The Flickr Gposydney Image Generatr

This Coat of Arms sits above the Pitt St colonnade of the Sydney GPO...it's the work of sculptor Thomas Wran, who was also responsible for the coat of arms that sits above the main Martin Place entrance. The Pitt St Coat of Arms is situated between the panels of Tomaso Sani's 'verismo' carvings...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13525200 - SMH, 24th August, 1882...'YESTERDAY there was put in position, over what will be the principal entrance to the General Post Office in Pitt-street, a piece of sculpture that is very creditable to the artist who produced it, and will considerably beautify the building in which it is placed. It consists of a remarkably well executed British coat of arms, every detail of which is worked out in the sandstone with such fidelity and skill that they can be distinctly seen from the opposite side of the street. The mass of stone used in the work weighs 23 tons, which was successfully hoisted and placed in position by means of the travelling crane in a very short space of time. The sculptor is Mr. Wran'

maps.app.goo.gl/SJPNc3YSu1a4XncP6 - Google street view gives a good view of Sani's carvings with Wran's Coat of Arms between...


General Post Office

Tomaso Sani’s GPO carvings are located above the Pitt St colonnade arches…there are four sets of carvings...two sets sit either side of Thomas Wran's Pitt St Coat of Arms...and as you can see, each sub-set occupies the spandrels (triangular spaces) either side of one of Thomas Wran's 'Seasons' keystone heads. Sani's carvings were commissioned in 1882 and completed in 1883.

Sani's Pitt St carvings are in the Italian ‘verismo’ style…they were intended as ‘realistic’ depictions of life in Sydney…though they clearly have humorous and even satirical components…

Sani’s carvings were enormously controversial at the time they appeared…and their removal was only averted due to the determined advocacy of of Colonial Architect James Barnet, who staunchly defended their merits, and their place in the scheme of things so to speak...

I'll put my pics of Sani's carvings up numbered as they appear in order from left to right (south to north)...and I'll also include Thomas Wran's Pitt St Coat of Arms. So far I've only managed to get half decent pics of the first three sets of Sani's carvings...the fourth set (the set at the Martin Place end) is partly obscured by a small tree...so for the time being I've given up on trying to get a pic of this set...

It’s difficult to get remotely half decent pics of Sani’s Pitt St carvings…there are the usual issues re extremes of light and shade, plus the lighting is complicated by reflections from the glass towers in the vicinity…there’s the tree that obscures part of the fourth panel…plus it’s also a very busy location…just by being there trying to take photos you become a bit of a public nuisance…

For what it's worth I'm not a great fan of Sani's Pitt St carvings...I just don't think they fit in with the style of the building...I don't think they fit in with Thomas Wran's Coat of Arms and Seasons keystone heads...and I also don't think they're great works of sculpture. But regardless, they're of historical significance...they're part of the history of the GPO...and lots of people love them...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13534472 - SMH, 10th May, 1883 ; 'Post Office Carvings' ... this letter in defence of the carvings includes an interesting contemporary description the various subjects...

maps.app.goo.gl/SJPNc3YSu1a4XncP6 - Google street view gives a good view of the carvings in situ...together...


General Post Office

maps.app.goo.gl/SJPNc3YSu1a4XncP6 - Google street view gives a good view of the carvings in situ...


General Post Office

maps.app.goo.gl/SJPNc3YSu1a4XncP6 - Google street view gives a good view of the carvings in situ...


General Post Office

Closer view of the Royal Coat of Arms, which sits beneath the Queen Victoria statuary, above the main Martin Place entrance to the Sydney GPO...

This Martin Place Coat of Arms was the work of sculptor Thomas Wran, who also produced the Coat of Arms on the Pitt St facade...

Finding aids: General Post Office ; Thomas Wran

Closer view of the Queen Victoria statuary...showing Queen Victoria with the figures of Britain and New South Wales reclining beneath...


Finding aids: allegorical statuary ; General Post Office ; Giovanni Fontana

The Queen Victoria statuary sits above the main Martin Place entrance to the Sydney GPO...

The Queen Victoria statuary and the accompanying Coat of Arms were added during the Pitt St extension (1880-87), which doubled the size of the original building, added the clock tower, etc...and generally enhanced the grandeur of the GPO...

The Queen Victoria statuary is the work of sculptor Giovanni Fontana (1821-93)...it depicts Queen Victoria with the figures of Britain and New South Wales reclining beneath...and two Heralds of Fame above, holding a laurel wreath over the Queen's head...

The Royal Coat of Arms is the work of sculptor Thomas Wran (1832-91), who also created some of the keystone heads on the Martin Place facade, representing the other Australian colonies and various countries, etc that sit above the colonnade arches, plus the Coat of Arms and keystone heads of the Seasons on the Pitt St facade...

Can't say I'm happy with any of these pics I've taken of the GPO statuary...I purposely took them during brief intervals when the sun passed behind light cloud so as to avoid extremes of light and shade, but the downside is that the images are a bit dull and lifeless, so you don't get a real sense of the colour and vibrancy of the scene when the sun is shining. But I dare say my main object here is to document the statuary so to speak...


Finding aids: allegorical statuary ; General Post Office

Granite columns of the GPO colonnade, facing Martin Place...the columns closest to the camera were part of the 1880-87 Pitt St extension...


Finding aid: General Post Office

Here we're in George St looking South towards the General Post Office, etc...it's nice to see the 19th century in colour occasionally!

This Painting by Alfred Tischbauer (1853-1922) is from the Dixson Galleries collection at the SLNSW...

trove.nla.gov.au/work/235958656 - Trove link to the pic at the SLNSW...

collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/Yr8RbPXn - 'direct' link to the pic at the SLNSW...

www.daao.org.au/bio/alfred-tischbauer/biography/ - Tischbauer's bio details

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The flag flying from the GPO is the P&O house flag ('square flag with four diagonal quarters coloured white, blue, yellow and red')...the D evidently indicates that the mails brought by the P&O steamer are ready for delivery...as I've just now discovered...

nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2925080003/view?sectionId=nla.obj-2935... - 'Mails ready for delivery...P. and O. Co's flag and letter D on white ground.'

www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/14604264609/ - this SLNSW pic taken in ca. 1913-14 shows the Messageries Maritimes house flag flying from the flagpole on top of the GPO tower...I gather house flags from the various mail carrying shipping lines would have been flown from the GPO flagpole quite frequently...but so far this is the only photo of one that I've seen...

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PS - one interesting feature seen here is the bell on the roof of the GPO...my guess is this was the bell that was connected to the George St clock...it looks to be sitting in some kind of frame or bell cot. From what I've seen, this bell appears in photos of the GPO taken from the early 1880s thru to ca. 1892...after which point it disappears. If this is the George St clock bell, it would have become redundant after the clock and bells were installed in the GPO tower in 1891...I gather it was removed in 1891 or 1892...

The first George St GPO clock was made by Sydney instrument maker Angelo Tornaghi...it was an odd affair which displayed the hour in roman numerals on the clock face, and it had a pointer that travelled around the circumference and acted as the minute hand. This first GPO clock was evidently a dud...it was difficult to see, and people just didn't like it. Tornaghi's clock also had a bell connected to it...a regular bell made at Russell's foundry in Bathurst St...but this bell was also evidently a dud...it was set up on the roof which deflected and muffled the sound, etc...

Tornaghi's clock was replaced by the three face clock seen here in ca. late 1876 or early 1877...and in February 1877 a new bell arrived from England...which appears to have been installed soon afterwards. But I suspect this new bell was erected in the same location as the first bell...which would explain why it can't be seen in photos taken in the later 1870s. My guess is that the new bell suffered from the same disadvantages as the previous one...and that at some point in the early 1880s it was mounted in the frame/cot seen here so that it would be elevated above the roof, and the sound would carry etc...For what it's worth, the second GPO bell was made by John Taylor & Co, of Loughborough...it was in the key of D...

I've had no luck discovering anything more about the George St clock bell...if this is indeed what we see here. I have no idea what happened to it...and it might well still be in existence somewhere...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/107185228 - the Evening News, 28th November, 1876... 'The Post Office Clock'...item mentioning the removal of Tornaghi's clock...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13388445/1439100 - SMH, 23rd February, 1877... 'New Bell at the Post Office (see item on 2nd page of link)...A fine large bell, weighing 30 cwt., intended to be used at the General Post Office to mark the hours recorded by the new electric clock, has just arrived from England per ship Hankow. The bell was cast by the well-known founders, Messrs. John Taylor and Co., of Loughborough. The note it emits is D. It is said to have a very pure and powerful tone that will be heard for a long distance.'

Here we're looking SE across George St towards the first stage of the General Post Office (built 1866-1874). My guess is this pic might have been taken in 1874, at about the time the building was completed...on the George St hoarding there's an advert up for Blondin, the trapeze artist, etc...who gave performances in Sydney for a month or so from late August thru to Early October 1874...

This pic is from the SLNSW's collection

trove.nla.gov.au/work/235944626 - Trove link to the pic at the SLNSW...

trove.nla.gov.au/work/23445300 - jfi, this similar pic is dated August 1875...it shows the area around the GPO to be somewhat tidier...

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Among other things, this pic is interesting because it shows the first GPO clock...which was designed and made by Sydney instrument maker Angelo Tornaghi...the clock displayed the hour in roman numerals in the middle of the clock face and had a pointer which travelled around the circumference to indicate the minutes...the clock mechanism was also evidently connected to a bell that sat in a bell cot on the roof nearby...the bell appears to have rung on the hour...it was cast at Russell's foundry in Bathurst St...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13340584 - SMH, 1st September, 1874 … ‘The New Post-Office Clock’ description of Tornaghi’s clock…and the bell...

This first GPO clock was removed in ca. November 1876...I gather it wasn't a great success...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/107185228 - the Evening News, 28th November, 1876... 'The Post Office Clock'...item mentioning the removal of Tornaghi's clock...

This pic shows the first stage of the Sydney GPO...I'm not sure re the date...but if you zoom in on the original you can see that construction looks to be in progress on the Pitt St extension, which was built between 1880-87...the work looks to be at a fairly early stage. The contract for the Pitt St extension was let in August 1880...so my guess is this pic might date from late 1880 or maybe 1881...

This pic is interesting because it gives a good view of the 3 faced George St clock that replaced the original Tornaghi clock...this 3 faced clock appears to have been installed in late 1876 or early 1877...but I haven't yet managed to find any newspaper reports that might confirm this. Prior to the installation of the clock and bells in the GPO clock tower in 1891, this George St clock was 'the' GPO clock so to speak...this was the clock that many people relied on...we tend to overlook this...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/107185228 - the Evening News, 28th November, 1876... 'The Post Office Clock'...item mentioning the removal of Tornaghi's clock...which I gather was a bit of a dud...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13388445/1439100 - SMH, 23rd February, 1877... 'New Bell at the Post Office (see item on 2nd page of link)...A fine large bell, weighing 30 cwt., intended to be used at the General Post Office to mark the hours recorded by the new electric clock, has just arrived from England per ship Hankow. The bell was cast by the well-known founders, Messrs. John Taylor and Co., of Loughborough. The note it emits is D. It is said to have a very pure and powerful tone that will be heard for a long distance.' ...I gather this bell replaced the previous bell that had been installed at the same time as Tornaghi's clock...

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This pic is in the SLV's collection...it was evidently taken by photographer Charles Bayliss. There are several other prints of this photo in the various collections, but this SLV version looks to be in very good condition...

viewer.slv.vic.gov.au/?entity=IE1301216&mode=browse - link to the pic at the SLV where you can zoom in and check out the detail...

This pic was taken in George St looking South...it shows the first stage of the Sydney GPO under construction. If you zoom in you can see that on this side they're 4 blocks above the upper level windows...and about to start on the cornice. This pic appears to have been taken in 1870...just going on the SMH item I've linked to below, the cornice appears to have been completed in ca. September 1870...

This pic is from the SLNSW's collection...

trove.nla.gov.au/work/13253785 - Trove link to the pic at the SLNSW...

trove.nla.gov.au/work/231388762 - this slightly earlier NAA pic can be dated to 1870...over to the right, there's a poster up for the All England Pedestrians (professional runners) who visited NSW from ca. April-July 1870...

trove.nla.gov.au/work/231392167 - a much earlier stage of construction...

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trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13211984/1458948 - SMH, 23rd September, 1870... this item refers to a stone setting ceremony on the cornice...which then appears to have been either completed or nearing completion...my guess is that this is when the stone with the date '1870' was put in position...

'THE NEW POST OFFICE - Yesterday morning a number of gentlemen assembled at the new Post Office building, at the invitation of Mr. John Young, the contractor, to see one of the principal stones of the cornice placed in position in the George street front. Among the company were the Premier (the Hon. Charles Cowper, C.M.G.), the Treasurer (the Hon. Saul Samuel), Mr. Parkes, M.L.A., Mr. Wilson, M.L.A., the Mayor of Sydney, the Colonial Architect, several members of the Legislative Assembly, and members and officers of the Corporation of Sydney. The stone weighed nearly twelve tons ; and, such is the perfection of the appliances at hand, that the contractor was enabled to raise it to a height of 84 foot in exactly five minutes. The visitors spent some time in the examination of the building, and great admiration was expressed at the handsome appearance of the polished granite columns, of which there are thirty-six in the building.'

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The first stage of the Sydney GPO was built between 1866-74 (from foundations to internal fit-out) ; Architect: James Barnet (the Colonial Architect); Contractors: Aaron Loveridge (foundations) and John Young (superstructure)...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13129964 - SMH, 21st April, 1866… ‘City Improvements’ 'The only work of any magnitude going forward in the city for the Government is the General Post Office, in George-street, the massive foundations of which are now being rapidly put in by the contractor, Mr Loveridge.'

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13180633 - SMH 29th January, 1869… ‘The New General Post Office Sydney’ …per this item the foundations had been completed a year or so earlier, and the construction of the superstructure was in progress…

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13188379 - SMH, 2nd April, 1869 … ‘The New Post Office’...report on the Duke of Edinburgh laying the keystone of the central arch of the George St facade the previous day...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/70458934 - the Australian Town & Country Journal, 16th April, 1870...description of the GPO, then under construction...no specific details re the state of construction at that point...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/162482873 - the Sydney Mail, 5th September, 1874… ‘Opening of the New Post Office’…report on the opening of the new GPO...

This pic is from NSW State Archives' collection...if you zoom in on the original pic you can see that they're using a lathe made by J. Abernethy & Co, of Aberdeen. For what it's worth I think the column is being finished/cut rather than polished...if you look closely you can see there's a bit of a step at the point where it's being machined...my guess is they're using a cutting disc...but I might well be mistaken...

search.records.nsw.gov.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid... - link to the pic at NSW State Archives...wait a few moments for the image to load...

I don't know whether much is actually known about this pic...for me it's still a bit of a puzzle...but just going on the caption, my guess is the pic might have been taken at building contractor Loveridge & Hudson's Sydney works. Loveridge & Hudson evidently imported an Abernathy & Co lathe at some point...and they were also the contractors who made the granite plinths, columns, etc for the 1898-99 GPO extension...so it's possible that this pic might have been taken at Loveridge & Hudson's works during this 1898-1899 period...but to me the pic looks a bit older than that...

McCredie Bros were contractors for the 1880s GPO Pitt St extension. McCredie Bros evidently used a lathe made by Brunton & Trier to make the GPO columns...so if that's correct, this NSWSA pic won't involve McCredie Bros or one of the columns produced for the 1880s extension...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13525007 - SMH, 16th September, 1882...'New Granite Works’ ...item on McCredie Bros' works, which mentions the Brunton & Trier lathe...


Loveridge & Hudson's lathe is now at the Moruya & District Historical Society Museum...

blog.mdhs.org.au/2020/06/10/the-stonemasons-lathe/ - item on Loveridge & Hudson's lathe at the Moruya museum...

Possibly the same lathe seen in these later pics taken at Loveridge & Hudson's works in Sydney...

nla.gov.au/nla.obj-300618672/view?sectionId=nla.obj-31713...

nla.gov.au/nla.obj-295089705/view?sectionId=nla.obj-29868...


finding aid: General Post Office

This pic was taken during the construction of the Pitt St extension to the Sydney General Post Office...probably in 1882...I gather the guys standing on top of the column are two of the McCredie Bros, the contractors who built the Pitt St extension (1880-87)...

This pic is from NSW State Archives' collection...

search.records.nsw.gov.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid... - link to the pic at NSW State Archives...wait a few moments for the image to load...

pyrmonthistory.net.au/mccredie-brothers-the - this Pyrmont History Group pic shows four of the McCredie brothers on this same column...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13525007 - SMH, 16th September, 1882... 'New Granite Works'...an item on contractor McCredie Bros' works at Pyrmont...includes a description of the Brunton & Trier lathe which McCredie Bros were using to produce the GPO columns...per this item 10 of the columns in 'the arcade' (ie facing Martin Place) were then in position...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28377185 - SMH, 22nd September, 1882... 'The General Post Office'...description of the construction of the Pitt St extension...at about the time this pic was taken...

I'm not quite sure when this pic was taken...the woodblocking in Martin Place/Moore St looks to be complete...if so, that puts the date after early September 1892...
trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/112598353

In Martin Place, in front of the GPO we see the 6 ornamental lamps which were erected in ca. mid 1892...
trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/236176437

To the left of frame I'm fairly certain we see the scaffolding on the Equitable Building, in George St, which was built in 1892-94...
www.flickr.com/photos/193158484@N02/52222303703/


I gather this pic was taken from the roof of the Mutual Life Association Office at the NW cnr of George/Barrack Sts, built 1889-90....www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/2555446816/

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This pic is from NSW State Archives' collection...

search.records.nsw.gov.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid... - link to the pic at MHNSW (wait a few moments for the image to load)...I doubt this link will remain alive for long...

This is a rather nice 'street photography' shot from the SLV's J.H. Harvey Collection...here we're at the George St end of Martin Place, looking kind of NW towards the George/Wynyard St intersection...

trove.nla.gov.au/work/167162307 - Trove link to the pic at the SLV, where you can zoom in and check out the detail...and time travel...

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The reason I think the date might be 1908 is that if you zoom in near the top left of frame (above the lamp)...over at the Paterson Laing & Bruce warehouse/emporium, at the NE cnr Wynyard/Carrington Sts it looks like they're working on the additions made to the warehouse in 1908, which added another storey, etc.

Of course it's difficult to be certain because we don't get to see much of what's happening...so I dare say it's possible that something else might have been going on...building cleaning, etc...but this 1908 date stacks up with the various date markers that appear in this photo, which put the date at at least mid 1906...

The Paterson Laing & Bruce warehouse/emporium was originally built for Lark & Son and completed 1893...it was acquired by Paterson Laing & Bruce in 1899, who had additions and alterations made, which were completed in 1900...another round of alterations/additions was made in 1908...more substantial additions along Carrington St, which almost doubled the size of the building, were made in ca. 1920-21...

This pic is from the SLNSW's collection...

trove.nla.gov.au/work/235945541 - Trove link to the pic at the SLNSW, where you can zoom in and check out the detail...

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Here we're looking West along Moore St/Martin Place from near the Castlereagh St...

The date markers here are the Government Savings Bank of NSW building, built 1904-05, which appears on the very left of frame...the Commercial Banking Co of Sydney, NW cnr George/Barrack Sts, which appears here pre the 1906-08 alterations/additions...and opposite the GPO on the North side of Martin Place, there's a vacant space where Challis House was built in 1906-07...

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In case notes disappear...the buildings on the South side of Moore St are, L-R:

1) Government Savings Bank of NSW building, built 1904-05...
www.flickr.com/photos/193158484@N02/53694501077/

2) Gibbs Chambers, completed 1902
trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14479118

3) Crawshaw & Co's, warehouse (from ca. 1895 Wood's Chambers), 5 More St, completed 1883...
trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/64034752
trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/64034743
..demolished 1911 to make way for Somerset House
trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/239085611

4) Percy Ethell, Estate Agents, 3 Moore St...moved to Hoffnung's Chambers, 163 Pitt St in ca. January 1913

5) Kensington Chambers, SE cnr Pitt/Moore Sts...built 1868 as a warehouse for merchant Frederick Peck...see details here www.flickr.com/photos/193158484@N02/53701285242/


finding aid: General Post Office

This pic is from an album in the SLNSW's collection titled 'Photographs of some of the principal buildings in the city of Sydney, New South Wales, 1890'

trove.nla.gov.au/work/185275210 - Trove link to the album at the SLNSW...see pic 7. 'The General Post Office'

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The Sydney GPO was built in several stages over 30+ years ...Colonial Architect James Barnet designed the first two stages...his successor, Walter Liberty Vernon, designed the third stage and later alterations...in this photo we see the building after the completion of the Pitt St extension, but before the installation of the clock and bells...

1866-74 - 1st Stage
1880-87 - Pitt St extension (extension completed 1885...clock tower built 1884-85...internal work completed 1887)
1891 - clock and bells installed
1898-99+ Walter Liberty Vernon additions (George St extension, mansard roof, etc)

This Henry King pic is from the Sydney PHM's collection...for some reason they haven't put it on their Flickr photostream...

collection.maas.museum/object/30874 - link to the pic at the PHM...where you can zoom in on the detail...

This pic was taken from the roof of the Lands Office...before the tower was built...so we're only 4 stories or so above the street...

Amongst other things, this pic is interesting because it shows the General Post Office tower at about the time the tower (minus clock and bells) was completed. If you zoom in you can see the flagstaff at the top of the tower...per the various newspaper reports, the flagstaff was erected on 19th November, 1885...so my guess is this pic might have been taken within a couple of weeks of this date...possibly at about the time the contractor started dismantling the scaffolding...if you zoom in at the PHM original, there looks to be a gap in the scaffolding on the far side at the very top...and it also looks as though a beam is being lowered...but it's difficult to tell...

All up, I suspect Henry King might have taken this pic specifically to record the completion of the GPO tower...which at the time was seen as quite a significant event...

This Henry King pic is from the Sydney PHM's collection...it hasn't been put on their Flickr photostream...

collection.maas.museum/object/459254 - link to the pic at the PHM...

This pic must have been taken in 1885...as you can see, the the clock tower at the GPO is under construction...my guess is the pic was taken ca. mid year...when construction had reached the height of the clock faces...

I haven't yet managed to discover when work on the clock tower commenced...possibly during the second half of 1884...the last of the stonework on the tower was placed in position by acting Colonial Architect William Coles on 23rd September, 1885...the lantern was completed by ca. November 1885, and the flagstaff erected on 19th November, 1885...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13576498 - SMH, 17th March, 1885...'The Addition to the Post Office'...this is the first reference I've found to the construction of the GPO clock tower...just going on the description, which indicates that the tower was then 150ft in height, my guess is that work on the tower would have commenced in the second half of 1884:

'The clock tower, which is now being proceeded with, will have an altitude higher than any building in Sydney. It has been run up to a height of about 150 feet already ; but another 100 feet it to be added, making 250 feet in all.'

The bells were hoisted into the tower in early July, 1891...the clock faces were in place by early August 1891...and the clock was officially started by Lady Jersey on 16th September, 1891...


Finding aid: General Post Office