The Senate Room

• Early Senate meetings
• Library room
• Fitting out of the Library room as the Senate Room in 1909
• Redecoration of the Senate Room 1938
• Refurbishment of the Senate Room in the 1970s
• Refurbishment of the Senate Room in 1997
• Information source

Early Senate meetings

Between Senate's first meetings in 1851 and the refitting of the Library Room in the Quadrangle as the Senate Room in 1911, Senate meetings were held in various external venues including:

• 1851: the Chambers of the Speaker of the NSW Legislative Council - Charles Nicholson - in Macquarie Street
• Sydney College, College Street. (Sydney College existed from 1835 to 1850. Its land and building - the Edward Hallen Building, called the Big School Room - were temporarily occupied by the newly-founded University of Sydney in 1852. In 1854 Sydney Grammar School was incorporated by Act of Parliament, acquiring the land and building in College Street and opening in 1857.)
• Selbourne Chambers in Phillip Street. (In 1896 the University of Sydney Law School moved to No. 174 Selbourne Chambers, a three-storeyed building on the site of the present Selbourne Chambers, and remained there until 1913.)

Library room

Between 1857 and 1909, the current Senate Room on the first floor in the Main Building was the location of the University's first Library. While the East Range was being constructed, University Architect Edmund Thomas Blacket was receiving progressive instructions from the University as to the departments to be housed there. In 1857 he was instructed to proceed with plastering and provision of fittings and shelving for the installation of the Library into this space.

The adjacent Ante Room was used firstly as a meeting room (used by Committees of Senate) and then as the Registrar's office until 1884 when the Registrar relocated to what is now known as the Greek Room on the ground floor. At this time the Ante Room became part of the Library which also spread to the ground floor (the Great Hall Ante Room).

The Library function for the room remained until 1908.

• Above: Two photographs of the Library room, Quadrangle, in the 1900s, before its conversion to the Senate Room (University of Sydney Archives). Click here and here to view enlargements.

In 1909 the Library was relocated into the new Fisher Library (now MacLaurin Hall) and adjacent "Bookstack".

Background to the relocation of the Library:
The Library relocated in 1857 and, while it was originally to have occupied a grand room where the Great Hall is now located, it was allocated room on the first floor which later became the Senate Room. By 1879, the Library had outgrown the space allotted to it and the collection was distributed in rooms all over the Quadrangle. In that year, the Chancellor made an appeal for a benefactor to endow a new library building. Local resident, Thomas Fisher altered his will to the benefit of the University. When he died in 1884, Fisher left 30,000 pounds for a library. After many reversals and delays the NSW government agreed to fund the full cost of a new library building and the Fisher capital was preserved as an endowed book fund. Plans were drawn up by the Government Architect Walter Vernon and construction took eight years. The Fisher Library opened in 1909.

Fitting out of the Library room as the Senate Room in 1909

The minutes of Senate's Buildings and Grounds Committee on 12 October 1909, held in Selbourne Chambers in Philip Street, and attended by Chancellor Sir Henry MacLaurin, Justice Alfred Backhouse, Sir Phillip Jones and Professor Anderson Stuart, record:

"Instructions were given for the room heretofore used as a library to be fitted up for meetings of the Senate and Faculties, and for suitable furniture to be obtained."

The Senate Room was set up with 17 bentwood chairs and the Chancellor's ceremonial chair at the head of the table. Research into the carpet suggests that the carpet may have been a William Morris design.

Subsequent to this, the minutes of Senate first record a Senate meeting being held "at the University" on 6 February 1911, although not specifically in this room. However, Senate meetings continued to be held in Selbourne Chambers for some time after this.

• Above: The Senate Room in 1912 (University of Sydney Archives). Click here to view enlargement.

• Above: Photo by Ellice Hamilton, dated 1914-20, showing a close-up of the Nicholson bookcase and paintings (shown in the photo above) at the rear of the Senate Room (Historical Photographs Collection, Macleay Museum, University of Sydney).

• Above: Photo by Ellice Hamilton, dated 1914-20, of the left hand side of the Senate Room, facing the rear (Historical Photographs Collection, Macleay Museum, University of Sydney).

• Above: Photo by Ellice Hamilton, dated 1914-20, of the tapestry “Triumph of the Dance" c1734, hanging at the front of the Senate Room (Historical Photographs Collection, Macleay Museum, University of Sydney).

Redecoration of the Senate Room 1938

Through the generosity of Mrs A E Mills, wife of Dr Mills, Deputy Chancellor, the Senate Room was remodelled in 1938.

The following report was prepared by Stephenson & Turner, Architects:

"The problem in the first place was one of acoustics. The room is 40' x 35' by 18' high, and the walls, floor and celing were of hard reflecting surfaces so that long reverberations made hearing difficult. This problem has been overcome by covering the walls from skirting to ceiling with an acoustic board covered with coarse textured cloth, by covering the entire floor with a thick carpet laid on a heavy underfelt, and by hanging long velvet curtains interlined with flannel. Nor has it been forgotten that a polished table top will reflect sound, and so there is a large blotting pad at each person's place.

To treat these acoustic materials to make a beautiful and harmonious interior was the next problem. To cover acoustic board with a material, and then to paint it was in itself an experiment which has been successful, the finished result being an interesting but not obtrusive texture.

The Senate Room has some fine old paintings, chief and most valuable of which is "The Blue Lady"... This picture was used as the key to the colour scheme of the room. Walls and ceilings are a light French blue, the colour of the lighted tones of her dress, a soft clean colour, which is a foil to the rich and sombre tones of the other paintings. The carpet is a deep indigo colour and curtains are of gold velvet.

The pictures have been re-hung so that The Blue Lady forms the focal point on entering the room; and is specially lit by a strip light recessed in the mantelshelf. The general artificial lighting is provided by three large pendant fittings giving semi-indirect light.

New furniture in keeping with the character of the room has been designed. Table accommodation for 40 people had to be provided, and this has been done by having three main tables arranged in a "U" shape with two additional smaller tables to be added when there is a full meeting of the Senate. The tables are of polished black bean, and the woodwork of the chairs is also of this material. The chairs are upholstered in blue hide, the colour being intermediate between that of the walls and that of the floor. Such minor details as the blotting pads have not been overlooked and the blotting paper and holders are in blues harmonizing with the room.

The finished result, by the careful use of colopur and fine materials is a beautiful and dignified room as befits the University.

This work was designed by and carried out under the supervision of Stephenson & Turner, Architects."

• Above: "The Blue Lady", artist unknown, after Anthony Van Dyck 1566; gift of Sir Charles Nicholson Bart in 1865; thought to be Lady Clifford (University Art Collection, reproduced with the permission of the University of Sydney)

• Above: A special meeting of the Senate held in the Senate Room on 5 February 1951, in celebration of the first meeting of Senate (University of Sydney Archives). Click here to view enlargement.

• Above: Another angle of the special meeting of the Senate in the Senate Room on 5 February 1951, in celebration of the first meeting of Senate (University of Sydney Archives). Click here to view enlargement.

• Above: The Senate Room in the 1960s. The features of its 1938 redecoration are still evident - "The Blue Lady", the table with its 5 components, the chairs and the blotting pads (University of Sydney Archives). Click here to view enlargement.

Refurbishment of the Senate Room in the 1970s

Senate meetings moved to the old Law School in Phillip Street for several years, and relocated to the Senate Room in the 1970s.

The Room's pale blue curtains, beaten copper light fittings, linear air-conditioning grilles and pelmets, which appear in the 1980s photograph below, probably date from the 1970s. A clock made in the University's joinery shop in the 1950s can be seen in the right hand corner at the rear.

• Above: The Senate Room in the 1980s as it was from the 1970s until its refurbishment in 1997 (University of Sydney Archives). Click here to view enlargement.

• Above: Two photographs showing two cabinets located in the Room (University of Sydney Archives). Click here and here to view enlargements.

Refurbishment of the Senate Room in 1997

The first Senate meeting in the newly refurbished Senate Room was held on 4 August 1997. The funds for the purchase of the new furniture were donated by the Chancellor's Committee.

• Above: The plaque in the Senate Room (courtesy, University of Sydney Secretariat).

• Above: The view of the Senate Room from outside the foyer, with the balcony overlooking the Great Hall in the background (courtesy, University of Sydney Secretariat).

• Above: The view of the Senate Room from the entrance doorway, with the balcony overlooking the Great Hall at the rear (courtesy, University of Sydney Secretariat).

• Above: The Senate Room and the balcony at the rear (courtesy, University of Sydney Secretariat).

• Above: The opposite side of the Senate Room (courtesy, University of Sydney Secretariat).

• Above: The view of the Senate Room from the rear, showing the entrance door (courtesy, University of Sydney Secretariat).

• Above: Detail of the carpet which was specially designed and made for the Senate Room, which was also laid in the foyer and stairs outside the Room (courtesy, University of Sydney Secretariat).

Information source

Information relating to the history of the Senate Room has been obtained from the University of Sydney Archives.