Sydney's Secret Cells?

Question

So I finally went to the Justice & Police Museum in Sydney, wow. The whole place gave me serious chills, especially that section about the old cells. Seriously cramped and depressing. I was wondering though, did they ever find any, like, *actual* hidden messages or secret compartments carved into the walls by prisoners back in the day? They'd have had so much time...you know? I bet there's some crazy stories still locked away (pun intended!).

rahel · Answer

Worth knowing that the sandstone itself is the giveaway. Prisoners scratched into the soft rock near doorframes and window ledges, spots where guards couldn't easily see, and a lot of that graffiti was only documented properly during the 1970s restoration rather than when the place was operating. If you want the raw stuff, the State Archives out at Kingswood holds the old Police Department correspondence, and some of it includes reports about prisoners damaging cell walls. The museum's display is the cleaned-up version, the archive files are messier and more interesting.

selina · Answer

one thing nobody's mentioned yet is the actual fabric of the building. that place on Phillip St was built as the Water Police Court in 1858, and the cells weren't designed to hold anyone long term, they were basically holding pens before a hearing. so a lot of the carving is short stuff, initials, tally marks, a date, maybe a ship name. the longer "messages" people imagine are pretty rare. if you want the real deep cut, ask the museum staff about the women's cells out back, those got less attention and the graffiti there is more personal.

rosemarie · Answer

I remember reading that some of the more personal graffiti came from the Depression era rather than the 1800s, when vagrants got locked up for being homeless and carved little sketches or initials to pass the time. If you ask at the front desk they can point you to a couple of photos in their collection that never made it into the main display.

nellibuck · Answer

the cells there are mostly 19th century & yeah prisoners did scratch stuff into the sandstone, some of it got recorded when the place was still a working police station. there's a decent bit in the archives at the state library on macquarie st if u wanna dig, you can request the old police records in the reading room. the museum itself only shows a fraction tbh

patriziawurst · Answer

honestly the stuff u really want isnt at the museum at all, its in the old court depositions. prisoners would sometimes carve a name or a date and then you can cross reference it against committal papers from the Water Police Court or the Central Police Court, and suddenly youve got a whole life story attached to three letters scratched in a wall. ngl i went down that rabbit hole after a similar visit and lost a weekend to it. start with the NSW State Archives online index before you bother trekking out to Kingswood, half the finding aids are digitised now.

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