This week, in honour of the upcoming exhibition at the Museum Of Sydney focusing on lost buildings of Sydney, the Past Present is focusing on one such building. The image above shows the beautiful building, The Union Club, which once stood on Bligh Street.

The Union Club, a beautiful Classical Revival style building once stood at number 2 Bligh Street. The site had originally been occupied by the cottage of Robert Campbell, but in 1857, a group of professional men met together at a leased property in Wynyard Square. The men formed the Union Club, whose first president was James Macarthur, the son of the famous John Macarthur. By August, larger premises were desperately needed, as the Union Club had rapidly attracted members. Several sites were looked at, but the decision was made to use the Campbell cottage, which was not as the name implies a cottage at all, but more a mansion! The Union Club leased the ‘cottage’ for 3 years from 1859, and when the lease on the warehouse next to the residence expired in 1863, the lease was changed to include both properties. The Union Club payed £1000 a year for the two leases. Eventually, the Union Club offered £15,000 to purchase the house, but the offer was declined, as it fell far below the market value.

The club officers of the Union Club then made efforts to find a new site which they could use to build their own club building, but all these sites were rejected. Finally, they started up negotiations again to buy the Campbell property, and in July 1873, they purchased the site for £20,000. Over the following decade, many alterations were made to the original Campbell residence, but eventually, the old mansion was demolished and replaced with a purpose built club house. The beautiful new building, designed by William Wardell in the Classical Revival style was built in 1884. It was demolished in 1955, when the Union Club decided to sell the southern part of the property and build a new clubhouse on the remaining land.