Macquarie Street

From convict barracks to female immigration depot to asylum for destitute women, Hyde Park Barracks has witnessed and revealed much of Sydney's social history.

Although built as part of Sydney hospital, the northern wing that became Parliament House was never used only for medical purposes, being put to work as a temporary court and judges' chambers. From 1829 it was used for Executive Council meetings, and with responsible government, the building needed extensions. Many additions followed, with a major modern building added to the back of the building in the 1970s.

Planted on land set aside for the governor's demesne, the Botanic Gardens began as kitchen gardens but by the 1840s were already filled with many native and exotic trees and plants for propagation, study and experiment. from the 1850s, the Gardens were laid out according to Victorian principles of garden design, with elements that still give the place a Victorian air.

This interwar Gothic building, opened in 1935, became the home of Sydney's oldest Presbyterian congregation, after the extension of Martin Place to Macquarie Street led to the demolition of the previous St Stephen's in Phillip Street.

Built by Governor Macquarie and financed by an innovative scheme that exchanged the building of the hospital for the right to sell liquor, Sydney Hospital was part of Macquarie's plans for the future of the colony.

For a century the Mitchell Library has been Sydney's memory, a storehouse of treasures and a club of eccentric scholars. It is all but impossible to write or read about the history of Australia, the Pacific and the Antarctic without being in debt to the great collector and eccentric recluse David Scott Mitchell.

The Reserve Bank building on Martin Place was designed in 1959 to establish a distinct public profile for the new institution in order to ensure its public recognition and confidence. Its position at the junction of Martin Place and Macquarie Street complements its identity as an organisation that is central to the functioning of the Australian economy, but also an institution that represents the interests of the Australian people and remains accountable to them.

The Free Public Library - which we now know as the State Library of NSW - arose from the ashes of the Australian Library and Literary Institution and its immediate predecessor, the Australian Subscription Library.