7 August 2025

I always thought the Brunswick Town Hall was a 19th one like all the others, but a little less detail – but turns out it’s mostly 1927! And a complicated story that I couldn’t find written out anywhere.

So, it started as just the central section in 1877 in Renaissance Revival style. Then in 1888 they had a competition, won by Sydney Wilson with a design that looked a lot like Collingwood, then being built. But, didn’t happen. Instead in 1908 they added the bit on the right, in matching style.

Then in 1926 they decided to finish it, and called Sydney Wilson back (or at least his firm) and he came up with a design that was ‘constrained by the need to match the existing work’, which looks like a design from 1890, complete with mansard roofs. Think they also rebuilt /replaced the original middle section, creating a porte-cochere, with arches and columns that looks rather Edwardian.

Further alterations were made in 1938, with a new rather severe Art Deco front to the main hall on Dawson Street, and an Art Deco refresh inside (its now the library), and what looks like a new Deco ceiling to the smaller hall. Old pics mainly via @brunswickcommunityhistorygroup.

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