The Petersham Town Hall is a

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many ...

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

located at 107 Crystal Street in Petersham, a suburb in the

Inner West The Inner West of Sydney is an area directly west of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. The suburbs that make up the Inner West are predominantly located along the southern shore of Port Jackson (Parramatta River) ...

of Sydney, Australia. It was built in 1937–38 in the

Inter-War In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relative ...

Stripped Classical Stripped Classicism (or "Starved Classicism" or "Grecian Moderne") Jstor is primarily a 20th-century Classical architecture, classicist architectural style stripped of most or all Ornament (art), ornamentation, frequently employed by governmen ...

architectural style by architects Rudder & Grout, and replaced the first Petersham Town Hall on the site, which was designed in the Victorian_Renaissance_Revival style by

Thomas Rowe Thomas Rowe (20 July 1829 – 14 January 1899) was a British-born architect, builder and goldminer who became one of Australia's leading architects of the Victorian era. He was also a politician, who was the first Mayor of Manly. Early life ...

in 1880–1882. The Town Hall was the seat of Petersham Municipal Council from 1938 to 1948 and from 1948 to 1974 was the seat of the Municipality of Marrickville, which absorbed Petersham. When the council moved to new offices across the street in 1974, the town hall has primarily been used as a meeting hall, community centre, filming location and archival office.

First Town Hall, 1880–1937

The foundation stone for the town hall was laid by mayor M. McMahon on 18 December 1880, with W. H. Pigott MLA opening proceedings. The Italianate structure was designed by Thomas Rowe, and the completed building was officially opened by the mayor, John Gelding, on 19 April 1882. The building, of brick on stone foundations, was completed in eighteen months, and included a library, masonic meeting room, caretaker's residence and on the upper floor a hall capable of seating 700 people, with a large stage and various ante-rooms, approached by three staircases. Its cost was estimated at £4000. The hall was demolished in 1937 as a cheaper alternative to remodelling. The hall is of interest to aficionados of

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

, as the site of Australia's first production of ''

Ruddigore ''Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse'', originally called ''Ruddygore'', is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written tog ...

'', by the Petersham Choral Society, on 4–7 August 1908. It was not until 23 June 1927 that it was staged professionally, at the

Theatre Royal, Adelaide The Theatre Royal on Hindley Street, Adelaide was a significant venue in the history of the stage and cinema in South Australia. After a small predecessor of the same name in Franklin Street, Adelaide (built 1838), the Theatre Royal in Hindley St ...

James Hay James Hay may refer to: *James Hay (bishop) (died 1538), Scottish abbot and bishop *James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle (c.1580–1636), British noble *James Hay, 2nd Earl of Carlisle (1612–1660), British noble *James Hay, 15th Earl of Erroll (1726� ...

for

J. C. Williamson's J. C. Williamson's, formerly Williamson, Garner, & Musgrove and Williamson and Musgrove, was an Australian theatrical management company and theatre owner. With its beginnings in the theatrical productions of J. C. Williamson and his p ...

Second Petersham Town Hall

The town hall's distinctive architecture and largely intact Art Deco interiors has made it a popular filming location for film and television, including Baz Luhrmann's ''

Strictly Ballroom ''Strictly Ballroom'' is a 1992 Australian romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Baz Luhrmann in his feature directorial debut. The film is the first in his "Red Curtain Trilogy" of theatre-motif-related films; it was followed by 1996 ...

'' (1992), '' A Place to Call Home'', ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

'' and '' Paper Giants''.

Heritage listing and conservation

The Town Hall was first listed in 2001 under the Marrickville Local Environment Plan (updated 2011) as "a good example of Art Deco civic architecture of the late 1930s. The strong vertical elements and exposed brickwork make it a dominant element within the area which developed as the municipal centre of Petersham from the 1880s. The Town Hall has been associated with a stream of influential people and continues to be an actively used and recognised resource to the local community. It is considered by the NSW RAIA to be an important twentieth century civic building. ..Its stately Art Deco design, its location opposite the Marrickville Council administration building and Council Chambers make the Petersham Town Hall building an identifiable and actively used landmark within the municipality."

Gallery

File:Town Hall, Petersham c. 1890.jpg, The first Town Hall c. 1890 prior to southern addition. File:Petersham Town Hall, by Milton Kent (11 September 1921).jpg, The first Town Hall showing trophy gun and 1892 Frederick St side addition, 11 September 1921.

References

External links