Nightingale Wing, Sydney Hospital
The Nightingale Wing accommodated the first nursing school in Australia
9am–3pm
About the building
Building information
Completed in 1869, the Nightingale Building – today known as the Nightingale Wing of Sydney Hospital – was the site of the first nursing school in Australia. On the request of colonial politician Henry Parkes, British nurse Florence Nightingale sent Lucy Osburn and five other nurses to NSW to establish the school of nursing.
The Nightingale Building is on the site of Sydney Hospital, off the central courtyard. Architect Thomas Rowe designed the sandstone and polychrome-brick Gothic Revival building with Nightingale’s input. Additions were made in 1901, adding a floor and a wing to the east, and it was extended again in 1918. Today the Nightingale Wing is listed under the National Trust and is the oldest building on the present site of Sydney Hospital and Sydney Eye Hospital.
Visitors will see the Lucy Osburn-Nightingale Museum, which has a collection of medical equipment, records, implements and pathology that provides a look into the history of nursing and medicine in Australia from 1788. The specimen rooms hold the oldest known specimens in the country and are a valuable learning tool for students.
1869
ArchitectThomas Rowe
AwardsNational Trust building
Acknowledgements
The Nightingale Wing’s participation has been made possible by the Sydney Hospital Executive and NSW Health.
Find out more about this building here
Nightingale Wing, Sydney Hospital
8 Macquarie Street, Sydney
Entry details
The Lucy Osburn-Nightingale Museum including the specimen rooms, and other rooms of the Nightingale Wing, viewed from the hallway
9am–3pm
Members hour: MHNSW Members receive exclusive access from 9am–10am
2.30pm
Need to Know
Access to the building is via stairs only
No photography into specimen rooms
