The Railway Institute Building is a heritage-listed former educational facility and social venue at 101 Chalmers Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia.

[1] In the early years of the nineteenth century the area around what is now Prince Alfred Park and the infrastructure of Central railway station was undeveloped land known as the Government Paddocks.

[1] Recommendations issued by Earl Grey, the Secretary for State, in regard to the establishment of railways in the colonies, were adopted by the Legislative Council of NSW on 18 August 1849.

At a spectacular ceremony held on a rain 3 July 1850 the daughter of Governor Charles Fitzroy, the Honourable Mrs Keith Stewart, turned the first sod in the Cleveland Paddocks.

[1] On 22 December 1865 the remaining eastern portion of the Cleveland Paddocks was dedicated as a reserve for public purposes and name Prince Alfred Park in commemoration of the visit by the Duke of Edinburgh to the Australian colonies in 1868.

[1] The movement towards the formation of the Railway Institute began with the arrival in Sydney of fifty four Scottish mechanics, their families and four clergymen who were to respectively build and teach at the Reverend Dr John Dunmore Lang's Australian College.

The School of Arts was intended to give mechanics a firm knowledge of the theory behind their craft, which extended to classes in arithmetic, geometry, algebra and "anything else that might make a working man able to become a freer and more privileged human being, as well as a more efficient worker".

Facilities included a library with a reading room and a type of scientific museum containing apparatus, models of machinery and of recent inventions.

[1] Plans and elevations of the Railway Institute were inspected on 21 February 1890 by the committee at the instigation of its chairman, who also stated that there was a sum of A£4,000 set aside in addition to A£1,000 donated by Mr Goodchap.

"[1] On the evening of Saturday, 14 March 1891, the Railway Institute building was formally opened, "...when the interior presented a most attractive appearance, being profusely adorned with floral decorations and Chinese lanterns.

Six years later, the Council of the Railway Institute approached the Commissioners at the beginning of 1897 "with a view to taking in a portion of Prince Alfred Park for the purpose of extending the building along Castlereagh Street".

[1] During 1905 the stage and scenery in the hall was remounted and lighting upgraded, and a gymnasium constructed within the area formed by the two buildings, on the southern part of the site.

In September 1905 a Jubilee Celebration Exhibition was staged within and adjacent to the Institute buildings, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the NSW Government Railways.

[1] The building continued to suffer the strain of demands for accommodation, both social and educational and so the Council submitted a proposal for extensions to the Chief Commissioner at the end of 1908.

Two years later a proposal for an orchestra pit in front of the stage in the main hall was also documented, and in 1924 masts for an aerial extending over the 1899 building were detailed.

The gymnasium was demolished, as were other nearby structures used by the Institute:[1] Alterations in connection with the lines which will link up with the City Railway necessitated the demolition of old Sydney goods station.

The original goods shed had been for some years the site of the departmental tarpaulin factory, and the offices were occupied by the teaching and examing [sic] sections of the Institute.

As Institute business had quite outgrown the capacity of the main building, it was necessary to look for new premises in a convenient location, and Opera House Chambers, in Hay Street, have been obtained.....The whole of the classes previously conducted at the main Institute, Central Station, and Newtown Depot will now be accommodated on the first, second and third floors of the Opera House Buildings, the library is on the fourth floor, and on the fifth are the offices of the Director and his officers, including the staff examiners and the safe-working instruction room.

In addition, the rooms will be available for meetings of other Service organisations which, with much reluctance, it had been necessary for some time past to turn away owing to so many other calls on the limited space.

After the reorganisation following its revised Constitution of 1919, a large number of Institutes were set up or revitalised in country areas; and these were also open to the general public.

By the early 1990s the exterior of the building had deteriorated to such an extent that State Projects Heritage Group were engaged by Rail Estate to document repair and maintenance work to it.

This was a brick office building at 16-18 O'Connell Street designed by architects Coward and Bell, completed in 1888 and demolished almost exactly fifty years later.

[6][1] The Railway Institute building incorporates many distinguishing characteristics of the Federation Anglo-Dutch style, such as red brickwork, Flemish gables, shallow pilasters, moulded bricks and picturesque massing.

The stair at the western end of the building is visible through the arched window of the former porch, and the first floor addition over is distinguished by brickwork of a different tone and a flat roof.

The access passage and ancillary spaces behind the stage are clad in asbestos cement shingles and have been painted a dark colour to minimise their visual impact on the building.

At the time that the 1899 building was completed, tall shrubs grew behind the palisade fence along Devonshire Street and trees in Prince Alfred park formed a backdrop to the new addition.

[1] The 1891 section of the building is a rare and fine example of the Federation Anglo Dutch style, demonstrating a high degree of architectural quality and detail, particularly on its exterior.

It is an important and successful part of the history of technical and adult education in NSW, which began with the establishment of the Sydney School of Arts in 1833 and speared across the state during the rest of the nineteenth century.

[1] The building is a most important part of the physical environment of the area, particularly in relation to Prince Alfred Park, Chalmers Street and the Central Railway complex.

It has the potential to be reinstated as a prominent visual landmark that forms a positive component of the local townscape, but presently is obscured by small buildings and trees on three sides.