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The University of Sydney Quadrangle is a prominent quadrangle formed through the construction of several
Sydney sandstone Sydney sandstone is the common name for Sydney Basin Hawkesbury Sandstone, one variety of which is historically known as Yellowblock, and also as "yellow gold" a sedimentary rock named after the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, where thi ...
buildings located within
The University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
Campus, adjacent to
Parramatta Road Parramatta Road is the major historical east-west artery of metropolitan Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, connecting the Sydney CBD with Parramatta. It is the easternmost part of the Great Western Highway. Since the 1990s its role has been a ...
, in
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 Mountains ...
,
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 , e ...
, Australia. The Quadrangle is also called The University of Sydney Main Quadrangle. The Quadrangle and its associated main building and interior was listed on the
City of Sydney The City of Sydney is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament in 1842, t ...
local government heritage list on 14 December 2012. Built between 1854 and 1966 in the Victorian Academic Gothic Revival architectural style, the Quadrangle was designed and developed by numerous contributors including
Edmund Blacket Edmund Thomas Blacket (25 August 1817 – 9 February 1883) was an Australian architect, best known for his designs for the University of Sydney, St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney and St. Saviour's Cathedral, Goulburn. Arriving in Sydney from En ...
,
James Barnet James Johnstone Barnet, (1827 in Almericlose, Arbroath, Scotland – 16 December 1904 in Forest Lodge, Sydney, New South Wales) was the Colonial Architect for Colonial New South Wales, serving from 1862 to 1890. Early life Born the son of a ...
, and
Leslie Wilkinson Leslie Wilkinson , FRAIA, (12 October 1882 – 20 September 1973) was a UK-born Australian architect and academic. He was the founding dean of the faculty of architecture at University of Sydney in 1920. A traditionalist, he is known for his r ...
. The original building included the
Great Hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great c ...
and was constructed between 1855 and 1862. Construction on the quadrangle began in 1854, it had four sides by 1926, and was completed in 1966 after several stages of development. The Quadrangle comprises the Great Hall, MacLaurin Hall,
Faculty of Arts A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...
office and the
Nicholson Museum The Nicholson Museum was an archaeological museum at the University of Sydney home to the Nicholson Collection, the largest collection of antiquities in both Australia and the Southern Hemisphere. Founded in 1860, the collection spans the ancient ...
. MacLaurin Hall was constructed from 1902 to 1904 and was designed by
Walter Liberty Vernon Colonel Walter Liberty Vernon (11 August 184617 January 1914) was an English architect who migrated to Australia and pursued his career as an architect in Sydney, New South Wales. In his role as the New South Wales Government Architect he is no ...
. The building is mostly constructed of Sydney sandstone and is unique in the Australian architectural landscape. At the time of its completion, the Quadrangle was 'the largest public building in the colony.' The main entrance – constructed first along with the Great Hall – is underneath the clock tower, which holds one of only two carillons in Australia. The traditional Indigenous owners of the land on which the Quadrangle was built are the
Cadigal The Cadigal, also spelled as Gadigal and Caddiegal, are a group of Indigenous people whose traditional lands are located in Gadi, on Eora country, the location of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Gadigal originally inhabited the area that ...
and
Wangal The Wangal people ( Wanegal or Won-gal,) are a clan of the Dharug ( ?) Aboriginal people whose heirs are custodians of the lands and waters of what is now the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, centred around the Municipality of Strathfield, ...
tribes of the
Eora The Eora (''Yura'') are an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales. Eora is the name given by the earliest European settlers to a group of Aboriginal people belonging to the clans along the coastal area of what is now known as the Sy ...
people.
Robert Strachan Wallace Sir Robert Strachan Wallace (1 August 1882 – 5 September 1961) was an Australian academic, army officer and film censor. Wallace served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney from 1928 to 1947. He was Australia's chief censor from 1 ...
, the university's vice chancellor from 1928 to 1947, upon taking up his position found the quadrangle to be "overgrown, and the grounds beyond...in much worse repair". He embarked on a restoration program, for which he became known as the "building vice chancellor".


Architecture

The Quadrangle design is based on those of
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
and
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...
. It contains one of only three
carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmonio ...
s in Australia, the others being located on
Queen Elizabeth II Island __NOTOC__ Queen Elizabeth II Island, formerly Aspen Island, is an artificial island located within Lake Burley Griffin, in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. It lies within the Parliamentary Triangle. The island is located on ...
,
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ...
and in Bathurst. The Quadrangle is categorised under
Sandstone Universities The sandstone universities are an informally defined group comprising Australia's oldest tertiary education institutions. Most were founded in the colonial era, the exceptions being the University of Queensland (1909) and University of Western A ...
which are informally known as Australia's oldest universities. Commonly known as the first building for Australia's first university, the Quadrangle itself is built in an anachronistic style, which was already outdated by the time it was built.
Edmund Blacket Edmund Thomas Blacket (25 August 1817 – 9 February 1883) was an Australian architect, best known for his designs for the University of Sydney, St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney and St. Saviour's Cathedral, Goulburn. Arriving in Sydney from En ...
, one of the architects responsible for the design of the Quadrangle, was also known for other works in Sydney such as St Andrew's Cathedral. Blacket primarily focused on Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, which influenced
James Barnet James Johnstone Barnet, (1827 in Almericlose, Arbroath, Scotland – 16 December 1904 in Forest Lodge, Sydney, New South Wales) was the Colonial Architect for Colonial New South Wales, serving from 1862 to 1890. Early life Born the son of a ...
's design of Sydney University's Andersen Stuart Building. In 1924, the Quadrangle comprised four walls, in which are included bronze pipes which state the year they were placed. The final completion of the Quadrangle's exterior display was during the 1960s, which included work on the West Tower. There are a variety of gargoyles located across the walls of the Quadrangle and its towers. Some serve the functional purpose of waterspouts and draining water from buildings, but many are simply decorative gargoyles, also known as 'grotesque'. The abundance of a variety of
gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry wal ...
s featured in the Quadrangle's architecture relates to gargoyles being characteristic of Neo-Gothic medieval architecture, as they have a symbolic role of warding off evil spirits in the
Catholic tradition Sacred tradition is a theological term used in Christian theology. According to the theology of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian churches, sacred tradition is the foundation of the doctrinal and spiritual authority of ...
. Traditionally, gargoyles often depicted fantastical and mythical creatures, but in the turn of the 12th century stonemasons started incorporating real animals; both kinds of creatures can be found on the Quadrangle. Such medieval influenced architecture, although partially appropriated to a local context, directly mimic designs of esteemed Cambridge and Oxford universities in England. In the 1850s, under the direction of Blacket, three stonemasons worked on the clock tower gargoyles: Joseph Popplewell, Edwin Colley, and Barnet. The infusion of Australian
flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring ( indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or ''skin flora''. ...
and
fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...
with traditional medieval Neo-Gothic influences is evident in some of the Quadrangle's distinctive gargoyles. There is a kangaroo gargoyle on the clocktower (right hand side, facing towards the city) and a crocodile gargoyle on the inside of the clock tower, that are different from the traditional gargoyles on the Quadrangle. In addition, there are kookaburras above the entrance to the northern foyer. Adjacent to the Quadrangle is the university's
Great Hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great c ...
, which holds an organ designed by
Rudolf von Beckerath Rudolf von Beckerath (19 February 1907 – 22 November 1976) was a German master organ builder. He was born in Munich, to the painter Willy von Beckerath, but grew up in Hamburg, where his family moved the year he was born. He initially p ...
of Hamburg.


The Jacaranda tree

A
jacaranda ''Jacaranda'' is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. The generic name is also used as the common name. The species ''Jacaranda mimosifolia'' has achie ...
tree was planted in the Quadrangle in 1928 by Professor E. G. Waterhouse, who was also a keen horticulturist and dedicated contributor to the landscape design of the university. The tree was a well-loved specimen that served as the background to many graduations and private events before its death in 2016. Its flowering at examination time was believed to be a clear sign that students should start studying. A replacement tree, and an Illawarra Flame Tree, were planted in July 2017.


The Philosophy Room

The Philosophy Room located within the quadrangle is home to two murals which are placed at the back of the room. On 14 November 1921, these two mural decorations were unveiled in the Philosophy Room within the quadrangle at the University of Sydney. They were painted by Norman Carter and were commissioned to celebrate the 30 years of work of Professor Francis Anderson. One mural depicts
Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...
, Aristotle and
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, wikt:Πλάτων, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greeks, Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thou ...
together whilst the other depicts Descartes, Bacon and
Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch Republic, Dutch philosopher of Spanish and ...
. Both murals were unveiled by Professor Anderson's wife.


Maintenance and groundskeeping

The University of Sydney established a Conservation of Grounds Plan in October 2002. Being the most photographed area in the university, and having a one-hour heritage tour, the Quadrangle must keep up its appearances. Of the many, three policies are stated in order to maintain and conserve the vegetation and foliage of the university's grounds including the Quadrangle. These three are: * ''Policy Seven'': When significant trees such as the jacaranda tree in the Quadrangle age significantly or decease, they should be replaced with an identical tree. *''Policy Eight'': Trees and vegetation that are highly important to the image of the heritage buildings such as the infamous purple tree in the Quadrangle and the manicured green grass must be preserved. This is evident in how ropes and bollards are put up in order to prevent students and tourists from soiling the newly planted grass. *''Policy Nine'': Pruning of vegetation such as the Ivy on the archway should be well kept in order to sustain views and accessibility.


See also

*
Australian non-residential architectural styles Australian non-residential architectural styles are a set of Australian architectural styles that apply to buildings used for purposes other than residence and have been around only since the first colonial government buildings of early Europea ...
*
New South Wales Heritage Database New South Wales Heritage Database, or State Heritage Inventory, is an online database of information about historic sites in New South Wales, Australia with statutory heritage listings. Contents It holds the information about sites listed on t ...


References


External links

* * {{YouTube, id=qdj_wh9AsrY, title=Inside the Main Quadrangle of The University of Sydney Quadrangle 1966 establishments in Australia Buildings and structures completed in 1966 New South Wales Heritage Database Camperdown, New South Wales Edmund Blacket buildings in Sydney James Barnet buildings in Sydney Walter Liberty Vernon buildings in Sydney Sandstone buildings in Australia