The sandstone pile on the corner of Bridge and Macquarie Streets started as government money and paperwork, not a hotel foyer. Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis designed the first purpose-built government office block here in 1849–51 on land once within the garden of First Government House: an Italian Palazzo / neo-classical sandstone building with a Bridge Street frontage for the Audit Office and a Macquarie Street frontage for the Treasury, originally divided internally.
Edmund Blacket added coach-house and stables to the north by 1853. From 1873 the Treasury absorbed Audit space. Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon added a fire-proof Strong Room (1896–98) and a Link Building with the present Macquarie Street portico (1898–1900). George McRae’s Bridge Street extension for the Premier’s Department followed in 1916–19. After later government uses the complex was sold in the early 1980s and adapted as the InterContinental Sydney (heritage wings restored; modern hotel tower inserted), with significant interiors such as the former Premier’s Room retained.
Photographs here show the Bridge and Macquarie Street sandstone elevations of the old Treasury precinct.
Treasury & Audit Office - Now The Inter Continental Hotel - Macquarie Street - Sydney - New South Wales
Treasury & Audit Office
It’s now the Inter Continental Hotel