One of the most pressing issues for the newly formed council was to find premises where it could hold regular meetings.  At Council’s second meeting held on 26 June 1860, it was resolved that Councillors Thompson and Gorman should investigate the securing of "the Iron House (Meymotts) for Council Chambers".  At their next meeting the councillors reported that "they had entered into an arrangement with Mr Nott and Mr Justice Wise for leasing Woodbine Cottage (the premises in which the Meeting were [sic] then assembled) as Council Chambers and Clerk and Surveyors residence, for two years’ at "a yearly rental of fifty two pounds".  

Woodbine Cottage, more commonly known as the Iron House, was situated near the corner of Edgecliff Road and Ocean Street on part of what is now Edgecliff Square. Randolph Nott, chairman of Woollahra Council in 1867, and Edward Wise, a judge on the Supreme Court, were both associated with the leasehold of the land upon which the Iron House stood. In about 1860 Wise became resident of the mansion Edgecliff House situated on Ocean Street on land he leased from the Point Piper Estate. The Iron House came to be part of his estate, presumably after Nott’s bankruptcy in 1861. According to the recollections of J. Arthur Dowling, the Iron House was "a galvanised iron cottage imported and put together by Randolph Nott, who had interests in the locality. Later it became the first Council Chamber of the new Borough of Woollahra".  

In 1862 Council renewed the lease to the Iron House and remained there until September the following year. From October meetings were held in temporary offices at the corner of Piper (later Queen) and Denison (later Holdsworth) Streets. Council moved into its newly built chambers at the junction of Ocean and Point Piper (later Jersey) Roads in February 1864.

Edgecliff House Flats replaced the Iron House in the 1930s.

After Woollahra Council vacated the Iron House, the dwelling became known as Edgecliff Cottage, described in the 1871 Woollahra assessments as a 9 roomed house built of wood and iron. Edgecliff House and the surrounding estate including Edgecliff Cottage, was eventually sold to William Chapman in 1936. Chapman had plans to subdivide the entire estate, and Edgecliff Cottage along with Edgecliff House, was demolished to make way for a new residential flat development. The flats built on the site of the original Iron House, known as Edgecliff House Flats, were designed by the architect T. Scott of Green & Scott and erected by 1938. Edgecliff House Flats was resumed in 1971 for the construction of the Eastern Suburbs Railway. Edgecliff Square was then formed on the site.