Sydney - Rum Hospital

The long middle section of the Rum Hospital was pulled down in 1879, and the present building, in Victorian neo-classical style, was erected in 1894. Plans for its demolition and replacement by a square surrounded by high-rise buildings were under consideration in the 1960s but were not carried out. The foundation stone of the Rum Hospital (architect unknown) was laid by Macquarie in 1811 and the building was completed in 1816. It is so called because Macquarie granted the profitable rum monopoly to the builders, who then built the hospital, using convict labor, at no cost to the colony.