The Queen Victoria Building (QVB) is a heritage-listed late-19th-century building located at 429–481 George Street in the Sydney central business district, in the Australian state of New South Wales. Designed by the architect George McRae, the Romanesque Revival building was constructed between 1893 and 1898 and is wide by long. The domes were built by Ritchie Brothers, a steel and metal company that also built trains, trams and farm equipment. The building fills a city block bounded by George, Market, York, and Druitt streets. Designed as a marketplace, it was used for a variety of other purposes, underwent remodelling, and suffered decay until its restoration and return to its original use in the late twentieth century. The property is co-owned by the City of Sydney and Link REIT, and was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 5 March 2010.
History
Site and precursors The site has been under the control of the council of the City of Sydney since 1842, when Sydney Town was incorporated. It was previously the location for municipal markets, the first of which, a "simple storehouse", was put up by Gregory Blaxland. Under Governor Macquarie's leadership, it was subsequently envisaged as a "grand civic square" by architect Francis Greenway. In the 1830s, "four substantial stone halls" were built to the design of Ambrose Hallen and later the site was selected for the construction of "a marvellous centre of trade".
Design
The building, on the "scale of a cathedral" was designed by George McRae, a Scottish architect who had emigrated to Sydney in 1884. At the time, Sydney was undergoing a building boom and since in architecture "no one school or style predominated", McRae produced four designs for the building in different styles (Gothic, Renaissance, Queen Anne and Romanesque) from which the council could choose. The council's choice of Victorian Romanesque style conveys the influences of American architect Henry Hobson Richardson. The use of columns, arches, and a prodigal amount of detail such as was used by McRae in the chosen design are typical of Richardsonian Romanesque, an eclectic style identifiably established between 1877 and 1886. The dominant feature of the building is the central dome which consists of an interior glass dome and a copper-sheathed exterior, topped by a domed cupola. Smaller domes of various sizes are on the rooftop, including ones on each upper corner of the rectangular building. Stained-glass windows, including a cartwheel window depicting the arms of the City of Sydney, allow light into the central area, and the roof itself incorporates arched skylights running lengthways north and south from the central dome. The colonnades, arches, balustrades and cupolas are of typically intricate Victorian style.
The site, an entire city block, had previously been occupied by a produce market and the Central Police Court. These uses ceased in 1891 and the land was purchased by Sydney City Council. The Australasian Builder and Contractors' News described the four designs in July 1893 as "scholarly Renaissance", "picturesque Queen Anne", "classic Gothic" and "American Romanesque". The style chosen was the last and the foundation stone was laid in December 1893 by the Mayor, Sir William Manning. This foundation stone was a five-tonne block of granite, levered and lowered into position at the corner of George and Druitt streets. The ceremony was the first of a series in which successive mayors laid stones and plaques to mark the progress of construction. The building was notable for its employment in the expansive barrel-form roof of engineering systems which were very advanced at the time of construction. McRae is considered by architectural historians to have been one of the leading protagonists of the new construction methods and materials which were then beginning to break down the conservatism of building techniques. In achieving the strength and space of the building McRae used steel, iron, concrete, reinforcing, machine-made bricks, glass, imported tiles, fire-proofing, riveting and hydraulics on an unprecedented scale. The huge building was finally completed and opened with great ceremony by Mayor Matthew Harris on 21 July 1898. Harris said that the building was intended to be more than a municipal market. "With judicious management", he said, "a marvellous centre of trade will be established here."
Naming In 1897, the council resolved to "dedicate the new market buildings", then still under construction, to Queen Victoria and to name them The Queen Victoria Market Buildings in commemoration of her Diamond Jubilee:
The councillors decided not to ask for the Queen's assent, in part because it would have made it "necessary to have the Royal Coat of Arms on the building". After the markets originally held in the building were relocated in 1910, the name was amended in 1918 to "Queen Victoria Buildings". Finally, in 1987, the council rescinded the 1918 resolution and named it the "Queen Victoria Building".
Construction The building was constructed between 1893 and 1898 by the Phippard Brothers (Henry, born 1854 and Edwin, born 1864), "the leading building contractors of Sydney", whose quarries at Bowral and Waverley supplied the trachyte and sandstone respectively.
Opening
The building was officially opened on 21 July 1898. and provided a business environment for tailors, mercers, hairdressers, florists and coffee shops as well as showrooms and a concert hall. In the evening there was a grand ball for more than a thousand guests held in the adjacent Town Hall. at which the then Lord Mayor of Sydney, Matthew Harris, made a speech that reflected "faith in the future, the great theme of the Victorian age of optimism", by saying:
The Druitt Street entrance was opened by the Lady Mayoress using a commemorative solid gold key on which was a model of the main dome and the smaller cupolas, "worth a good deal more than £50", made by Fairfax and Roberts and presented by the Phippard Brothers. The building was illuminated by about 1,000 Welsbach incandescent burners, equal in lighting power to about 70,000 candles, producing "floods of light" that even in the basement was judged to be "perfect".
Early uses A public lending library was planned as early as 1899 and both the City of Sydney Library and the Electricity Department were long-time occupants.
Mei Quong Tart's tearoom, Elite Hall, was formally opened by the Mayor of Sydney, Matthew Harris, in 1898. The tea rooms were on the ground floor near the centre of the markets, fronting George Street. A plush-carpeted staircase led to the function hall on the first floor. The Elite Hall had capacity for nearly 500 people and included a stage with an elaborately carved proscenium. At the other end was the Elite Dining Saloon, described as having 'elegant appointments'.
Subsequent uses
The original concept was for an internal shopping street -long with two levels of shops on either side. In 1917 and 1935 alterations converted the interior to office space with shops to the external street frontages.National Trust of Australia
In the first few decades the QVB had the atmosphere of an oriental bazaar, and the earliest tenants conducted a mixture of commerce, crafts and skills. There were shops, studios, offices and workrooms for some two hundred traders, dealers and artisans. Housed within the upper galleries were more studious and scholarly tenancies, such as bookshops, sheet music shops, piano-sellers and piano-tuners, as well as the salons of private teachers of music, dancing, singing, elocution, painting, sculpting, drawing and dressmaking. There were also more decorous sports including a billiards saloon, a gymnasium for ladies and a table tennis hall.
The building was heavily criticised in the early years of its operation due to its poor financial return. Original real estate advice indicated the building could pay for itself from rents received, within thirty years. The first few years were slow. In 1898 only 47 out of about 200 available spaces were tenanted. This improved by the following year with another 20 tenants joining the list. By 1905, there were 150 tenants, but it was not until 1917 that the building was reaching its maximum tenancy rate. Up until that time there was a continual shortfall between the costs to Council and the rents received and Council was constantly looking at ways of improving its return.
Early-20th-century alterations As early as 1902, the City Council was worrying about the building being a "non-paying asset and handicap". In ensuing years various schemes for selling, remodelling and/or demolition were proposed and reports produced. The markets originally held in the building were relocated to Haymarket in 1910. In 1912 it was described as an "incubus" and in 1915 and 1916 as a "municipal 'white elephant'". In 1913 a "decision to re-model was arrived at by 10 votes to 9" over the options to demolish or sell. Although it had been accepted that nothing could be done until after the war, in 1917 the council accepted a tender for alterations to the building.
A remodelling scheme was finally adopted by Council in May 1917. McLeod Brothers were awarded the contract for the work in June 1917 at a cost of . The following alterations were undertaken:
Removal of posted awning and replacement with a modern cantilevered awning with a lined soffit. Removal of the internal arcade on the ground floor producing shops running continuously from George to York Street. The gallery space was extended on the first floor reducing the void space and the remaining void covered over with a coloured leadlight ceiling (indicated on the drawings as lanterns) so that some light was available to the centre of the ground floor shops. The tiled floor was covered with concrete and timber obliterating the circular pavement lights. Removal of the entrance from Druitt Street to create one large shop with frontages to three streets. A new entrance was cut into the York Street side, to provide an entrance to the stairs and lift at the Druitt Street end of the building. New shopfronts were provided to the George Street facade. This work involved boxing in the trachyte columns behind showcases. The line of the shopfronts was extended out past the line of columns and a new marble and plate glass shopfront installed. Leaded glass panels were installed above the transom line, below the awning. The original coloured glass highlight panels were removed and clear glass panels in steel frames installed. The stall-board lights under the shopfronts were also removed, but some new pavement lights were installed to compensate. The original timber and glass shopfronts along George Street were re-erected to the shops in York Street providing additional street entrances from York Street, as the market activity in the basement no longer continued. New bathroom facilities were provided on a new mezzanine level along York Street. One passenger lift in the southern lift core was cut out and a new stair to the basement level installed. One lift in the northern stair lobby was cut out and the lift removed. A new goods lift was inserted near the central entrance on the York Street side. The void space under the central dome was infilled with a new passenger lift. Two of the cart lifts to the basement along York Street were removed and the resultant space formed into shops The galleries on the first and second floors were cantilevered seven feet out into the void space and the shopfronts moved forward seven feet to increase the available floor space in the tenancies. The first floor void area above the entrance at the Druitt Street entrance was formed into a room by inserting a new floor. The small passage serving the rooms along the first and second floor, at the Druitt Street end was removed increasing the floor space.