 00693). City of Sydney conservation works completed in 2022 restored degraded façade detailing and rebuilt the Hay/Parker Street entrance in original character.
Photographs here document the Hay Street elevations and ornamental detail of McRae’s Corporation Building.
