The Sorell School building on Somerville Street is one of the small but resonant pieces of colonial Tasmania: a single-storey sandstone schoolhouse, built in 1826, that has been used as a school every weekday since. The current school is bigger and surrounds the original block, but the 1826 building is still in everyday use as classroom space — a remarkable continuity for a country that is sometimes treated as new.
The building is a working school and is not open to casual visitors, but the exterior is best viewed from Somerville Street. Pause as you walk through the heritage precinct of central Sorell; the schoolhouse, the barracks, and St George's church together give the centre of town its character.