Chief Secretary’s Building

The Chief Secretary's Building features a series of grand arches and a sandstone clock tower that rises over the intersection of Bridge and Loftus streets. Designed by colonial architect James Barnet in the eighteen seventies, it once housed the nerve center of the New South Wales government, including the colonial secretary and the police department. When the police commissioner held his office here, he kept a private trapdoor hidden beneath his rug, allowing him to bypass the busy main hallway whenever he needed to disappear.