Construction commenced with pegging out by
Francis Greenway in 1821. The Darlinghurst Gaol wall began in 1822 and finished in 1824 using convict labour, but due to a lack of funds, the site sat empty for 12 years. Construction of the rest of the complex did not begin until 1836, with completion of some of the cell blocks in 1840. The jail was ready for occupation a year later, with the first prisoners occupying the jail on 7 June 1841. The jail was finally completed in 1885. The main material used for construction of the jail is Sydney sandstone, cut into large blocks by convicts. Convict markings on the blocks are visible along the upper half of the wall on Darlinghurst Road. A tall circular chapel stands in the middle of the site, around which are sited the six rectangular cellblocks in a radial fashion. Australian poet
Henry Lawson spent time incarcerated here during some of the turbulent years of his life and described the jail as
Starvinghurst Gaol due to meagre rations given to the inmates. The site is now open to the public as The National Art School. The last hanging at the jail was in 1907. Hangings were open to public viewing throughout several decades. People would gather at the front gate of the jail in Forbes Street, and the condemned would be brought out to a scaffold built in front of the jail gate, and later on a platform built above the gate. The public executioner
Alexander Green lived for a time in a hut outside the eastern wall of the jail, would then leave his house to the jeers and catcalls of the gathering crowd, enter the prison and do his job. Seventy-six people were hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol, but most of them met their demise on the scaffold inside the jail in a corner of E-wing. Among those who were executed were bushranger Andrew George Scott, better known as
Captain Moonlite, in 1880, and the last woman to be hanged in NSW, Louisa Collins, in 1889. ==Modern-day use==