The Rockdale Town Hall is a civic building located on the corner of the
Princes Highway
Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former alignments of the hig ...
and Bryant Street in
Rockdale, a suburb of
Sydney,
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
,
Australia.
History
Rockdale Town Hall was opened by
The Rt Hon. The Lord Wakehurst ,
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 ...
, on 12 October 1940. The building was designed by then-local architect
Douglas Gardiner, who became a
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...
-based partner of
Bates Smart & McCutcheon after World War II.
Built at a cost of
A£
The pound (Sign: £, £A for distinction) was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 14 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. As with other £sd currencies, it was subdivided into 20 shillings (denoted by the symbol s ...
20,000, the council chamber was at the time of construction and the auditorium was . It is built of face brick detailed with stone at copings and around window architraves. The building entrance is marked by a stone portico and brick tower. The hall's interiors have elaborate art deco style plaster details to it walls and ceiling. The building is listed on local government heritage register within the
New South Wales Heritage Database as "a fine representative example of a late inter-war
stripped classical
Stripped Classicism (or "Starved Classicism" or "Grecian Moderne") Jstor is primarily a 20th-century classicist architectural style stripped of most or all ornamentation, frequently employed by governments while designing official buildings. I ...
building with functionalist influences".
See also
*
List of town halls in Sydney
*
Architecture of Sydney
The architecture of Sydney, Australia’s oldest city, is not characterised by any one architectural style, but by an extensive juxtaposition of old and new architecture over the city's 200-year history, from its modest beginnings with local m ...
References
{{Town halls in Sydney
Government buildings completed in 1940
Town halls in Sydney
Art Deco architecture in Sydney
1940 establishments in Australia