Was there a previous building and site for the Art Gallery, or has it always been where it is in the Domain?

The first home for Sydney's art collection was at Clark's Assembly Hall in Elizabeth Street. This building, which had at one time been used for dancing classes, was rented between 1875 and 1879. It was open to the public on Friday and Saturday afternoons. The International Exhibition of 1879 provided an opportunity for the national collection to be re-housed more suitably. Space was initially allocated in the main hall of the Garden Palace, but as lighting and display possibilities were not considered adequate, the Government allowed William Wardell to construct a 'Fine Arts Annexe' of nine rooms near the entrance to the Botanic Gardens. This building was located roughly where the Glass Pyramid now stands. Concerns for the security and care of artworks, particularly after the fire which destroyed the Garden Palace in 1882, ruled out the Annexe as a permanent home for the collection. In December 1885 the collections were moved to a building of six rooms at the present site in the Domain.

Four proposed sites for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, c.1884.
Early deliberations favoured a site for the Art Gallery on William Street, opposite the Australian Museum, where the recently built Cook and Phillip Park Recreation Centre now stands. Henry Copeland, Member for East Sydney, denounced the Trustees’ preference for a site overlooking Woolloomooloo Bay as the worst possible choice after ‘Fort Macquarie or Shark Island.’ Even as late as 1890, after a temporary building had been erected on the present site, the Government was still discussing the possibility of selecting another position for the Gallery.
 

(Research by Steven Miller, Archivist)