Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that some of the early colonial artworks on this page may show people who have died.
The Rocks sits on Gadigal country. The Dictionary of Sydney and other sources describe the Gadigal as the traditional owners of Sydney Cove, and Wikipedia's article on The Rocks says the Cadigal people called this rocky western side of the cove Tallawoladah. Wikipedia's George Street article notes that some historians think the old track that became George Street followed paths the local Aboriginal people were already using.
My Original Notes
Before Darlinghurst’s big sandstone gaol became the prison people mean when they say “the jail,” Sydney kept its prisoners at the corner of George and Essex Streets in The Rocks. Governor John Hunter ordered gaols for Sydney and Parramatta in the mid-1790s. The Sydney timber gaol of about 1797 — cells plus a separate debtors’ building — burned in early 1799. It was rebuilt on the same site in sandstone: the “second” Sydney jail of this post’s title, behind high walls at George and Essex.
That sandstone gaol held men and women awaiting trial or convicted of offences within the colony (it was not mainly a holding pen for new transportees). Public hangings took place in the grounds; the timber gallows rose high enough to be seen from outside the walls and from a hill to the west. By the 1830s the building was overcrowded, insecure and widely regarded as an eyesore on a street turning commercial. Prisoners went to the new Darlinghurst Gaol in 1841, and the George Street gaol was subsequently demolished.
The site was archaeologically investigated in a 1979 rescue excavation before hotel development; the corner is now the Four Seasons Hotel (formerly the Regent). An RAHS Green Plaque later commemorated the site of Sydney’s first gaol.
Walking Up George Street North
Next time you're wandering up George Street from Circular Quay towards the Harbour Bridge, stop at the corner of Essex Street. The big hotel tower there is the Four Seasons, and you'd never guess from the glass and the doormen that this was once the grimmest corner in the colony. For more than forty years Sydney's gaol stood here, with its high walls, its crowded wards and its timber gallows standing up above the wall where everyone could see them.
George Street is the oldest street in the city. Wikipedia's George Street article says it started as a track from the convict camp in The Rocks, past the marine barracks and along the Tank Stream to the brick pits out near where Central station is now. Before 1810 most people called it High Street, and the northern end, our end, was sometimes called Sergeant Major's Row, and earlier still Spring Row, because the water carriers wore the path in between the Tank Stream, the military camp and the hospital. Governor Macquarie gave it the name George Street, after King George III, in 1810.
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The Log Gaol of 1797
When the First Fleet arrived, nobody built a gaol, because the whole settlement was effectively a prison. John Ramsland, writing on "Prisons to 1920" for the Dictionary of Sydney, explains that it was Governor John Hunter who, in 1796, ordered two gaols "along English lines", one for Sydney and one for Parramatta. They weren't meant for the convicts as they stepped off the ships. They were meant for people who broke the law after they got here. Hunter claimed robberies were happening every day.
The way they were built is a very early-Sydney story. According to Ramsland, every free landholder had to supply ten logs, and settlers who had more than twenty convicts working for them had to bring twenty. The settlers supplied the thatch for the roofs too. So many logs came in that the carpenters couldn't keep up. Ramsland says the Sydney and Parramatta gaols were both finished in June 1797, each with 22 cells. The Dictionary of Sydney's entry on Sydney Gaol adds a thatched roof and a separate brick building for debtors.
An official return of public buildings put up since October 1796, quoted in the State Archives agency record for Sydney Gaol (Research Data Australia), called it "a strong double logged gaol of 80 feet in length, with separate cells for prisoners". It goes on with one of the best lines in early colonial paperwork: it "might have been a durable building, until more permanent one could have been reared; but was afterwards burnt by design, but no discovery of the incendiary".
The man in charge was a First Fleeter, Henry Kable. Ramsland says Kable, who'd been convicted of burglary in Norfolk, was put in charge of the Sydney Gaol as chief constable in 1797. The Australian Dictionary of Biography traces how he went from overseer to constable and nightwatchman and then chief constable, and how he was sacked in 1802 after being convicted of breaking the port regulations and illegally buying pigs from a visiting ship. He went on to make a good living in business.
Burnt by Design – the Fire of 1799
The log gaol didn't last. The Dictionary of Sydney's Sydney Gaol entry says it was destroyed by fire in early 1799. Somebody set it alight on purpose and was never caught, according to the official return quoted by the State Archives. Parramatta's gaol went up in flames too. Museums of History NSW gives the date of the Parramatta fire as 28 December 1799.
For a small town of timber and thatch, losing the gaol to an arsonist must have been a bit embarrassing. The answer was to build in stone.
The Stone Gaol
The State Archives record says a permanent gaol was planned in 1799 and built the following year. Free settlers were levied to help pay for it, and the Gaol Committee, William Balmain and Major Joseph Foveaux, put up £714 13s of their own money to keep the work going. In a letter to Governor Hunter on 1 February 1800, they wrote that "nothing is so essentially requisite to the preservation of good order, and punishment of offenders in this settlement, as a proper and secure prison".
The new building got glowing reviews at first. The same official return called it "a handsome and commodious stone gaol at Sydney with separate apartments for the debtors, and six strong and secure cells for condemned felons". Ramsland describes it as being built like an army barracks, with an enclosed parade ground and two big undivided wards, one for men and one for women. Under Governor Philip Gidley King it was paid for out of the import duties on spirits, wine and beer, so in a way Sydney's drinkers kept its prisoners fed.
It stood behind a high wall on the western side of George Street, on the corner of Essex Street. Ramsland pictures a walker in the 1830s heading south from Kings Wharf along the western side of George Street and coming to "His Majesty's Gaol" on that corner. Prisoners were held there before and after trial. The Dictionary of Sydney and Wikipedia both say it held men and women, and Wikipedia adds that both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal prisoners were locked up there.
The Gallows on George Street
This is the part that gives the corner its dark reputation. Hangings took place in the gaol grounds. Wikipedia and the Dictionary of Sydney say the timber gallows stood higher than the gaol walls, so the public could watch from outside, and a hill just to the west gave the best view. Ramsland writes that public hangings "were commonplace outside its walls, attracting a rowdy mob", and that between the 1800s and the 1830s people were executed for the same range of crimes as in England. Some got last-minute reprieves, but there were plenty of gruesome scenes for the crowds.
Wikipedia, drawing on Charles Bertie's The Story of Old George Street (1920), says that on one day in June 1831 eight men were hanged together, seven for robbery and one for attempted murder. Museums of History NSW lists a surviving record among the colonial papers headed "List of prisoners executed at Sydney Gaol, 1 Feb to 28 May 1828". That gives you some idea of how often the rope was used here.
By 1835, Ramsland says, the gaol was seen as an eyesore, "with its timber gallows towering over its stone walls". George Street had become more respectable by then, with shops, businesses and houses, and the gallows wasn't something the neighbours wanted to look at.
A Moral Pestilence – the Gaol Falls Apart
The stone gaol was only "secure" for a little while. Ramsland says that almost as soon as it opened it was plagued by poor security, bad sanitation and overcrowding. In 1826 there were so many prisoners that Governor Ralph Darling used the hulk Phoenix, moored at first in Lavender Bay, to take the overflow.
The numbers in the reports are hard to take in. Wikipedia, citing Patricia Burritt's report on the 1979 dig, says 326 prisoners were crammed in there in August 1834, and in January 1835 62 women and 8 children were held in one room. Ramsland quotes the High Sheriff, Thomas Macquoid, who reported 110 men sharing a ward 32 by 22 feet, and 40 women and 10 children in another ward 27 by 22 feet.
In 1833 Governor Richard Bourke asked for a new gaol to be built at the colony's expense because the old one was in a "ruinous state". He put it bluntly, as quoted in the State Archives record: "The gaol in its present crowded state, without classification or labour, is a moral pestilence, and from its confined and low situation in the most populous part of the Town, appears likely at any moment to generate a physical one."
Building Darlinghurst
A replacement had been on and off since the early 1820s. Ramsland writes that the foundations, part of the walls and the gatehouse at Darlinghurst were started under Governor Brisbane between 1822 and 1824, then stopped for lack of money. A Select Committee reported to Bourke on 26 August 1836, and the Legislative Council had voted £10,000 towards it in 1835. The new gaol went up on the Woolloomooloo Stockade, out on the windswept sandhills. It was designed by the Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis and Captain George Barney, using Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary as a model, and built from sandstone quarried nearby at Barcom Glen.
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The March to Darlinghurst – 7 June 1841
Ramsland's description of moving day is one of my favourite bits of Sydney history. On the morning of 7 June 1841 a strange procession set off from the old George Street gaol and headed up the hill towards Woolloomooloo. At the front was the bushranger Patrick "Paddy" Curran, weighed down in irons and on remand. Behind the men came about 50 women prisoners, veiled and dressed in black, walking the same route through the city while the crowd jeered and cheered. Curran didn't stay long. Ramsland says he was tried at Berrima that September and hanged at the new Berrima Gaol.
Wikipedia's Darlinghurst Gaol article agrees that the first prisoners moved in on 7 June 1841, some of them brought over from the old Sydney Gaol in George Street. Museums of History NSW also dates the move to June 1841.
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Pulling Down the Old Gaol
Once the prisoners had gone, the George Street buildings were knocked down. The Dictionary of Sydney and Wikipedia both just say "subsequently demolished", and none of the sources I read gives an exact year. The Rocks went on without its gaol. By 1900 the streets around Essex Street were run-down enough for the government to resume them after the plague outbreak, and the Rocks Resumption photographers recorded the area street by street.
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The 1979 Dig, the Hotel and the Plaque
The corner had one more surprise. Jane Lydon, writing in Australasian Historical Archaeology, says the "Old Sydney Gaol" site was the very first excavation project in The Rocks. It was a rescue dig in 1979, carried out before the Regent of Sydney hotel was built on the corner of Essex and George Streets. It was paid for by the Heritage Council of NSW, even though the land belonged to the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority. Patricia Burritt's report, Old Sydney Gaol: The 1979 Rescue Excavation, followed in 1980. Wikipedia, citing that report, says not much from the gaol years turned up, but the diggers did find a leg iron.
The Regent is now the Four Seasons Hotel. Between 1984 and 1988 the Royal Australian Historical Society, with the City of Sydney and the bank, put up 101 green plaques around the city for the Bicentenary. According to the Dictionary of Sydney, Green Plaque No. 73, "Site of the First Gaol", was one of them. In 1988, according to the Kable family website and Wikipedia, about 500 of Henry Kable's descendants held a reunion at the Regent on the site of the gaol he once ran. A restaurant there was named "Kables" and given its own plaque, which the family says disappeared in a later refurbishment.
Timeline
- 1796 – Governor Hunter orders gaols for Sydney and Parramatta (Ramsland).
- June 1797 – The log gaols are finished, each with 22 cells (Ramsland). Henry Kable takes charge as chief constable.
- Early 1799 – The Sydney log gaol burns down, deliberately lit (Dictionary of Sydney; State Archives).
- 1799–1800 – The stone gaol is planned and built at George and Essex Streets (State Archives; Museums of History NSW).
- 1 February 1800 – The Gaol Committee writes to Hunter about the money it has advanced.
- 1802 – Kable is dismissed.
- 1822–1824 – Work starts at Darlinghurst, then stops.
- 1826 – Overcrowding leads Darling to use the hulk Phoenix.
- June 1831 – Eight men are hanged together (Wikipedia, after Bertie).
- 1833 – Bourke calls the gaol "a moral pestilence".
- August 1834 – 326 prisoners are held.
- 1835 – £10,000 is voted for Darlinghurst.
- 26 August 1836 – The Select Committee reports.
- 7 June 1841 – Prisoners march to Darlinghurst. The old gaol is later demolished.
- 1979 – The rescue dig, before the Regent hotel goes up.
- 1984–1988 – RAHS Green Plaque No. 73, "Site of the First Gaol".
- 1988 – The Kable family reunion on the site.
Where the Sources Disagree
- When it was built. Wikipedia says the gaol was "built in 1796" but its infobox says it opened in 1797. Ramsland and the State Archives say the log gaol was finished in 1797. The 1796 date is when Hunter gave the order.
- When it burned. The Dictionary of Sydney entry says early 1799. Ramsland says the Sydney and Parramatta gaols "were burnt down in the same year" they were finished, which reads as 1797. Museums of History NSW dates the Parramatta fire to 28 December 1799.
- When the stone gaol was built. Wikipedia says it was rebuilt in 1799. The State Archives and Museums of History NSW say it was planned in 1799 and built the following year (1800).
- The overcrowding figures. Wikipedia (after Burritt) gives 326 prisoners in August 1834 and 62 women with 8 children in one room in January 1835. Ramsland quotes Sheriff Macquoid's figures of 110 men in one ward and 40 women with 10 children in the other. They may describe different dates.
- Which plaque. The RAHS green plaque marks the "Site of the First Gaol". The Kable family's restaurant plaque at the Regent was separate, and it's the one that went missing.
My Earlier Posts
- The First Public Gallows – The Barley Mow Hotel
- Hangings at Darlinghurst Gaol – The Executions and Famous Prisoners
- Darlinghurst Gaol & Darlinghurst Court – Forbes Street & Taylor Square
- Darlinghurst Gaol – Taylor Square – Bourke Street – Forbes Street
- Cadman's Cottage – The Coxswains' Barracks, just down the hill from the gaol site
Sources
- John Ramsland, "Prisons to 1920", Dictionary of Sydney, 2011 – dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/prisons_to_1920
- "Sydney Gaol", Dictionary of Sydney – dictionaryofsydney.org/place/sydney_gaol
- "Royal Australian Historical Society Green Plaque 73. Site of the First Gaol", Dictionary of Sydney – dictionaryofsydney.org
- "AGY-405 Sydney Gaol", State Archives agency record via Research Data Australia – researchdata.edu.au/sydney-gaol/164515
- "Convicts: gaol records", Museums of History NSW – mhnsw.au/guides/convicts-gaol-records
- "Sydney Gaol", Wikipedia – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Gaol
- "Darlinghurst Gaol", Wikipedia – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlinghurst_Gaol
- "George Street, Sydney", Wikipedia – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Street,_Sydney
- "The Rocks, New South Wales", Wikipedia – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocks,_New_South_Wales
- "Gadigal", Wikipedia – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadigal
- D. R. Hainsworth, "Kable, Henry (1763–1846)", Australian Dictionary of Biography – adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kable-henry-2285
- "Henry Kable", Wikipedia – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kable
- "13 February 1988 Sydney CBD", Henry Kable – Susannah Holmes family site – henrykable-susannahholmes.com
- Jane Lydon, "From Old Sydney Gaol to Mrs Lewis' Boarding-house", Australasian Historical Archaeology 11 – asha.org.au (PDF)
- Patricia E. Burritt, Old Sydney Gaol: The 1979 Rescue Excavation, 1980 – University of Sydney Library
- Images from Wikimedia Commons, credited under each picture.