St John's College is perhaps the grandest Gothic Revival building in New South Wales. Designed by one of England's (and Australia's) foremost ecclesiastical architects of the mid-19th century, it is unique in Sydney collegiate architecture in its combination of scale, quality and construction. A rare realisation of Pugin's ideal Catholic college (and in turn based on Magdalen College, Oxford), it demonstrates the influence of Pugin on the work of William Wardell. It is a notable example of the period when Pugin's insistence on archaeological accuracy was giving way to the more eclectic influences of the High Victorian generation.