Sydney CBD

Government House, Sydney

Government House looks like a castle because it was drawn as one, sight unseen, by an English architect who never saw the site.

Edward Blore, architect to William IV and Queen Victoria, designed it in London; Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis adapted the plans for its sandstone site on the harbour and oversaw the construction. Governor George Gipps moved in ahead of the finish, in 1845; the building itself, castellated walls and all, was complete by 1847. The pointed-arch porte-cochère came later, in 1873.

A four-horse coach loaded with passengers in formal dress waits at that porte-cochère, dated only to "the 1870s" — the everyday traffic of a working vice-regal residence. Decades later a mounted trooper in a plumed helmet rides beside an open barouche carrying the Duke of Gloucester, in Sydney on his 1934 tour of Australia, the same tour that took him to Hyde Park that November to dedicate the Anzac Memorial before some 100,000 people.

Between the two is the view from an upper window: terraced gardens, a lawn tennis court, and the masts of a square-rigged ship at anchor below — the harbour as Gipps first saw it, long before the bridge and the Opera House took over the view.

Six years after the Duke, the gates are being used for something else entirely. The St John Ambulance Brigade marches through them in 1940 and is presented for honours on the grounds inside — the vice-regal residence doing wartime duty, and about as close as the public normally got.

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Government House, Sydney, from the garden — photograph, from Government House, 1900
photograph·1900·Sydney CBD

Government House, Sydney, from the garden, 1900

Government House, Sydney, N.S.W. with respectful compliments, from the "Australian Field", October 1900Australian Field
Entrance to Government House, Sydney — illustration, from Government House, 1850
illustration·1850·Sydney CBD

Entrance to Government House, Sydney, 1850

Entrance to Government House] / C. MartensConrad Martens
St John Ambulance Brigade on parade at Government House, Sydney — photograph, from Government House, 1940
photograph·1940·Sydney CBD

St John Ambulance Brigade on parade at Government House, Sydney, 1940

St John's Ambulance Brigade marchingSam Hood
Government House and Fort Macquarie from Sydney Harbour — illustration, from Government House, c. 1860
illustration·1860·Sydney CBD

Government House and Fort Macquarie from Sydney Harbour, c. 1860

Government House SydneyHaughton Forrest (attributed)
Government House, Sydney, seen from its grounds, 1850 — Conrad Martens — illustration, from Government House
illustration·1850·Sydney CBD

Government House, Sydney, seen from its grounds, 1850 — Conrad Martens

Government House, Sydney] / C. MartensConrad Martens
Government House and Fort Macquarie from Sydney Harbour — illustration, from Government House, c. 1860
illustration·1860·Sydney CBD

Government House and Fort Macquarie from Sydney Harbour, c. 1860

Government House SydneyHaughton Forrest (attributed)
Government House, Sydney, painted by G. E. Peacock — illustration, from Government House, c. 1850
illustration·1850·Sydney CBD

Government House, Sydney, painted by G. E. Peacock, c. 1850

Government House, ca. 1850 / painted by G. E. PeacockG. E. Peacock
Government House, Sydney, sketched in sepia wash — illustration, from Government House, c. 1838–57
illustration·1847·Sydney CBD

Government House, Sydney, sketched in sepia wash, c. 1838–57

Album of sketches and wash drawings of Sydney, ca. 1838-1857? / drawn by Conrad MartensConrad Martens
Government House, Sydney, from the garden lawn — photograph, from Government House, c. 1880s
photograph·1880·Sydney CBD

Government House, Sydney, from the garden lawn, c. 1880s

Government House, Sydney / attributed to the photographer William VosperWilliam H. Vosper
Government House garden front, Sydney — photograph, from Government House, 1900
photograph·1900·Sydney CBD

Government House garden front, Sydney, 1900

Government House, Sydney, N.S.W. with respectful compliments, from the "Australian Field", October 1900Australian Field
St John's Ambulance honours parade at Government House, Sydney — photograph, from Government House, 1940
photograph·1940·Sydney CBD

St John's Ambulance honours parade at Government House, Sydney, 1940

St John's Ambulance parade, conferring of honours and medals at Government House, SydneySam Hood
St John Ambulance Brigade marching through the Government House gates, Sydney — photograph, from Government House, 1940
photograph·1940·Sydney CBD

St John Ambulance Brigade marching through the Government House gates, Sydney, 1940

St John's Ambulance Brigade marching through the gatesSam Hood
Government House and Macquarie Street, Sydney — photograph, from Government House, 1842
photograph·1870·Sydney CBD

Government House and Macquarie Street, Sydney, 1842

Views of Old SydneyCharles Bayliss; Freeman Brothers; John Rae (original drawings)
Harbour and gardens from Government House, Sydney — photograph, from Government House, c. 1879
photograph·1870·Sydney CBD

Harbour and gardens from Government House, Sydney, c. 1879

Views of Old SydneyCharles Bayliss; Freeman Brothers; John Rae (original drawings)
Duke of Gloucester saluting from a barouche, Government House, Sydney — photograph, from Government House, 1934
photograph·1934·Sydney CBD

Duke of Gloucester saluting from a barouche, Government House, Sydney, 1934

The Duke of Gloucester in SydneySam Hood
Coaching party at Government House, Sydney — photograph, from Government House, 1872–79
photograph·1870·Sydney CBD

Coaching party at Government House, Sydney, 1872–79

Views of Old SydneyCharles Bayliss; Freeman Brothers; John Rae (original drawings)
Mounted escort and carriage in the Duke of Gloucester's procession, Sydney — photograph, from Government House, 1934
photograph·1934·Sydney CBD

Mounted escort and carriage in the Duke of Gloucester's procession, Sydney, 1934

The Duke of Gloucester in SydneySam Hood