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. and later the site was selected for the construction of "a marvellous centre of trade". 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 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."
Opening The building was officially opened on Thursday 21 July 1898. 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 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". and both the
City of Sydney Library and the Electricity Department were long-time occupants. 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. 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, 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: The building steadily deteriorated and in 1959 was again threatened with demolition. On 31 May 1971, the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Alderman
Emmet McDermott, leader of the Civic Reform Group, announced the building would be "preserved and restored to its original state". During the restoration a car park station was built under York Street. The building's restoration retained its exemplary features including the trachyte stairs,
tessellated tiled surfaces and column capitals and created a commercial establishment that houses high end fashion stores, cafés, and restaurants which reflect the original purpose of the building in the city of Sydney. The building reopened at the end of 1986 in time to catch the busy Christmas trading season. The work took almost four years to complete and included a new underground carpark, linking tunnels and a restored interior. As almost nothing of the original interior fabric was left intact the work largely involved reconstructing the details and atmosphere of the place. The completed project can be considered a sound commercial scheme, but not a true reconstruction. A museum approach to conserving the building was recognised by all authorities as being unworkable as the building would be empty and devoid of the life the restoration brief considered essential. By 2006, after successfully trading for twenty years, comprehensive plans were being prepared to conserve the exterior and refurbish the interior of the building to ensure the place was commercially viable as an ongoing retail complex. The major upgrade of the building's interiors were designed by the architectural firm Ancher Mortlock and Woolley in association with interior design firm Freeman Rembel and included installation of: This renovation was described by one architecture critic as an example of Sydney's tendency to "start with something wonderful then, with enormous care and expense, wreck it." The recent conservation and refurbishment approach has aimed to clarify the legibility between historic fabric and the new fabric which must be continually updated to ensure the building is viable as an ongoing commercial complex. After its successful refurbishment, the QVB was officially reopened by the Lord Mayor of Sydney
Clover Moore on 25 August 2009. == Description ==