On August 21, 1829, the first meeting of the Legislative Council occurred in what is now the Wentworth Room of the Parliament of NSW. The parliamentary building, then known as the Surgeon’s Quarters of the Rum Hospital, made rooms available to host the first Legislature in Australia. This marked the beginning of the building’s legislative function, which has continued to the present. 

On June 5, 1838, due to public pressure, the first members of the public were allowed in to observe council proceedings. By 1843, the Legislative Council had expanded, and moved their proceedings from the Wentworth Room to a new chamber that was constructed nearby. The Wentworth Room was converted into a committee room and then, in 1850, to a library and reading room. Doors into the Legislative Assembly chamber were added in 1893. In the late 1930s the Wentworth Room was partitioned into two small offices and a corridor. By 1945, two female members of the Legislative Assembly occupied the offices. Occupancy then changed to administrative staff, Members and office holders.  

In 2011, restoration of the room revealed the original Georgian sash windows with wood panelling and the glass mostly intact, hidden behind a false wall. The restorers also uncovered original wall decorations imitating wood panelling under the modern wallpaper, presumably from 1829 when the Legislative Council first moved in.  

The room was named in 2013 in honour of two prominent Australians: Principal Surgeon D’Arcy Wentworth, one of the contractors of the Rum Hospital and his son William Charles Wentworth, explorer, journalist, landowner, statesman and advocate for parliamentary democracy in NSW who played a leading role in drafting a constitution for New South Wales granting the colony self-government in 1855. 

The Wentworth Room has now returned to its original proportions by raising the ceiling to the original height, levelling the floor with new flooring and installation of improved lighting, and new air conditioning. The conservation has enabled the original window shutters to be used once again. In 2023, a window was fully revealed after being bricked over for decades. The Wentworth Room is now used for meetings and events.