The Australian International Exhibition Building at Sydney

The Garden Palace was a large, purpose-built exhibition building constructed to house the

Sydney International Exhibition The Sydney International Exhibition was established headed by Lord Augustus Loftus and took place in Sydney in 1879, after being preceded by a number of Metropolitan Intercolonial Exhibitions through the 1870s in Prince Alfred Park. Organisa ...

in 1879 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 Mountain ...

, Australia. It was designed by

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 constructed by

John Young John Young may refer to: Academics * John Young (professor of Greek) (died 1820), Scottish professor of Greek at the University of Glasgow * John C. Young (college president) (1803–1857), American educator, pastor, and president of Centre Col ...

, at a cost of £191,800 in only eight months. This was largely due to the importation from England of electric lighting, which enabled work to be carried out around the clock.

Description and history

A reworking of London's

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

, the plan for the Garden Palace was similar to that of a large cathedral, having a long hall with lower aisle on either side, like a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, and a

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

of similar form, each terminating in towers and meeting beneath a central dome. The successful contractor was

, a highly experienced building contractor who had worked on the Crystal Palace for

The Great Exhibition of 1851 The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...

and locally on the

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. ...

and Exhibition Building at Prince Alfred Park. Sydney's Garden Palace; an architectural drawing from the 1870s Garden palace fire

The dome was 100 feet (30.4 metres) in diameter and 210 feet (65.5 metres) in height. The building was over 244 metres long and had a floor space of over 112,000 metres with 4.5 million feet of timber, 2.5 million bricks and 243 tons of galvanised corrugated iron. The building was similar in many respects to the later

Royal Exhibition Building The Royal Exhibition Building is a World Heritage-listed building in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, built in 1879–1880 as part of the international exhibition movement, which presented over 50 exhibitions between 1851 and 1915 around the glo ...

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 met ...

. Sydney's first hydraulic lift, was contained in the north tower, enabling visitors to climb the tower. The Garden Palace was sited at what is today the southwestern end of the Royal Botanic Garden (although at the time it was built it occupied land that was outside the Garden and in The Domain). It was constructed primarily from

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

, which ensured its complete destruction when engulfed by

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

in the early morning of 22 September 1882. The Garden Palace at that time was used by a number of Government Departments and many significant records were destroyed in the fire, notably records of

squatting Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

occupation in New South Wales. Between 500 and 1000 pieces of Sydney Aboriginal artefacts were also lost in this fire. The only extant remains of the Garden Palace are its carved Sydney sandstone gateposts and

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

gates, located on the Macquarie Street entrance to the Royal Botanical Garden. A 1940s-era sunken garden and fountain featuring a statue of

Cupid In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, lust, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus (mythology), Venus and the god of war Mar ...

marks the former location of the Palace's dome. Few artefacts from the International Exhibition survived the fire, one of which is a carved

graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large ...

statue of an

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

, from

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, now in the collection of the

Powerhouse Museum The Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney, the others being the historic Sydney Observatory at Observatory Park, Sydney, Observatory Hill, and the newer Museums Discovery Centre at Castle ...

. An 1878 Bechstein concert grand piano, that had won the musical instrument first prize at the Exhibition, but had luckily been removed from the Garden Palace prior to the fire, is also held by the Powerhouse. A number of items are held by the

State Library of NSW The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establis ...

relating to The Garden Palace include a piece of molten glass from the Garden Palace fire, a handkerchief and a book, The Sydney Garden Palace : a patriotic and historical poem by Frederick Cumming. File:The Garden Palace (5010361286).jpg, View from afar File:The Garden Palace (8005393869) (cropped).jpg, One of the towers File:Garden Palace, Sydney International Exhibition Building (19927818715).jpg, The Garden Palace File:The Garden Palace- the North Nave (taken from the Dome) (4066791729).jpg, Statue of Queen Victoria, taken from under the dome File:The Garden Palace- the North Nave (taken from the Orchestra) (4067542458).jpg, North Nave (taken from the Orchestra) File:Garden Palace, Sydney International Exhibition Building, nave looking north (19739779048).jpg, North nave File:Construction of the Garden Palace (8005394189).jpg, Construction of the dome File:The ruins of the Garden Palace (5010360636) (cropped).jpg, Ruins of the Garden Palace, 1882

References

{{List of world exhibitions Demolished buildings and structures in Sydney Former buildings and structures in Sydney World's fair architecture in Sydney Landmarks in Sydney Government buildings completed in 1879 James Barnet buildings in Sydney 1879 establishments in Australia 1882 fires in Oceania Buildings and structures demolished in 1882 1882 in Australia 1882 disasters in Australia

Description and history

See also

References