The new station was built on a site previously occupied by the Devonshire Street Cemetery, South Sydney Morgue, the Convent of the Good Samaritan, the Sydney Female Refuge, police barracks and superintendent's residence (on Pitt Street), Christ Church Parsonage, the Benevolent Asylum (fronting Railway Square), a steam train depot (ad the corner of Pitt Street with Garden Road), as well as some residential properties on Railway Place.