The Leichhardt Town Hall is a landmark civic building in

Leichhardt Leichhardt may refer to: * Division of Leichhardt, electoral District for the Australian House of Representatives * Leichhardt Highway, a highway of Queensland, Australia * Leichhardt Way, an Australian road route * Leichhardt, New South Wales, inn ...

, a suburb of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia. It stands at 107 Norton Street. It was built in 1888 in the Victorian Italianate style by architects Drake and Walcott. The Town Hall was the seat of Leichhardt Municipal Council from 1888 to 2016 and is now one of the seats of the new

Inner West Council Inner West Council is a local government area located in the inner western region of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The council makes up the eastern part of this wider region, and was formed on 12 May 2016 from the merger o ...

. The hall is listed on the (now defunct) Australian

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

and the

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

heritage database.

History and description

When the Municipality of Leichhardt was proclaimed in 1871, the council first started meeting in a former inn. This building proved thoroughly inadequate for the purposes of a municipal administration, with ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' noting in December 1887 that the council chambers were: As a consequence, at the meeting of the council 13 June 1887, Alderman Walsh introduced a motion that £4000 "be placed to the credit of a Town Hall Account in the

Bank of Australasia The Bank of Australasia was an Australian bank in operation from 1835 to 1951. Headquartered in London, the bank was incorporated by Royal Charter in March 1834. It had initially been planned to additionally include first South Africa and then ...

, Leichhardt, and be reserved for expenses in connection with the building of a Town Hall at the corner of Norton and Marion streets." Despite concerns over the cost of such a project, the motion was carried in a division of 5 votes to 4. A subsequent special meeting convened on 15 August, and selected a Victorian

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

style design by architects, Drake and Walcott, of

Pitt Street, Sydney Pitt Street is a major street in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The street runs through the entire city centre from Circular Quay in the north to Waterloo, although today's street is in two disjointed sect ...

. The foundation stone of the new hall was laid in a ceremony on 7 January 1888 by the Mayoress, the wife of Mayor Benjamin Moore. Stated to be "one of the finest municipal buildings in the colony", the hall was completed eight months later at the cost of £5600 and was formally opened, albeit with an incomplete tower, on 26 September 1888 by the

Governor of New South Wales The governor of New South Wales is the viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governors of the ...

Lord Carrington Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, Baron Carington of Upton, (6 June 1919 – 9July 2018), was a British Conservative Party politician and hereditary peer who served as Defence Secretary from 1970 to 1974, Foreign Secret ...

, in the presence of Mayor

Sydney Smith Sydney Smith (3 June 1771 – 22 February 1845) was an English wit, writer, and Anglican cleric. Early life and education Born in Woodford, Essex, England, Smith was the son of merchant Robert Smith (1739–1827) and Maria Olier (1750–1801), ...

and

Sir Henry Parkes Sir Henry Parkes, (27 May 1815 – 27 April 1896) was a colonial Australian politician and longest non-consecutive Premier of the Colony of New South Wales, the present-day state of New South Wales in the Commonwealth of Australia. He has be ...

. The clock within the tower was not installed until 1897 to commemorate the 60 years of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

’s reign and was unveiled on 22 June 1897 by the Mayoress, wife of mayor Robert Cropley. A branch of the

Australian Joint Stock Bank The Australian Joint Stock Bank was a bank in Australia. It operated from 1852 to 1910, after which it became the Australian Bank of Commerce and then was taken over by the Bank of New South Wales in 1931. History The Australian Joint Stock Ban ...

operated in the north western section of the building from 1888 to 1895 when a library was established with a separate entry from Marion Street.

Gallery

File:Leichhardt Town Hall (artistic sketch from photograph) 1888.jpg, Sketch of the Town Hall in the ''

Sydney Mail Sydney Mailmay refer to: * Sydney Mail (train service), a train service that existed between 1888 and 1972 going from Brisbane to Wallangarra, where passengers would transfer at Wallangarra for the Brisbane Limited. * The Sydney Mail, an Australi ...

'', 1888 File:LeichhardtTH (1).JPG, Town Hall in 2006 File:Leichhardt Town Hall.jpg, Town Hall in 2007 File:LTownHall.jpg, Town Hall in 2008

References

External links

Leichhardt Town Hall
– Inner West Council {{Town halls in Sydney Government buildings completed in 1888 Town halls in Sydney Victorian architecture in Sydney Italianate architecture in Sydney 1888 establishments in Australia New South Wales Heritage Database New South Wales places listed on the defunct Register of the National Estate

History and description

Gallery

See also

References

External links