Sydney Town Hall at 483 George Street is the city’s civic front door — Second Empire sandstone, clock tower, steps forever crowded with protestors, wedding parties and people waiting for someone who’s late. It stands on the Old Sydney Burial Ground, the town’s first permanent European cemetery (in use from the 1790s until closure in 1820). When Council finally secured the site, remains that could be recovered went to Rookwood; undisturbed graves remain beneath and around the building, and works still occasionally turn up burial evidence.
Construction began in 1869 to a competition design by J. H. Willson. Stage I — vestibule, clock tower and offices — rolled through the 1870s; Council was already occupying unfinished rooms from 1875. Stage II, the great Centennial Hall, was redesigned by City Architect Thomas Sapsford with John Hennessy and finished under George McRae, opening in 1889. Stage I is earlier; 1889 marks the Main Hall.
Town Hall remains in continuous civic and cultural use and is listed on the NSW State Heritage Register. Park and Druitt Streets name the surrounding street frame of the Town Hall / Sydney Square precinct.
