The Windmills of Darlinghurst Road and Roslyn Street – Kings Cross's Lost Mills on Woolloomooloo Hill

In short: for about fifty years the ridge along today's Darlinghurst Road was Sydney's windmill country. Two big stone tower mills stood side by side near where Roslyn Street now meets Darlinghurst Road at Kings Cross. One was Thomas Barker's, finished in 1826. The other was built by the Frenchman François Girard a couple of years later. A third giant, Thomas Hyndes' mill near Craigend, stood just up the hill. Steam killed them off, and today the only trace of the Roslyn Street mills is some old sandstone sitting in the walls of two Kellett Street terraces. Here's what I found, with the best pictures from the 1800s.

View of part of Wooloomooloo and Mr. Barker's house and mills with Bradleys Point, painted by George Edwards Peacock in 1844. This is the Roslyn Street pair of mills, standing near where Roslyn Street meets Darlinghurst Road today. George Edwards Peacock, 1844, State Library of NSW, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Every time I walk up Darlinghurst Road past the Roslyn Street corner, among the backpackers and the late-night crowd, I try to picture two great sandstone towers with canvas sails turning in the north-easterly. It's all in the records, and there's even a painting. George Edwards Peacock painted the scene in 1844 and called it View of part of Wooloomooloo and Mr. Barker's house and mills with Bradleys Point. The original is in the State Library of NSW.

I wrote a general piece on the windmills of old Sydney in 2021. This time I've stayed on the Darlinghurst ridge.

Sydney – Once a Town of Windmills

Before steam came along, most of Sydney's bread started life between millstones turned by the wind. The First Fleet's hand mills were hard work and wore out quickly, and the parts for a proper windmill finally came out with Governor Hunter in 1795.

The Government Mills – Observatory Hill and the Barracks

That first government windmill went up on Flagstaff Hill, which is today's Observatory Hill and was also called Windmill Hill. It was finished in February 1797. David Collins wrote that on its first trial, with only two sails on, it ground "a bushel of wheat in ten minutes". Within months, Governor Hunter was complaining that while the miller was away, the very people whose wheat was being ground "were clever enough to steal away some of the sails". By about 1810 the tower stood without its sweeps.

A second government mill was started in January 1798 near where Clarence Street crosses the top of Grosvenor Street. A three-day gale in June 1799 wrecked the tower, but it was rebuilt by 1802 and, as the military windmill, kept going into the 1840s. A third, timber government mill was built by Nathaniel Lucas around 1806, close to where Fort Street school later stood.

Sydney looking south from Flagstaff Hill, by Major James Taylor, 1821. The windmill on the hill is the old military windmill near the barracks. James Taylor, 1821, State Library of NSW, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Domain Mills – Boston's, Palmer's and Kable's

On the east side of town, between where Governor Bourke's statue stands outside the Mitchell Library and the Conservatorium, there were at times three windmills at work. They were known as Boston's, Palmer's and Kable's. Charles Bertie wrote in 1912 that Kable's small post mill "was removed afterwards to the heights of Darlinghurst".

John Eyre's East View of Sydney, about 1809. The Dictionary of Sydney picks out Boston's mill on the left, Palmer's in the centre and Kable's little post mill on the right. John Eyre, c.1809, State Library of NSW, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Old Windmill, Government Domain, published by J. G. Austin in 1836, with the old tower long past working. J. G. Austin, 1836, State Library of NSW (PXA 662), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Millers Point, Pyrmont and Beyond

Millers Point takes its name from "Jack the Miller", John Leighton. By 1822 there were three wooden mills on the high ground there, apparently run by Jack. According to the Dictionary of Sydney, he died in 1826 after falling "in a state of intoxication" from a ladder leaning against one of his mills. John Macarthur had a stone mill at Pyrmont. Gordon's mill at Paddington and Hough's at Waverley came later. When William Charles Wentworth wrote his poem Australasia in 1823, he described Sydney's skyline this way:

"The lofty windmills, that with outspread sail
Thick line the hills, and court the rising gale."

Millers Point, by Joseph Fowles, about 1845, with a windmill still standing near the Lord Nelson Hotel. Joseph Fowles, c.1845, State Library of NSW (SV1/1840s/1), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Windmill Ridge – Darlinghurst Road

The high ground east of town ran north from today's Oxford Street towards the harbour, along the old South Head Road that Darlinghurst Road follows now. It caught every breeze off the harbour. Norman Selfe, the engineer who wrote about Sydney's windmills in 1902, put it this way:

"The most picturesque windmills of Sydney … were undoubtedly those which crowned the ridge at Darlinghurst."

The first was Thomas Clarkson's mill, put up around 1819 near today's Liverpool and Darley Streets, close to where the gaol was later built. Two wooden post mills stood nearby, just north of Liverpool Street, and one of them was Kable's old mill brought up from the Domain. The Morawa Museum's windmill records say these post mills were on James Hankinson's land grant. In June 1827 they went to auction as "Two Wood Post Windmills". In November 1828 one of them was being advertised as "a fine, new Post Mill, supposed by Judges to be the best ever erected in the Colony".

Mills near Darlinghurst Road and Liverpool Street, a drawing by Sydney Ure Smith for Charles Bertie's Stories of Old Sydney (1912). Bertie says it shows the two small wooden post mills north of Liverpool Street and Clarkson's stone tower near the gaol site. Sydney Ure Smith, in C. H. Bertie, Stories of Old Sydney, 1912, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

By the 1830s the ridge was crowded with mills. In 1896 a writer in the Sydney Morning Herald (26 December 1896) put it like this: "At one time—about the year 1835—this ridge carried no fewer than five windmills. Two stood near Macleay-street, two near the gaol site and one at the back of St. John's Church, Darlinghurst." Bertie, and F. J. Croft in the Herald of 2 April 1938, both called Darlinghurst Road "the miller town of Sydney" in the thirties. Both mention an old panorama in the Mitchell Library showing six windmills along the ridge, and Croft adds that two of them were near Darlinghurst Road and Roslyn Street.

The Roslyn Street Mills

Where They Stood

Every source I checked puts the mills in the same spot. The Dictionary of Sydney says there were "two more stone tower windmills that stood near where Roslyn Street joins Darlinghurst Road. One was owned by Thomas Barker and the other by Francois Girard." Bertie (1912), working from Norman Selfe's notes, puts them "near the junction of the Roslyn Street and Darlinghurst Road of to-day, and north of where Kellett Street now runs". The Morawa records go further. They place the two mills south-east of the Roslyn Street corner, only about 30 metres apart, with Barker's just north of Girard's.

Back then it was called Woolloomooloo Hill, and the road was still the South Head Road. Roslyn Street itself is named after Barker's house, Roslyn Hall, which stood next to the mills.

Thomas Barker's Hope Mill (1826)

Thomas Barker was orphaned young. He came out in 1813 as apprentice to John Dickson, the engineer who brought the colony's first steam engine. Barker went on to become one of the richest flour millers in Sydney, but he started out with wind. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says that in 1826 he and John Smith built a large windmill at Darlinghurst, "and soon afterwards another close by". In a June 1826 letter to Governor Darling, Barker didn't hide his ambitions: "it is my wish to oppose as far as my means will allow, those overgrown Millers, by building other Mills".

According to the Morawa records, Barker's partnership with John Smith was dissolved on 23 June 1826, with the mill still unfinished. Barker bought out the land and the half-built tower and finished the job. By mid-September 1826 he was telling the public that the Hope Mill was "ready to receive WHEAT, to be Ground and Dressed, in any Quantity not less than 5 Bushels". When he died in 1875, his obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald (20 March 1875) remembered it this way: "His first essay was a self-acting windmill, which he caused to be erected in Macleay-street."

Barker built his home, Roslyn Hall, right beside the mills. The Dictionary of Sydney says he took up the Roslyn Hall estate on Woolloomooloo Hill in 1833, a villa and the windmills on nine acres. The house was later replaced by St Luke's Hospital.

François Girard's Stone Mill (1827–28)

The second mill belonged to one of the great characters of early Sydney. François Girard was a Frenchman who had been transported as a convict. He taught fencing, dancing and French, and after his pardon in 1825 he threw himself into baking. A scandal over short-weight bread didn't slow him down. By May 1826 his advertisements were promising "every kind of fancy bread, of a superior quality for gentlemen's tables. N.B. French Hot Rolls at Half past 7 in the morning."

Girard had already leased mills on the ridge and in town, but he wanted his own. Governor Darling refused him a land grant because he wasn't a British subject. Kenneth Dutton's history of Girard says he simply bought a one-acre block next to Barker's and began building "his own solid stone mill", using stone from his own quarry. The Morawa records describe it as five storeys high and well advanced by September 1827. Sybil Jack, writing in the Dictionary of Sydney, says it was built by Ashley and Hyndes.

1828 was a rough year for Girard. He baked bread for the soldiers under contract, and during a wheat shortage he was allowed to mix in maize flour. The troops hated it. In Girard's own words, the soldiers "demolished all his windows with the loaves and stones". Governor Darling took the opposite view: "the soldiers in revenge broke his windows with the ill-baked and unwholesome loaves he had supplied." Then, in September 1828, the new mill was damaged in a storm. While it was repaired he went back to grinding at one of the old post mills.

Girard soon turned to steam. In February 1829 he tried to let the stone mill and took on a steam engine instead. The Australian reported he was "paying for the use of it £1000 yearly". The windmill was heavily mortgaged. The Morawa records say that in February 1831 he handed it over to John Northwood in return for clearing the debt. Northwood, who wasn't a miller, sold it on in 1836.

How These Tower Mills Worked

The Roslyn Street pair were tower mills: tall stone towers with a cap on top carrying the sails, and only the cap turned to face the wind. In the older post mills the whole timber body swung round on a big post. Sybil Jack notes that by the 1830s nearly all Sydney's windmills had "common sails", canvas, set like the sails of a ship. She also says the stone towers on the ridge seem to have had better gear for hoisting the sacks and turning the caps than the older mills. Hyndes' mill, for one, had two pairs of stones and a smutter for cleaning the grain.

The Morawa records note something lovely in the paintings. Barker's mill had a staging, or platform, around the tower so the miller could reach the sails, and a fantail, the little wind wheel at the back that turns the cap into the wind by itself. Girard's mill doesn't appear to have had one, and Morawa suggests its staging was used to swing the tail pole round by hand.

View of Sydney from near Tivoli, from Conrad Martens' Sketches in the Environs of Sydney, 1849. Look closely at the skyline on the left and you'll see windmills on the eastern ridge. Conrad Martens, 1849, British Museum (1871,0610.534), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Was the Second Mill Barker's or Girard's?

The Australian Dictionary of Biography says Barker built two mills, the first "and soon afterwards another close by". Peacock's 1844 painting is also titled "Mr. Barker's house and mills". The Dictionary of Sydney, Dutton and the Morawa records all give the second tower to Girard. Bertie, quoting Selfe, says the right-hand one was Barker's and the other was "erected by Mr. Girard or Mr. Hyndes". He adds that the second one was at one time known as Donaldson's mill, after Kellett House, home of Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson, which stood close by. The Morawa records offer a tidy explanation. Both mills seem to have stood on the same 1826 grant to Smith and Barker, with the land under Girard's mill split off at some stage.

The End of the Roslyn Street Mills

Both mills were still standing in 1845 according to the Morawa records, and "Mr. Barker's windmill" was advertised to let in mid-1848. The Herald's special report on Woolloomooloo of 15 March 1851 enjoyed the view of the hilltop mansions: "Intermixed with these houses are several windmills, materially adding to the diversity of the scenery". In the 1850s Frederick Terry's engraving Sydney from the Old Point Piper Road still showed the sails of Hyndes', Barker's and Girard's mills high on the skyline.

I haven't found a date for the demolition of either Roslyn Street mill, but we do know where the stone went. The Morawa records say the stones of Barker's mill were used for two houses near the site about 1863–66. The Dictionary of Sydney says they are "two terrace houses in Kellet Street, Kings Cross which remain today on the corner of Kellet Lane". The Potts Point Preservation Group tells the same story. The Roslyn Hall estate was subdivided in 1889, and the house itself came down in the 1930s.

What's There Today

The mill site is the block on the south-east corner of Darlinghurst Road and Roslyn Street, right at the T-intersection, among the shops, money exchanges and backpacker hostels of the Cross. The painter William Dobell lived on the corner of Darlinghurst Road and Roslyn Street in the early 1940s, about a hundred years after Peacock painted the mills. If you want to touch the past, walk round into Kellett Street and look at the old sandstone in those two terraces near the lane.

Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross, in 2012. The Roslyn Street mills stood a short walk from here. Photo by Sardaka, 2012, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hyndes' Mill – The Giant of the Ridge

The Roslyn Street pair had a big neighbour up the hill. In 1825 Henry Ashley and Thomas Hyndes asked for land on the South Head Road to build a windmill, and a grant was promised on 14 June 1825. That June they advertised for "stonemasons, bricklayers, and millwrights". Ashley dropped out, and the mill opened in 1829. The Sydney Gazette praised it as spacious and very handsome. It stood beside Major Thomas Mitchell's Craigend, which is why it later became known as the Craigend mill.

It had a long line of owners and tenants:

• Leased to John Hill in the 1830s, hence "Hill's mill"
• Sold to John Terry Hughes in 1834 and back with Hyndes in 1840
• Run by Macdonald and Airth, who went insolvent in 1843, then by Wascoe and Moody
• Put up for auction in 1848 and, when that failed, offered to let
• Run by James Fidden and then, from 1851 to 1863, by John Jenkins (it was "Jenkin's mill" by 1857)

Under Fidden it was the Oak Mill (Jack) or "Fiddon's or Hope mill" (Bertie). In 1865 Captain Robert Towns owned it and planned to turn it into workmen's dwellings.

That plan gives us the best story. The young architect John Horbury Hunt was drawing up the conversion, and on 17 January 1865 he wrote in his diary:

"Old windmill—got up on top platform, climbed out on shaft, as one of the arms was standing perpendicular climbed up it and with Jack knife cut a strip of wood off the arm, pointed it, and stuck it into the end of the arm at 105 feet from the ground."

Years later he added, "Being a yachtsman in those days accounts for the feat." Bertie says the sweeps were "fully forty feet long". By 1871 the mill was "out of repair, no sails, roof bad", and it was reportedly pulled down around 1873. A late-1860s State Library panorama of Craigend with Hyndes' windmill on the right can be seen on the My Darling Darlinghurst blog. There's also a 1865–69 view, "Windmill Hill from Upper Liverpool Street", on the City of Sydney's Darlinghurst Stories site. Stone from the mill is said to have gone into Beare's Stairs in Caldwell Street, and possibly four terraces there too. The Dictionary of Sydney places the mill roughly at today's Royston Place, at the top of those stairs.

A Darlinghurst Mill, drawn by Sydney Ure Smith for Stories of Old Sydney (1912). The book doesn't say which of the ridge mills this is. Sydney Ure Smith, in C. H. Bertie, Stories of Old Sydney, 1912, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Steam Takes Over

John Dickson brought the colony's first steam engine out in 1813 and set it up on Cockle Bay, and for nearly ten years his was the only steam mill. In 1825 Daniel Cooper and Solomon Levey built a steam mill on Cockle Bay. Barker bought it in 1826 for £6,000, according to Sybil Jack (the ADB says about 1828), and built it up into his big Sussex Street mills. Girard built his own steam mill at the other end of Darling Harbour in 1833–34. By 1838 Maclehose was counting eight steam mills on Darling Harbour.

A steam mill didn't sit idle on a still day. Sybil Jack says windmills could still pay until the 1850s, but one by one the sails came down on the ridge. As the Herald's 1896 writer put it, "The windmills and water-wheels were in time superseded by steam flour mills. Among the earliest of these to be erected were Barker's Mills, in Sussex-street."

The last of them all was out at Waverley. Henry Hough's post mill in Mill Hill Road, on the site of St Barnabas's church, was "levelled to the ground on October 1 1878", according to Selfe, and Heaton's Dictionary of Dates gives the same day. A pencil note on an old picture gives 1881, and a writer in Truth in 1902 said it "disappeared in the mid-seventies". Bertie was tempted to call his windmill chapter "What Sydney lost by steam", and I think he was right.

Hough's Mill, Waverley, another Sydney Ure Smith drawing from Stories of Old Sydney (1912). It's a good example of the old post mill, where the whole body of the mill turned to face the wind. Sydney Ure Smith, in C. H. Bertie, Stories of Old Sydney, 1912, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• 1797 – First government windmill working on Flagstaff (Observatory) Hill; some of its sails are stolen.
• 1798–1802 – Military windmill begun, wrecked by the June 1799 storm, rebuilt.
• c.1819 – Thomas Clarkson's mill, the first on the Darlinghurst ridge.
• 1825 – Hyndes and Ashley promised land on the South Head Road; advertise for masons.
• June 1826 – Barker–Smith partnership dissolved; Barker finishes the mill.
• Sept 1826 – Barker's Hope Mill "ready to receive WHEAT".
• 1827 – Girard refused a grant (April); buys one acre and builds a stone mill beside Barker's.
• 1828 – Soldiers' bread riot at Girard's; Girard's new mill damaged by storm (September).
• 1829 – Hyndes' (Craigend) mill opens; Girard turns to steam.
• 1833 – Barker takes up the Roslyn Hall estate beside his mills.
• c.1835 – Five (or six) windmills along the ridge.
• 1844 – Peacock paints "Mr. Barker's house and mills".
• 1845 – Both Roslyn Street mills still standing.
• 1848 – "Mr. Barker's windmill" to let; Hyndes' mill offered at auction.
• c.1863–66 – Stone from Barker's mill used for two houses in Kellett Street.
• 1865 – Horbury Hunt climbs the arm of the Craigend mill, 105 feet up.
• c.1873 – Hyndes' (Craigend) mill reportedly demolished.
• 1878 – Hough's mill at Waverley, probably the last, is levelled.

Where the Sources Disagree

• The second Roslyn Street mill: Barker's (ADB, and Peacock's title), Girard's (Dictionary of Sydney, Dutton, Morawa), or "Girard or Hyndes" (Selfe, via Bertie).
• Builder of Girard's mill: Ashley and Hyndes (Sybil Jack), or Girard himself with his own quarry stone (Dutton).
• "Hope Mill": Barker's mill (Dictionary of Sydney, Morawa), or the Craigend mill (Bertie).
• Girard's sale: February 1831 (Morawa) or around 1833 (Dutton). His 1829 steam engine: Robert Cooper's at Blackwattle Swamp (Dutton, Morawa), or the Cooper and Levey mill on Cockle Bay (Jack).
• Barker's steam mill purchase: 1826 (Jack), 1827 (Dictionary of Sydney) or about 1828 (ADB).
• Clarkson's mill: a stone tower (Bertie, Dictionary of Sydney, Morawa) or a post mill (Jack).
• Roslyn Hall: nine acres on Woolloomooloo Hill, or 16 acres at Darling Point (two different Dictionary of Sydney pages).
• Hough's mill: gone on 1 October 1878, in 1881, or in "the mid-seventies".

My Earlier Posts

• Windmills of Old Sydney
• Craigend – Darlinghurst – Darlinghurst Villas – Demolished 1922
• Original Villas Of Darlinghurst
• Original Villas Of Woolloomooloo Hill, Potts Point & Elizabeth Bay
• Darlinghurst Gaol & Darlinghurst Court
• Hangings at Darlinghurst Gaol
• St John's Church – Darlinghurst Road
• The Battle of Blood Alley – Eaton Avenue – Kings Cross – 7 May 1929
• Barncleuth – Potts Point
• Observatory Hill – Fort Phillip – Sydney Observatory
• Windmill Street Quarry – Millers Point
• The Government Domain

Sources

• Catie Gilchrist, Windmills of Sydney, Dictionary of Sydney, 2016.
• Sybil Jack, Sydney Flour Mills before 1850, Dictionary of Sydney, 2017.
• Dictionary of Sydney records for Barker's Windmill, Girard's windmill, Craigend Mill, Clarkson's mill and Thomas Barker.
• Mark Dunn, Darlinghurst, and Kings Cross, Dictionary of Sydney.
• Charles H. Bertie, Stories of Old Sydney, illustrated by Sydney Ure Smith, Sydney, 1912: "The Windmills of Old Sydney" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3); scanned book at Internet Archive.
• Norman Selfe, "Some Notes on the Sydney Windmills", Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. 1, part 6 (1902–03), as quoted by Bertie and the Dictionary of Sydney.
• D. R. Walsh, Barker, Thomas (1799–1875), Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1966.
• Kenneth R. Dutton, "A Colonial Entrepreneur: François Girard (1792–1859)", Explorations no. 39, December 2005 (online copy).
• Morawa Historical Society Museum, Australian Windmills – Flour Mills (Sydney: Kings Cross – Hope Mill; Girard; Darlinghurst – Hyndes and Ashley; Post Mills 1 and 2; Clarkson).
• Potts Point Preservation Group, Roslyn Street Potts Point.
• City of Sydney, Darlinghurst Stories, The cottages, the windmills and the paddocks.
• My Darling Darlinghurst blog, Windmills.
• Sydney Morning Herald, "The Old Windmills of Sydney. II", 26 December 1896, p. 8 (Trove).
• Sydney Morning Herald, "Old Windmills", F. J. Croft, 2 April 1938, p. 7 (Trove).
• Sydney Morning Herald, obituary of Thomas Barker, 20 March 1875, p. 6 (Trove).
• Truth (Sydney), "Old Sydney", 2 February 1902, p. 7 (Trove).
• George Edwards Peacock, View of part of Wooloomooloo and Mr. Barker's house and mills with Bradleys Point, 1844, State Library of NSW.
• Images: Wikimedia Commons, as credited under each picture.

Kings Cross Theatre – Junction of Darlinghurst Road & Victoria Street – Darlinghurst – New South Wales

The corner where Darlinghurst Road meets Victoria Street is the real Kings Cross, the actual "cross" that gave the place its name. From April 1916 to the early 1960s that corner belonged to Frank Waddington's Kings Cross Theatre. It was a picture palace that pulled Sydney up William Street to the movies, then had a wild second life as Surf City, the beat-music hall where Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs made their name. It came down in the mid-1960s for the Crest Hotel and the railway, and the building on the corner today is the Omnia apartment tower. My original notes and photos come first, followed by the full story.

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If you know “the Cross,” you know the junction of Darlinghurst Road and Victoria Street — and for nearly fifty years the building that owned that corner was the Kings Cross Theatre. It opened 14 April 1916 on Frank Waddington’s picture-house circuit: a lavish suburban cinema seating about 1,600 (some accounts say over 2,000), with orchestra and (from 1928) a Wurlitzer organ. For half a century it was the landmark entertainment address at the top of William Street / Darlinghurst Road.

The cinema closed in 1963. After a brief nightclub turn (the Birdcage), John Harrigan’s Surf City beat venue occupied the stripped auditorium from 1963 to 1966 — short-lived, but a famous chapter in Australian popular music. The theatre came down in 1966 for the Scandinavian-style Crest Hotel (opened 1967). The Crest was partly demolished in 2016 and remodelled as the multipurpose Omnia apartment and retail complex, completed in 2018. Kings Cross railway station, which opened beneath the corner on 23 June 1979, also remade the underground and streetscape around it.

Photographs here recall the theatre corner and its hotel-era replacements. The building is gone

Kings Cross Theatre - At The Junction Of Darlinghurst Road & Victoria Street

 

What A Wonderful Place This Would’ve Been. Way Before I Was Born. I’ve Stood There And Tried To Visualise How It Would’ve Been. So Sad. 

The Kings Cross Theatre sat on the corner of Darlinghurst Rd and Victoria St and opened in 1916. Part of Frank Waddington's chain of picture houses, the cinema seated about 1,600 (some accounts say over 2,000) and was described as 'particularly lavish'.

A 'junior' nightclub called the Birdcage, run by radio compere Peter Bergin was open briefly in the venue in 1963 after the theatre closed, and was soon replaced by John Harrigan's Surf City, that occupied the building from 1963 until 1966 when the building was demolished, to be replaced by the Crest Hotel.

The Crest Hotel was a Scandinavian style 14 storey hotel (council papers say 17 storeys) and it had the famous "Goldfish" bar at street level. The building was partially demolished in 2016 and remodelled as the multipurpose apartment building Omnia, completed in 2018, which houses 132 apartments (it was approved for 131 in 2015), a new commercial offering at ground and first floor, including a supermarket and associated parking within the existing building basement.

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The Full Story of the Kings Cross Theatre

Before the Theatre: A Hilltop of Villas and Windmills

Long before there were neon signs, this ridge was Woolloomooloo Hill. Mark Dunn's Kings Cross history in the Dictionary of Sydney tells how Governor Darling handed out villa grants along the ridge from the late 1820s, and six of those estates fell inside what we now call Kings Cross. They were James Dowling's Brougham Lodge, Alexander Baxter's Springfield Lodge, Augustus Perry's Buona Vista, Thomas Macquoid's Goderich Lodge, Thomas Barker's Roslyn Hall estate with its windmills, and Edward Hallen's grant, which he never built on.

Brougham Lodge is the one closest to our corner. The Dictionary of Sydney says it was built in 1831 on Dowling's 1828 grant "near the crossroads that were to become Kings Cross", and its map pin sits only a few dozen metres from the theatre site.

The crossroads itself came about through a fight among the neighbours. Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell wanted William Street to climb the hill on the easiest grade, but that line would have cut across the land of the miller Thomas Barker and close to Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay. While Mitchell was away surveying, Macleay had the road pushed straight up the steepest, shortest line from Park Street to meet Victoria Street and Darlinghurst Road at the top. The Dictionary of Sydney calls the junction one of the worst traffic bottlenecks in the city for the next 140 years, until the Kings Cross tunnel opened in December 1975. Still, it did make a cross, and that cross gave the area its name.

Through the late 1800s the big estates were cut up into terraces, shops and boarding houses. The Dictionary of Sydney counts 17 boarding houses in the Kings Cross area in 1890, 55 by 1905 and 165 by 1915, most of them run by women. So by the time the theatre went up, the top of William Street was a busy, crowded spot full of renters, which is exactly the crowd a picture show needs.

Auction plan for a Bayswater Road subdivision, 1916, the year the theatre opened just around the corner. Richardson and Wrench; Raine and Horne, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sale plan for Alberto Terrace, 1923, covering the streets around the Cross, including Darlinghurst Road, Victoria Street and William Street. Richardson and Wrench; Hardie and Gorman, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Queens Cross Becomes Kings Cross

The name is younger than the theatre's neighbours. According to the Dictionary of Sydney, in 1897 the junction of Victoria Street, Darlinghurst Road, William Street and Upper William Street was named Queens Cross for Queen Victoria's jubilee. It only lasted eight years. In 1905 the City Council changed it to Kings Cross, partly to avoid mix-ups with Queens Place (now Queens Square) near Hyde Park and partly because there was a new king on the throne. Not everyone caught on straight away. The undertaker Charles Kinsela was still advertising from "the top of William Street, Queens Cross" in November 1906.

Even in 1916 the newspapers weren't sure what to call the place. The paper that announced the new theatre put it "at the top of William-street, Darlinghurst". Today's planning papers file the same block under Potts Point. Wherever you draw the lines, it's the same corner.

Opening Night: 14 April 1916

On 2 April 1916 a Sydney paper (page 16, digitised on Trove) told readers that "the latest Waddington Picture Palace is the King's Cross Theatre, at the top of William-street, Darlinghurst". It said the theatre seated "over 2000 patrons", that "special attention has been paid to comfortable seating arrangements and decorations, the stage settings being particularly lavish", and that it would "open to the public on Friday week, April 14". The Dictionary of Sydney gives the same opening date, 14 April 1916.

It seems to have caught on fast. By 30 April the same page was reporting that "at one bound Waddington's King's Cross Theatre has leaped into public favor", praising the seating, the ventilation, the staff and the "select pictures". That week's program was a Mary Pickford drama, A Girl of Yesterday, from Monday to Wednesday, then the film of the novel David Harum. Shows ran every evening at 8, with matinees on Saturdays and holidays at 2.15 pm.

Frank Waddington ran a chain of picture houses, and the Dictionary of Sydney describes the Kings Cross Theatre as part of that chain. 1916 was a big year at the Cross. The same history notes that six o'clock closing for pubs came in that year, so a night at the pictures had a lot less competition.

Inside the Picture Palace

Cinema Treasures lists the theatre's style as Neo-Classical. For a sense of the inside, the best pictures we have are a pair Sam Hood took in July 1940, now held by the State Library of NSW. They show a grand foyer with a sweeping staircase and a comfortable ground-floor lounge, built to make a night at the pictures feel like a night out at the theatre.

Entrance foyer and staircase of the Kings Cross Theatre, photographed by Sam Hood in July 1940. Sam Hood, State Library of New South Wales, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The ground-floor lounge of the Kings Cross Theatre, July 1940. Sam Hood, State Library of New South Wales, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Wurlitzer and the 1937 Makeover

Picture palaces of the 1920s were judged on their organs as much as their films. Cinema Treasures records that on 11 August 1928 the American organist Joseph Wayne opened a newly installed Wurlitzer organ (two manuals, ten ranks) at the Kings Cross Theatre. Stanley Cummins and Denis Palmistra also played it in later years.

Cinema Treasures also says the theatre was remodelled in 1937, and that the organ was moved to the Savoy Theatre at Hurstville. It doesn't say exactly when the organ went.

The Hub of the Cross

The Dictionary of Sydney credits the theatre with starting the area's life as an entertainment strip. It says the 1916 opening "marked the start of the area as an entertainment precinct", with cafés and restaurants soon opening to cash in on the crowds. By 1925 there was the Paris Café and John Psaltis's fish and oyster saloon in Darlinghurst Road, and in Victoria Street there were Samuel Lever's Refreshment Rooms, HS Gilkes's wine saloon and Mrs Payton's dining rooms. The same history says billiard rooms, oyster saloons and cafés were all trading within a few doors of the theatre.

By 1924 Ciro's cabaret at the top of William Street and Maxim's in Darlinghurst Road had joined in. Then in 1939 came the Minerva Theatre in Orwell Street, an Art Deco live theatre that MGM later turned into the Metro cinema. Through the 1930s and 40s, then, the Kings Cross Theatre was one of two big screens at the Cross, at the busiest crossroads in Sydney. From 1937 thousands of people also packed the junction every New Year's Eve.

Kings Cross around 1930, the busy junction the theatre looked over. Royal Australian Historical Society (Osborne Collection), no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Another view of Kings Cross from the same collection, about 1930. Royal Australian Historical Society (Osborne Collection), no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

"Kings Cross – A Bleak Winter Day", about 1930. Royal Australian Historical Society (Osborne Collection), no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

"Kings Cross 2", about 1930. Royal Australian Historical Society (Osborne Collection), no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

"Paris in the South", a 1930s photo that sums up how Sydney liked to see the Cross. Royal Australian Historical Society (Osborne Collection), no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Bayswater Road, Kings Cross, in 1929. Bayswater Road runs into the junction beside the theatre corner. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Looking along Darlinghurst Road from the Kings Cross Hotel, about 1933–34, with the trams working the crossroads. Sam Hood, State Library of New South Wales, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The first official trip of a double-decker trolleybus through Kings Cross, 22 January 1934. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Kings Cross, Darlinghurst, about 1940. Royal Australian Historical Society (Osborne Collection), no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The Minerva Theatre in Orwell Street, the Cross's other big theatre, photographed by Max Dupain in June 1947. Max Dupain, State Library of New South Wales, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The old Minerva/Metro building still stands in Orwell Street. The Kings Cross Theatre wasn't so lucky. Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A "Greetings from Kings Cross" postcard, about 1950, with trams and traffic crowding the crossroads. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The same crossroads in colour, about 1950. Unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Last Picture Show and the Birdcage

Trams stopped running through the Cross on 10 July 1960, and the Eastern Suburbs Railway was back in the planners' sights. The theatre itself shut as a cinema in 1963, according to both the Dictionary of Sydney and Cinema Treasures. The Dictionary of Sydney says a "junior" nightclub called the Birdcage, run by radio compere Peter Bergin, opened in the building for a short time after that.

Surf City: 1963 to 1966

Then came the chapter most people remember. Jake Ollett's 2020 history of Surf City in the Dictionary of Sydney gives its address as 111–127 Darlinghurst Road. Music promoter John Harrigan took over the old theatre, and the conversion was simple: they "simply tore out" the seats to make room for a dance floor. The club was officially licensed in December 1963, but it had been running for months before that. Its own posters called it "Australia's finest teenage cabaret".

At first it was surf bands, The Atlantics, The Vibratones and The Nocturnes among them, all playing to kids doing the stomp. Then beat music took over. Billy Thorpe teamed up with the Aztecs, Harrigan became their manager and they became the house band, playing up to seven or eight sets a week. Ollett says that in June 1964, the week the Beatles arrived in Sydney, the Aztecs' "Poison Ivy" was at the top of the Sydney charts. Ray Brown and the Whispers and The Missing Links were regulars too, and the Dictionary of Sydney's Kings Cross entry adds The Easybeats.

The crowds were enormous. Ollett gives the venue a capacity of 5,000 and, quoting Thorpe, says 15,000 to 20,000 people would come through between Friday night and Sunday evening by December 1963. The papers weren't impressed. Surf City was accused of "breeding delinquents", and in August 1965 Alderman LE McDermott complained the place was "badly lit and the band plays extraordinarily loud" after a girl's jaw was broken in a brawl. Thorpe saw it differently. He remembered it as "neutral territory", where rockers and surfies who'd fight anywhere else shared the dance floor.

The last night was Sunday 6 March 1966, with most of the bands that had made their names there. Today three bronze plaques in the footpath near 127 Darlinghurst Road, laid by the City of Sydney in 2004–05, mark the spot. They read: "Surf City & Billy Thorpe. Everyone did the stomp to big stars and hopeless one-hit wonders".

Demolition, the Crest Hotel and the Railway

The Dictionary of Sydney says the building was demolished in 1966 to make way for the Crest Hotel, and that the old theatre site was also needed for the underground railway station. It describes the Crest as a "Scandinavian style 14 storey hotel", built in 1966–67, which opened on 27 September 1967. Kings Cross station, on the Eastern Suburbs line, didn't open until 23 June 1979, and the Kings Cross road tunnel opened on 15 December 1975.

Billy Thorpe never forgave the place. In a 1998 quote posted on Cinema Treasures he said the underground station "sits directly beneath where Surf City stood" and called the hotel above it one of the ugliest buildings ever put up in Sydney.

Kings Cross in the 1960s, the decade the old theatre came down. Ihatewabbits, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kings Cross in July 1968, a year after the Crest opened. Wilford Peloquin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kings Cross, September 1968. Wilford Peloquin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kings Cross in 1970. Wilford Peloquin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The same Kings Cross view in 1970 and decades later. Wilford Peloquin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kings Cross around 1981. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

From the Crest to Omnia

The Crest had a long run as a hotel. Then in September 2015 the City of Sydney's planning committee approved turning it into apartments, shops and a supermarket. The council's papers describe it as a 17-storey building at 111–139 Darlinghurst Road and 224–226 Victoria Street, Potts Point, on a site of about 1,629 square metres. The Dictionary of Sydney says the building was partly demolished in 2016 and reworked as Omnia.

Durbach Block Jaggers, the architects, describe Omnia as an adaptive re-use of the Crest Hotel: an hourglass-shaped tower on a tiled podium, which they call "a pale green version of the Coca-Cola sign" across the road. Their figures put it at 132 apartments, with a communal garden between the podium and the tower. It was finished in 2018. So when you stand on the corner today, the bones of the 1967 Crest are still in there, sitting where the 1916 picture palace stood, with the railway station underneath.

Omnia, the reworked Crest Hotel, on the old theatre corner in 2020. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The crossroads in 2012. The tower on the left is the Zenith, which used to be the Kingsgate Hotel. Sardaka, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross, 2012. Sardaka, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A Kings Cross station entrance on Darlinghurst Road. The station sits under the old theatre corner. Nick-D, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kings Cross station, opened on 23 June 1979. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Neighbours: Coke Sign, Kings Cross Hotel and the Fountain

The Dictionary of Sydney calls the Coca-Cola sign at the top of William Street one of the last survivors of the neon that used to light up the junction. The heritage-listed Kings Cross Hotel stands "diagonally opposite the old Surf City site", and the Dictionary of Sydney notes that live music carries on there.

A short walk down Darlinghurst Road, in Fitzroy Gardens, is the El Alamein Memorial Fountain. Its NSW State Heritage Register listing (quoted on Wikipedia) says it was designed by Robert Woodward with Phill Taranto, built in 1959–61 and turned on by Lord Mayor Harry Jensen on 18 November 1961. It honours the 9th Division at the battles of El Alamein. The listing says that in the 1960s and 70s it rivalled the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House in tourist pictures of Sydney. It went on the State Heritage Register on 14 January 2011.

William Street and the Coke sign at night, 2008. 200ok, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Coca-Cola sign at night, 2023. Shkuru Afshar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Kings Cross Hotel, diagonally across from the old theatre site. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The El Alamein Fountain in 1970. Wilford Peloquin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The fountain lit up at night, around 1987. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The El Alamein Memorial Fountain, Fitzroy Gardens, 2008. Angus Fraser, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• 1828 – James Dowling granted land on Woolloomooloo Hill. Brougham Lodge built there in 1831.
• Early 1830s – William Street pushed up the hill to meet Victoria Street and Darlinghurst Road, forming the cross.
• 1897 – The junction is named Queens Cross for Queen Victoria's jubilee.
• 1905 – City Council renames it Kings Cross.
• 2 April 1916 – The papers announce Waddington's new King's Cross Theatre, with "over 2000" seats.
• 14 April 1916 – Kings Cross Theatre opens.
• 11 August 1928 – Joseph Wayne opens the theatre's new Wurlitzer organ.
• 1937 – Theatre remodelled. The organ later goes to the Savoy, Hurstville.
• July 1940 – Sam Hood photographs the foyer and lounge.
• 10 July 1960 – The last tram runs through Kings Cross.
• 18 November 1961 – El Alamein Fountain turned on in Fitzroy Gardens.
• 1963 – Theatre closes as a cinema. The Birdcage runs briefly, then Surf City opens (licensed December 1963).
• June 1964 – Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs top the Sydney charts with "Poison Ivy".
• 6 March 1966 – Surf City's last night.
• 1966 – Building demolished (Dictionary of Sydney; Cinema Treasures says 1969).
• 27 September 1967 – The Crest Hotel opens on the site.
• 15 December 1975 – Kings Cross road tunnel opens.
• 23 June 1979 – Kings Cross railway station opens.
• 2004–05 – Surf City plaques laid in the Darlinghurst Road footpath.
• 10 September 2015 – Approval given to turn the Crest into apartments.
• 2016–2018 – Crest partly demolished and rebuilt as Omnia.

Where the Sources Disagree

• How many seats? The April 1916 paper and the Dictionary of Sydney say "over 2000". Cinema Treasures lists 1,609, which may be the count after the 1937 remodel. That's my guess, and no source says so. As Surf City, with the seats gone, the Dictionary of Sydney gives a capacity of 5,000.
• When was it demolished? The Dictionary of Sydney says 1966. Cinema Treasures says 1969. Ollett's Surf City history only says it came down "in the following years" after March 1966. With the Crest opening in September 1967, 1966 fits best.
• When did Surf City close? The Dictionary of Sydney gives the last night as 6 March 1966. A commenter on Cinema Treasures says it ran until 1965.
• What replaced it? The Dictionary of Sydney says the Crest Hotel. Cinema Treasures says "the high-rise Chifley Hotel", and Billy Thorpe called it "the Crest Hotel, now the Capital". These may be later names for the same building, but I haven't found a source that confirms it.
• How tall was the Crest? The Dictionary of Sydney says 14 storeys. The City of Sydney planning papers call it 17 storeys.
• How many apartments in Omnia? The 2015 consent allowed 131, a later change raised it to 134, the architects say 132, and a real-estate news site says 135.
• Which suburb? In 1916 the papers called it Darlinghurst. Most histories say Kings Cross. The council's planning papers say Potts Point.

My Earlier Posts

• The Windmills of Darlinghurst Road and Roslyn Street
• The Widening Of William Street - East Sydney & Kings Cross
• Original Villas Of Woolloomooloo Hill, Potts Point & Elizabeth Bay
• Brougham Lodge – Darlinghurst Road / Victoria Street
• Roslyn Hall – Roslyn Street / Darlinghurst Road – Potts Point
• Goderich Lodge – Bayswater Road / Penny's Lane
• Springfield Lodge - Potts Point
• Kellett House (formerly Bona Vista)
• Craigend - Darlinghurst
• The Battle of Blood Alley – Eaton Avenue – Kings Cross – 7 May 1929
• Kate Leigh & Tilly Devine – Sydney's Razor Gang Queens
• Juanita Nielsen – Kings Cross Publisher and Victoria Street Green Ban Campaigner
• Arthur Stace – Mr Eternity
• Maramanah – 64 Macleay Street – Potts Point
• The State Theatre - Market Street - Sydney
• Demolished Sydney

Sources

1. "Waddington's New Theatre", 2 April 1916, p. 16, via Trove: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/121342588
2. "King's Cross Theatre", 30 April 1916, p. 16, via Trove: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/121345731
3. Dictionary of Sydney, "Kings Cross Theatre": https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/kings_cross_theatre
4. Mark Dunn, "Kings Cross", Dictionary of Sydney, 2011: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/kings_cross
5. Jake Ollett, "Breeding delinquents: Surf City 1963–1966", Dictionary of Sydney, 2020: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/breeding_delinquents_surf_city_1963_1966
6. Dictionary of Sydney, "Crest Hotel": https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/crest_hotel
7. Dictionary of Sydney, "Brougham Lodge": https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/brougham_lodge
8. Cinema Treasures, "King's Cross Theatre" (Ken Roe), with comments: https://www.cinematreasures.org/theaters/35318
9. City of Sydney, planning reports for 111–139 Darlinghurst Road (D/2015/331 and modifications; Statement of Environmental Effects, 25 June 2018), via eplanning.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
10. Durbach Block Jaggers, "Omnia": https://durbachblockjaggers.com/projects/residential/omnia
11. Apartments.com.au, "From hotel to high-end apartments: the transformation of the Kings Cross Crest Hotel into Omnia": apartments.com.au
12. Wikipedia, "El Alamein Fountain" (incorporating NSW State Heritage Register listing H01847): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Alamein_Fountain
13. City of Sydney Archives, "Plenty of fun, lots of young people, but no vice. Surf City...", newscutting, 22 September 1963: https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/900526
14. Images: Wikimedia Commons (State Library of NSW, Royal Australian Historical Society and individual photographers as credited under each picture).

Darlinghurst Gaol – Taylor Square – Bourke Street – Forbes Street – Burton Street – Darlinghurst Road

Darlinghurst Gaol - Taylor Square - Darlinghurst 

Ten Things  You May Not Have Known About Darlinghurst Gaol. 

1. In The Early 1820's, The NSW Colonial Administration Decided To Invest In A New Prison Facility. A Site was Identified At Darlinghurst Hill & The Architect Francis Greenway Was Asked To Design It. Darlinghurst Gaol Was To Overlook Sydney As A Constant Reminder That Sydney Town Was A Convict Settlement. 
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2. In 1822, Construction Of The Walls Began Using Convict Labour. After An Early Flurry, Funds Eventually Ran Out And Work On The Site Stopped. Sydney's Existing Jail At The Rocks Eventually Suffered From Intense Overcrowding & Public Pressure Led The Darlinghurst  Gaol Project To Restart In 1835. 

The Later Designs Of The Prison By Architect Mortimer Lewis, Were Radically Changed by George Barney, Who Then Took Over The Project. After 1841 Even George Barneys Designs Were Changed By The Administration To Fit In More Prisoners In The Complex. 

In The Original Plans, Each Cell Was To Accommodate 1 Prisoner, But That Was Changed To Each Cell Holding 3 Prisoners. Outside The Walls, Near The Front Entrance, Effluent & Sewage Collected In A Big Pond, With The Stench Rising Up To Greet Anyone Who Came Past It.

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3. The First Prisoners Were Housed In 1841. However, The Prison Itself was Not Completed Until 1881. 
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4. Over The Decades, The Darlinghurst Gaol Hosted Some Significant Prisoners, Including - 

Poet Henry Lawson. Lawson, Who Did Time For Drunkeness & Non Payment Of Alimony, Recorded His Experience In His 1908 Poem, One Hundred & Three - His Prison Number 

- Captain Moonlight

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5. Makeshift Public Gallows Were Locates Outside The Main Gate In Forbes Street. A Permanent Gallows Was Located Inside The Main Wall Near The Intersection If Darlinghurst Road & Burton Street. Among The 79 People Executed Was Notorious Bushranger Captain Moonlight In 1880.

Also Executed - John Knatchbull - Hanged in 1844

- jimmy Governor - Hanged in 1901

- The Last Woman Hanged In NSW Was Louisa Collins in January 1889

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6. Conditions In The Gaol Deteriorated & It Was Plagued With Drainage, Security & Disease Problems. The Long Bay Gaol Superceded Darlinghurst When It Opened In 1914 With Such Mod Cons As Cell Lighting & A Prison Library. 
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7. The Jail Was Used As An Internment Camp During World War One. In 1921 The Buildings Were Converted Into The East Sydney Technical College. 
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8. In 1921, The National Art School Also Took Up Residence In The Old Prison Buildings. Students Who Passed Through The NAS Include -

 Margaret Olley, Ken Done, Max Dupain, Reg Mombasaa & The Sculptor Raynor Hoff, James Gleeson, John Coburn, Fiona Hall, Wendy Sharp, Jeffrey Smart, John Olsen, 
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9. Also Within The Complex Is The Cell Block Theatre Which Was Announced In 1955 By Hollywood Legend Katherine Hepburn. Hepburn Made a Speech Noting How Appropriate It Was That A Member Of The Second Oldest  Profession In The Business,  Should Open A Building Which Had Housed Women From the Oldest Profession. 
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10. Darlinghurst Gaol Is The Oldest Surviving Large Jail Complex In Australia. 
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Prisoners Were Marched In Chains From The Decaying Prison In Old George Street North To The Big New Gaol In Darlinghurst In 1841. 
There were 159 fillings in the cavalcade, 119 men and 40 women.
Three years later a crowd of 10,000 were outside the Gaols Great Stone Wall To  Watch Murderer John Knatchbull hang on the public gallows. Until 1852 All Hangings Were public. The last hanging out the jail was in 1907, of the 67th Person to die on the gallows there.
The Gaol Had Been Planned In 1835, was a long time building. 13 years earlier, convicts had begun to dig stone for its wall On Goat Island & in the Woolloomooloo Quarries. Some of the marks they carved in the blocks, So That A Tally could be kept Of Their Quota in the cut stone, Is Still Legible. 
The Gaol Was Planned by Mortimer Lewis, After The Original Designs From Francis Greenway Many Years before.   On An American Model, As A Series Of Curved buildings Grouped Around A Chapel. In 1840, A Time Of Depression, Free Labour Was Used On the Chief Gaoler's House And Two Cell Wings Under A Scheme To Ease 
"The Great Destitution Among The Working Classes."
Strenuous But Not Always Successful Efforts Were Made To Extract  Useful Work From The Prisoners, Who Worked At trades Seven hours A Day. Discipline Was Severe. 
One Of The Few Amenities Was the Fact That No Cell Had A Ceiling Less Than 10 Feet High. 
In World War 1, German Prisoners Of War Were Housed in the Gaol, & Long Bay Gaol Took Over The Criminals. In 1921 The Massive Buildings Threw off their Ugly Past - Darlinghurst Gaol Opened Its Gates To Hopeful youth & Became East Sydney Technical College. 

2022 - The Latest News About The Darlinghurst Site 

 Darlinghurst Law Courts To Become Centre Of New Cultural Precinct