The Waterloo 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 in Waterloo, 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 ...

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. Located at 770 Elizabeth Street, it was built in 1880–82 in the 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 ...

architectural style with Second Empire elements by John Smedley, Edward Hughes and Ambrose Thornley. The town hall was the seat of Waterloo Municipal Council from 1882 to 1948 and since 1972 has been the Waterloo Library, a branch of the

City of Sydney Library The City of Sydney Library network consists of nine branch libraries and two 'library links', located in Australia within the City of Sydney Council administrational area. History A free public lending library service has existed in Sydney si ...

(and formerly South Sydney Library) servicing Waterloo and

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

History and description

When the Municipality of Waterloo was proclaimed in May 1860, the council first met in a room on Botany Road. However, when the Alexandria part of the council area separated and formed their own municipality in August 1868, the council met in a room in Wellington Street, Waterloo, until they commissioned the new Town Hall in 1880. In 1880 the council leased a block of land in Elizabeth Street for the town hall, and was obtained from the Cooper family at a rental of £10 per annum. The council continued to pay this rental until 1912, when Sir William Cooper, 3rd Baronet, gave the council the freehold title to the land. The Town Hall was commissioned to a Victorian-Italianate with Second Empire influences design by Architect Edward Hughes, with construction supervised by Ambrose Thornton Jnr and John Smedley, of the firm Thornley & Smedley. However the construction of the Hall, undertaken by builders Bretnall & Poulton, went through several cost blow-outs, delays and enlargements, with a final cost of £3500 (from an original cost of £2600) with a £370 annual cost in interest payments. Waterloo Municipal Council first met in the hall on 19 August 1882. In 1915 a 'Social Hall' was commissioned and built to the rear of the existing hall, and it was unveiled by Mayor Dunning on 24 February 1915 During the Second World War an

air-raid shelter Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...

was built in the town hall, and is one of the few surviving examples left in Sydney. On 21 April 1941,

William McKell Sir William John McKell (26 September 1891 – 11 January 1985) was an Australian politician who served as the 12th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1947 to 1953. He had previously been Premier of New South Wales from 1941 to 1947 ...

, Leader of the NSW Opposition and the local MP for Redfern, gave a policy speech launching his campaign for the 1941 state election at the town hall. In February 1946, Mckell announced his intention to retire as Premier and from politics at the town hall.

Later history

Following the amalgamation of Waterloo into the City of Sydney in 1949, the hall continued its use as a social venue and community centre and was transferred to the South Sydney Municipality in 1967 following a boundary change. In 1972, the South Sydney Council made the town hall a library, which was then transferred to be a branch of the City of Sydney Libraries upon reamalgamation in 1982 and 2004. On 26 July 1990 a bronze plaque, created by sculptor Victor Cusack, was unveiled at Waterloo Town Hall by

Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington Brigadier Arthur Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington, (2 July 1915 – 31 December 2014), styled Marquess of Douro between 1943 and 1972, was a senior British peer and a brigadier in the British Army. His main residence was Stratfield S ...

, to commemorate the relationship between Waterloo's naming with the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

in 1815. It is the earliest conflict commemorated in Sydney. In 1996 the Town Hall was substantially refurbished by Architects Stephenson and Turner, through the

NSW Government The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...

State Library's Grant Program and South Sydney Council. A plaque to commemorate the completion of these works was unveiled by the Mayor of South Sydney Council, Vic Smith on 28 June 1997.

Heritage listing and conservation

The Town Hall, along with the Air-Raid shelter at the rear, is listed under the 2012 Sydney Local Environment Plan as "evidence of the former Municipality of Waterloo and as an important local landmark of over 125 years standing ..The Town Hall is the most readily identifiable symbol of what was once an area with a fiercely independent local identity." The listing also noted that a substantial number of original internal fittings survive: "The only substantial loss to have occurred is the removal of the cast iron ornamented verandah that once graced the Elizabeth Street elevation. The loss of this verandah, while an important element of this particular building, has had only a minor impact on the understanding that the building provides of the Italianate Style. The Town Hall retains a high percentage of original fabric." The 2003 Waterloo Heritage Conservation Area plan has recommended the reinstatement of the original verandahs and iron railings and fencing that were lost.

Gallery

File:Waterloo Town Hall c. 1900.jpg, Waterloo Town Hall , showing the original ironwork verandahs and fencing File:1 Former Waterloo Town Hall.JPG, Waterloo Town Hall, pictured in 2011

References

External links