The Sydney Cyclorama. 1898 Railway Square

 

Opened in 1889, it was the 19th-century equivalent of an IMAX theatre - a massive, purpose-built immersive environment. It dominated the Railway Square area.

The Cyclorama as it appears in the background of an Ultimo photo.

Original 1898

In the original image, it's way up the back on the right. There aren’t any photos where the actual building is the subject, I think because it had no street aspect. Located on a battle-axe block surrounded by other properties, it only presented a doorway entrance squeezed between other buildings on George Street.

For its entire 18-year run, it showed just one exhibit: The Battle of Gettysburg. This was a massive 360-degree painted canvas, a copy of another famous US cyclorama. To heighten the "being there" effect, the visual spectacle was accompanied by active light and sound, - explosions, bugle calls, and the flashes of cannons. They even employed a war veteran to pace the platform and give first-hand reminiscences of battlefields to the crowds. To bridge the gap between the audience and the 2D painting, a 3D diorama filled the foreground. Real dirt, stonework, timber fences, shattered wagon wheels, and mannequins were arranged to blend into the painted horizon. 

From an unrelated artist's impression of Railway Square in the 1890s, we can see the Cyclorama's actual arrangement.

Today (Google)

If you’re interested in how it worked, I’ve collated some detailed info which explains the structure.

To make the illusion work, the architecture was designed to disorient the viewer into the forced-perspective. Visitors would enter through a darkened, narrow passageway from George Street, stumbling up a flight of stairs. This sensory deprivation removed their connection to the outside streetscape. They would then emerge onto an elevated central viewing platform, completely surrounded by the 360-degree canvas.

George Street, Railway Square 1906 showing the Cyclorama entrance, just visible top right, a corrugated-iron arch behind the billboard.

1890s pamphlet

The shell was a massive 16-sided polygonal brick structure. The interior was large enough to hold a canvas 114m x 14m. Before electric stage lighting, cycloramas relied heavily on natural light. The domed roof featured skylights that washed the canvas in daylight. A central canopy shielded the viewing platform, keeping the audience in relative shadow so the painting appeared luminous and realistic.

Part of the original Gettysburg panorama

In the roof, slatted louver hatches controlled the "wash" of natural daylight to the perimeter light well, ensuring the 360-degree painting was uniformly lit without creating glare or harsh central hotspots. The lattice-work band at the very top of the brick walls, running just below the roofline, was part of the ventilation system. Operable louvered shutters and panels, controlled by a pulley system, regulated the light and ventilation.

By the early 1900s, the novelty was wearing off as early motion pictures began to capture the public's interest. The Cyclorama closed in 1906. However, the structure at 849 George Street was partially demolished and re-engineered, the massive clear-span footprint made into the Sydney Glaciarium, Australia's first indoor ice-skating rink, which opened in 1907.

• The Canvas: The massive painting was rolled up onto a giant pin and shipped to Christchurch for the 1906 New Zealand International Exhibition. It was housed in a temporary corrugated iron building there, but was eventually put into storage and auctioned off in Wellington in 1921. Its final fate is unknown.