Hyde Park Barracks Domes Restoration Project

Great article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald helped kickstart our fund raising campaign.

It also raised a few interesting points about architects and their inspiration and the likelihood that Francis Greenway, Barracks designer and convicted forger, ‘lifted’ his idea of the domes from an array of late 18th century building catalogues and off-the-peg plans.

For more information on the campaign and how you might contribute to this restoration project visit the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust or contact General Manager James Beck on 02 8239 2255.

Curved timber roofing components from north guardhouse. Photo: Gary Crockett

Archaeologists working on the guardhouses in the early 1980s discovered bits and pieces of timber from the original dome structure. These had been hidden in the ceiling area and protected from the weather under a corrugated metal roof. We’ve had fun reassembling these components and can now make out the shape of the circular base plate. We can also see how a series of short, slotted studs were fitted to carry a matching timber circle above. The whole structure looked like a flattened drum, rising up through a big hole in the roof. On top of this drum sat the lovely shingled dome. Stay tuned for more info on this intriguing discovery and how we intend to incorporate these original timber pieces into the new structure.

Hyde Park Barracks [1836] detail showing the guardhouses with their original domes. The large domed pavilion to the right pavilion was demolished in 1918. Robert Russell, 1836 Caroline Simpson Collection, Historic Houses Trust

In reconstructing the guardhouse domes we rely on a combination of physical and documentary evidence. There are a number of early views of the Hyde Park Barracks, from sketches to watercolors and, in this case, lithographic prints. Their accuracy varies considerably and while some, such as this scene by Robert Russell (b.1808 d.1900), show a close attention to proportion and detail others verge on the eccentric. This particular scene is one of a series published in Sydney in November 1836 that includes many of the Macquarie period buildings in and around Sydney. They are of particular value as many – such as the fanciful Gothic revival tollhouse at the start of the Parramatta road – were later destroyed. This view of the Barracks is particularly evocative of the relationship of St James to the Barracks and the plaza in between.  

All of Russell’s views have a distinct ‘Conrad Martens’ feel to them, especially in his treatment of plants and clouds. This isn’t surprising, as Russell was one of Martens’ first pupils in Sydney and paid for lessons in September 1835, shortly before he drew these views.  A feature of these prints is they way they capture the feel of his original pencil sketches.

That Russell was a surveyor by trade also isn’t unusual; surveyors needed to be skilled at representing topography as this was a valuable aid to navigation and exploration. Expeditions to new territory also included artists for just this reason: when on board the Beagle one of Conrad Marten’s roles as project artist was to accurately portray the elevations of the coastlines the ship passed.