Home ProgramFormer Sydney Sailors’ Home

Former Sydney Sailors’ Home

The Sydney Sailors’ Home provided purpose-built accommodation for sailors staying onshore

10am–4pm

Tags:HeritageAdaptive reuseFamily friendly

About the building

Opened in 1865, the Sydney Sailors’ Home was purpose-built accommodation for sailors staying onshore while their ships underwent repair or other works.

The original 1860s wing of the building is associated with prominent architect William E Kemp, of Weaver & Kemp, who had worked in the Colonial Architect’s office. It is one of the earliest Sydney examples of the Romanesque Revival style, and although altered, remains as an example of Kemp’s early work undertaken while in private practice. Spain & Cosh designed the 1920s wing in the interwar free classical architectural style. It was made possible by a private endowment from William Carss.

Demand for accommodation decreased in the 20th century and the Sailors’ Home relocated in the 1970s. The building was converted into the Marionette Theatre in the early 1980s, and The Rocks Heritage and Information Centre in the early 1990s.

The building was largely restored with two levels of galleries, where formerly the 3-by-3-metre accommodation cubicles once housed sailors overnight. Preserved floorboards retain evidence of where walls, beds and other basic furniture once stood, allowing for the re-creation of a typical accommodation room for sailors onshore.