Walter Liberty Vernon

Walter Liberty Vernon (11 August 1846 – 17 January 1914) was an English architect who migrated to Australia and pursued his career as an architect in Sydney, New South Wales. He is noted for designing multiple government buildings which are still standing, many of which have a heritage listing.

Vernon was born 11 August 1846 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, the son of a banker's clerk, Robert Vernon and Margaret Liberty. He was articled in 1862 to a London architect, W.G.Habershon, and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts and South Kensington School of Art. After completing his studies, he pursued a practice as an architect in London and married Margaret Anne Jones in 1870 at Newport, Wales. His London practice was successful, but he suffered from bronchial asthma and received medical advice to leave England.Thus, he migrated to Australia and arrived in Sydney in November 1883.

Vernon established a private practice in Sydney but later joined the Government Architect's Branch in 1890 as Government Architect. The activities of this office were boosted in 1894 when extra funding was committed as a way of creating relief work during the Depression.

As an architect practising in Australia, Vernon favoured what were later known as Federation styles such as Federation Arts and Crafts and Federation Free Style. (The Federation style was, roughly speaking, the Australian equivalent of the Edwardian style.) Examples of the former were his fire station in St Johns Road, Glebe, Jenolan Caves House in the Blue Mountains and the Public School, Military Road, Mosman. Examples of the latter were his fire stations in The Avenue, Randwick; Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst; and Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont. The last two are on the Register of the National Estate. Another example of Federation Free Style is the former police station, Taylor Square, Darlinghurst, also on the National Estate. In a stylistic departure, he designed the (former) police station in Bourke Street, Surry Hills, in the Romanesque style; it too is on the National Estate.

For more substantial public buildings, Vernon continued the tradition whereby such buildings were designed in a Classical style. Notable examples were the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Mitchell Library (part of the State Library), Central railway station and Newcastle Court House; all of which are on the National Estate. The Art Gallery has been described as "masterly symmetry featuring Ionic colonnades." Central Station has been described as "the grandest railway station in Australia."

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