The story of a gothic Pyrmont school that once stood on Murray Street
Image: A gothic school building constructed in 1876, once located on Murray Street in Pyrmont. Photo: City of Sydney archives.
The medieval grandeur of Murray Street School expressed the architect’s commitment to the Gothic Revival. The school, which opened in 1876, also expressed the Government’s enthusiasm for public schooling.
The Public Instruction Act of 1880 launched public schools to compete with the long-established religious schools.
Murray Street School’s ‘gothic’ history
Murray Street School was an unfortunate site. Rocks from quarries fell onto the building; vandals were a chronic problem, and the bubonic plague of 1900 required the fumigation of the school. Meanwhile the expanding Darling Harbour rail yards nibbled away at the grounds.
Many families had withdrawn their children before 1914 when the railway appropriated the site, demolished the fairy-tale Gothic structure and extended the rail system.
School replaced by shopping centre
This section of Murray Street has now been transformed into a series of hotels, apartments and the Habourside Shopping Centre. The Shopping Centre, however, will share the fate of the old school, when it is demolished to make way for another occupant of this harbourside site.
