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| The Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney is a heritage-listed former barracks, hospital, convict accommodation, mint and courthouse and now museum and cafe, at Macquarie Street, in the City of Sydney, NSW (three-storey Georgian brick building) |
About 80,000 convicts were sent to New South Wales between 1788 and 1849.
Hyde Park Barracks, was
built from 1811 to 1819 to house convict men and boys.
Convict architect Francis Greenway designed the building during the time of Governor Macquarie.
Greenway was the architect of St. James' Church, the old Benevolent Asylum, the Court-House, the Military Hospital (Fort-street 'School), the Macquarie Tower and Lighthouse, the Circular Quay Commissariat Store, and about of 200 other buildings in Sydney, Parramatta, Liverpool, Campbelltown, and more.
With three storeys to hold 800 convicts, where
convicts slept in the dormitories strung up with hammocks, the barracks soon housed 1400 men at any one time, many who were allocated to public works of the colony.
Other convicts of the colony stood trial at the Barracks Bench or Court of General Sessions. Some were sent to solitary confinement or the flogging triangle behind the eastern compound wall.
In 1840, convict transportation to New South Wales ceased, and the barracks became a Female Immigration Depot. The remaining convicts were sent to Cockatoo Island.
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| Commercial Journal and Advertiser (Sydney, NSW : 1835 - 1840), Saturday 1 February 1840, |
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| Teetotaller and General Newspaper (Sydney, NSW : 1842 - 1843), Saturday 29 January 1842 |
Within the grounds of the barracks, other government offices were built, including the Government Printing Office(1848–56), the Court of Requests (1856–59), the Vaccine Institute (1857–86) and the District Court for Sydney (1858–1976).
Between 1848 and 1852 (Irish famine), the Hyde Park Barracks accommodated several thousand Irish female orphans ((McClaughlin, 1991).
From 1862 to 1886, the Asylum for Infirm and Destitute Women was located on the barracks top floor. Both the Female Immigrant Depot and asylum were managed by Matron Lucy Applewhaite-Hicks, from 1862, who lived on the second floor with her family.
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| Matron Lucy Applewhaite Hicks, c.1870-1875, SLNSW |
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| Hyde Park Immigration Barracks, Sydney, 1871,Museums of History NSW - State Archives Collection |
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| View of the Royal Mint and Hyde Park Barracks taken from the steeple of St James’ Church c.1871, with The Domain, Woolloomooloo and Potts Point in the distance (Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW) |
In 1886, Hyde Park Asylum closed and, from 1887, became the centre of the NSW judiciary and government departments.
The Hyde park Barracks is now a museum.
Step back in time and explore the Hyde Park Barracks, a child friendly place with many interactive exhibits. Dress-up in the colonial or convict clothes or rest in a convict hammock.
Address: Queens Square, Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000
Hours: Open ⋅ Closes 6 pm · More hours
Phone: (02) 8239 2311
Photos
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| This blue and white stripped Indian cotton shirt was found under the floorboards on level three of the Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney |
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| One of the most common forms of convict punishment was flogging (whipping) with a ‘cat-o’-nine-tails’, a whip named for the way it scratched the skin like the claws of a cat. Made up of nine lengths of knotted cord attached to a handle, it would lash the back of the offender, tearing the skin and causing intense pain. The number of lashes, 25, 50, 75 or 100 or more was determined by a magistrate or court. |
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| Asylum inmates clothing, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, NSW |
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| See how convicts slept in their quarters just under 200 years ago (in hammocks) Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, NSW |
