Taylor Square Substation No. 6 and Underground Conveniences

Taylor Square Substation No.6 and Underground Conveniences is a heritage-listed electrical substation and underground public toilets at the intersection of Taylor Square, Oxford street, Forbes street and Bourke Street, in the inner city suburb of Darlinghurst in Sydney.

The underground male toilets were opened in 1907 and closed in 1998 and the female toilets were opened in 1938 in the above ground section of the substation building and then closed in 1988.

Both the substation and the underground toilets were designed by Robert Hargreave Brodrick and built from 1904 to 1907, with Owen Ridge & Sons building the substation and G. D. Getherson the underground male toilets.

In 2024, the space inside the substation and the underground toilets began to be used by Qtopia Sydney as an exhibition and performance space to celebrate queer stories in Sydney.

The underground toilet block now hosts "...adults-only exhibitions exploring Sydney's gay beat, sauna and cruising culture of the 1980s and 90s."

History

With its elevated position over the city, the Darlinghurst area has been called Woolloomooloo Heights, Eastern Hill and Henrietta Town. In the 1820s, Governor Ralph Darling renamed the suburb in honour of his wife, Eliza Darling.Crosson, 2013

In 1883 a public urinal occupied the site at Taylor Square. and in 1885 a steel structure was erected over the urinals to provide a platform for the elevated saltwater tanks. It is believed that these saltwater tanks were used for street cleaning. This early technique of public sanitation provided the rudimentary predecessor to the purpose-designed underground toilets.

The construction of Electricity Substation No. 6 was completed in 1904. It is the most intact of the first five substations built by Sydney Municipal Council that brought electricity to the streets, homes and businesses of Sydney city for the first time. At 5pm on 8 July 1904 the Municipal Council of Sydney's Electricity Undertaking switched on their supply system and the city streets from Circular Quay to Redfern and from Hyde Park to Darling Harbour were lit by electric lights for the first time. Electricity quickly became an exciting new commodity which the council's Electricity Undertaking were trying to sell to both the local councils and private customers. In continuous operation from 1904 to 1993, the Substation building marks the commencement of the major technological transformation of the twentieth century associated with the development of the modern city and state.

In response to the public health and safety concerns, particularly after the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Sydney in 1900, Sydney Municipal Council undertook to build one underground male toilet a year from 1901 to 1911. The Underground male toilets at Taylor Square were built in 1907, replacing the public urinals and the saltwater tank, and they were the sixth underground toilets to be constructed in Sydney. There were twelve Underground toilets built in Sydney with the toilets at Taylor Square possibly the oldest extant public toilets in Sydney.

Together, the construction of these purpose-designed, high quality, Civic buildings within the public domain formed part of the introduction of the City Beautiful movement into Sydney that drove the complete remodelling of Oxford Street and associated creation of Taylor Square in 1907. The public space, Civic buildings and streets were remodelled to provide for the introduction of the State's first electric tram and to improve city design and traffic movement throughout Victorian Sydney. While the Substation provided the electricity for the newly introduced electric tram, the toilets serviced the large volume of tram commuters. The City Beautiful movement was evident throughout Sydney with the construction of a total of twelve of these purpose-designed Public Underground toilets located in the public domain of the city, often associated with the tram lines, of which the Taylor Square toilets remain the only extant example.

The first female public toilets in Sydney were provided in 1910 at Hyde Park, then at Railway Square and Circular Quay. In 1938 after years of debate on a "suitable" location for equivalent female toilets in Taylor Square and in response to active petitioning from the Women's Progressive Association, council modified the existing Substation to accommodate female toilets. These were the first female public toilets at Taylor Square, some 55 years after the first male public urinal was opened in Taylor Square in 1883.City of Sydney Archives, CRS 34/4356/20 The allocation of a public female toilet in Taylor Square and the manner and timeframe in which this was achieved, symbolises the evolution in social attitudes as well as the growing activism of feminist groups in Sydney during the early 20th Century.

The brick building known as the substation that is in the northern end of Taylor Square is the location of where the female toilets were installed. There are stairs leading up from Taylor Square to a doorway in the southern end of the substation building and this door is the entry for the female toilets. A second door, in the eastern side of the substation leads to a set of steps that extend downwards about 3 metres to a large space underneath the female toilets. This large space used to be where the electrical substation was and it is now a 40-seat theatre used by Qtopia Sydney to host performances.

The female toilets were closed to public access in 1988 and the substation decommissioned in 1993. The male toilets were closed to public access in 1998.

The property is owned by the City of Sydney and it was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 July 2004. Since 2024 both the substation and the toilet block have been used by Qtopia Sydney as exhibition spaces for LGBTQIA+ history and culture.

Qtopia

In February 2024, a new museum, titled Qtopia, opened in Darlinghurst, celebrating queer stories with an extensive collection of objects related to queer culture in Sydney. It sits across three main sites which include the main building at 301 Forbes St., Darlinghurst, the substation and the underground toilet block, both of which are located at the northern end of Taylor Square.

It initially began as a temporary exhibition held during Sydney World Pride in 2023 and was located in the bandstand pavilion in Green Park, Darlinghurst, as well as at the National Art School that sits adjacent to Green Park in Darlinghurst. The substations 40-seat theatre hosts performances including music, drag, comedy, cabaret and poetry all year round with numerous performances being held in conjunction with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in February and March each year as well as during Pride month in June of each year. The underground toilet block now hosts "...adults-only exhibitions exploring Sydney's gay beat, sauna and cruising culture of the 1980s and 90s." It has been commented that "The public toilet was also a popular beat in the heart of gay Sydney for decades until its closure...".

Description

Substation No. 6 The Substation has a rectangular plan and is constructed in load bearing face brick with rusticated sandstone lintels, arches and base coursing, and is dressed with sandstone top coursing, window sills, and window heads. Brickwork string coursing and corbels are featured near the parapet, which steps up towards the southern end. The parapet features a bullnose course, projecting course and brick end capping. The external brickwork reveals the former outline of the 1904 sandstone buttresses and freestone copings. The 1928 parapet line is also evident. The 1938 Art Deco southern wall that leads to the stairs to the female toilets remains.

The floor level of the Substation is located below the pavement level and is accessed via a street stair from Bourke Street. The landing is edged in decorative steel. Access to an internal mezzanine platform is also available from the pavement level on the eastern side of the substation via a single leaf door.

The western and eastern elevations have two groups of three timber arched windows symmetrically placed about central doors. To the north, the three separate openings, of similar arched shape, contain painted steel horizontal louvres behind fixed metal screens. To the south the windows, which originally mirrored the north, have been bricked up and the central window replaced with a door opening for the female toilets. The steel rainwater heads and downpipes from the 1928 alterations and additions have been retained, as has the 1938 "Ladies" signs.

Internally, the ground floor of the Substation is free of internal partitions. The upper-level floor and walls are supported on steel beams situated above the substation wall. The ground floor is concrete with trenches running along the eastern, western and southern walls with metal cover plates. The walls are rendered and painted brickwork. The piers still exist on the western wall.

Underground Men's Conveniences

The Edwardian style underground male toilets are characterised externally by a wrought iron fence and gates, with Art Nouveau detailing that are set on a painted sandstone base, and a central masonry podium (the air vent) located at the centre of the curved stairs, which originally supported a decorative metal vent capping. The toilets are accessed from pavement level via two separate interlocking curved staircases that encircle a central vent. Two masonry piers flank the two entry gates to the staircases.

Internally, the main subterranean structure is enclosed in a brickwork cavity with a curved concrete ceiling supported by exposed steel beams. The symmetrical plan of the underground toilets is arranged around the circular core containing the pair of interlocking curved stairs and air vent, and comprises five toilet cubicles and two ceramic urinal stalls. An attendant's room is located under the stairs and air vent, and features a low arched entrance and original arched timber door with multi paned glazing. The internal walls of the toilets feature white florite glass tiles and ceramic tiles frieze with art Nouveau green floral patterns at a high level, which have been painted. Much of the original joinery, including timber framed doors, timber framed louvres and moulded timber architraves, has survived.

Modern services, including fluorescent lights, electrical cabling and mechanical ventilation ducts have also been introduced to the internal space.

Women's Conveniences

The female toilets are located inside the substation and are accessed from Taylor Square by stairs at the southern end of the building. Underneath the female toilets is a large space that continues about 3 metres underground and this is where the electrical substation was located. Much of the original partitioning, joinery and sanitary fixtures have been retained. The toilets remain in the cubicles along the western wall with wash basins located along the northern wall. The entrance is lined with cream square ceramic tiles, the floor covered in linoleum with red skirting. The wired glass skylights are patterned with metal ventilation grilles to the ceiling.

Condition

As at 27 November 2003:

The toilets were in good structural condition. However, there has been leaking though the roof which requires a new membrane. The steel beams supporting the roof show signs of rusting which should be cleaned of paint and rust and structural adequacy assessed prior to recoating the beams. Some tiling has been damaged.

The Substation were generally in good structural condition except for the two end gable parapets which have substantial cracking that requires attention.

Additional research and investigation is required to gauge the archaeological potential of the site. There is a high level of original integrity of both structures.

Modifications and dates