Queen Victoria Building

The Queen Victoria Building fills a full city block on George Street, built in 1898 as a produce market in a Romanesque Revival style, with a central copper dome, arcaded galleries, stained glass and tiled floors, all executed at a scale meant to give work to tradesmen during a depression. By the 1950s it was run down and repeatedly threatened with demolition for a car park; a restoration in the 1980s brought it back as a shopping centre. Two unusual clocks hang in the well: the Royal Clock, which plays scenes from English royal history on the hour, and the Great Australian Clock, a six-tonne piece showing Australian history from both Aboriginal and European perspectives.

History

The council of the City of Sydney has held the site since 1842, when it was already a market place, its first building a simple storehouse put up by Gregory Blaxland, and Francis Greenway once imagined it as a grand civic square under Governor Macquarie. George McRae, a Scottish architect who had come to Sydney in 1884, offered four designs in different styles, and the council chose the Romanesque one, built from 1893 to 1898 with domes made by Ritchie Brothers; it was added to the state heritage register on 5 March 2010 (Wikipedia, Queen Victoria Building).

What to look for

• The central dome - copper and glass above the full-height galleries.
• The mechanical clocks - the Royal Clock and the Great Australian Clock on the hour.
• The tiled floors and stained glass - restored Victorian detailing throughout.
• The arcaded galleries - three levels of shops around the open well.

When to go

Year-round; it is a covered building, so it works in rain and summer heat alike. The clocks perform on the hour, and Christmas brings a large tree under the dome. Weekday mornings are quietest.

Before you go

It is a working shopping centre, and the retail is mainstream and expensive; the architecture is the reason to come. Crowds and noise build through the day, and photographing the dome without people is nearly impossible.

Nearby

Sydney Town Hall is across the road; the Strand Arcade lies a block north.

Key facts