The university was founded in 1850; and while this makes it young compared to colleges like Oxford, Harvard, and so on, the University of Sydney does a great job of feeling like an entrenched, stable, old university. The Great Hall was built on an area of land known as the Grose Farm. It was inspired by Hampton Court Palace, and the London Guildhall with its central tower and spires punctuating a broad expanse of stone. The stone walls are sandstone, though they were originally supposed to be brick. But the local clay was not the right color for what has been described as a "Tudor Perpendicular Gothic" affair, though it is more properly considered Gothic Revival.

• Edmund Blacket was the Colonial Architect, but had to resign his post in order to work on the University of Sydney.
• He is also credited with being the first architect to design bathrooms into Australian homes.
• It is believed that the design of the Great Hall was created after a painting of the then-proposed University of Sydney by Conrad Martens in 1854.
• The stained glass windows at either end of the Great Hall symbolize Cambridge University (on the east side) and Oxford University (on the west side).
• 1850 - The University of Sydney is founded.
• 1852 - Instruction begins with three professors and 30 students in a building that is now a grammar school.
• 1854 - Construction begins on the Great Hall.
• 1859 - The Great Hall opens.
• 1862 - Construction of the Great Tower is completed.
• 1874 - A statue of the angel of knowledge is removed from the eastern wall. It is feared the statue may fall.
• 1875 - The current marble floor is laid.
• 1984 - Two sculptures are added to the eastern wall.