Queen Victoria Building

We have completed a number of heritage impact statements for shop fit outs and change of use development applications within the historic Queen Victoria Building and love being a part of the history of this historic and beautiful building.

The Queen Victoria Building is an outstanding example of the grand retail buildings from the Victorian-Federation era in Australia, which has no known equal in Australia in its architectural style, scale, level of detailing and craftsmanship. Saved from demolition in the 1980s, and restored to its original glory, the Queen Victoria Building is an iconic heritage building of Sydney and Australia.

Dating from 1898, the Queen Victoria Building represents Australia’s largest and grandest Victorian arcade, as well as the largest, most monumental and most intact of the market buildings of Sydney City. The site of the Queen Victoria Building has continued to operate as a market facility for over 190 years, which is a significant historical continuum. The Queen Victoria Building is a superb example of the Federation Romanesque style, also known as the American Romanesque style and a continuation of the Victorian Romanesque style. It represents possibly the largest and finest example of the American Romanesque style to be constructed in Australia, demonstrating the influence of the prominent 19th Century American architect, Henry Hobson Richardson, in Australia during this period. The building expresses an ambitious use of building technology, excellent craftsmanship and decorative detailing. Both the building exteriors and interiors are remarkable and outstanding for their quality, workmanship, materials, richness, imagery and style. The Queen Victoria Building also represents an important building in the professional work of the prominent City Architect, George McRae (later, the NSW Government architect) and has an outstanding ability to reflect through its aesthetics and scale, the planning strategies of the City Architect for Sydney during the late 19th Century.

The Queen Victoria Building represents an important shift in heritage consciousness in Sydney during the 1980s because of the public outcry that brought about its conservation and, in particular, the historical restoration approach taken for its refurbishment. It also reflects, through its building development concessions, the importance of heritage conservation in more recent government strategies.

At the time of its restoration by the 1980s, few original internal features remained such as some column capitals, trachyte stairs and some tessellated tile surfaces. The present interiors of the building demonstrate an interpretive reconstruction from the 1980s intended to recreate the imagery of a grand Victorian style arcade with considerable concessions made to ensure the place was commercially viable as an ongoing retail shopping centre.

The Queen Victoria Building is a major landmark of Sydney, occupying a full city block, allowing it to be viewed in the round, and forming a major pedestrian link of Sydney City, both at ground level and underground. It makes a significant contribution to the streetscape of the four main streets of the City centre that encircle the building. The building also forms one of the precinct of three key Victorian buildings exemplifying ecclesiastical, government and commercial architecture in Sydney, together with St Andrews Cathedral and Sydney Town Hall. The Queen Victoria Building and these Victorian buildings have a strong presence as the centre of Sydney City.

How we helped with the projects

We were first engaged by a regular client of ours to help with the statement of environmental effects and heritage report for the fitout of a retail store and loved researching the history of the building and finding out that the beautiful building was once proposed to be demolished.  Since that first project we completed we have been engaged by many other new outlets within the complex to assist with their heritage and town planning reports and have been lucky to continue to work on this famous landmark.

How we can help your next project?

We love helping our clients get their developments approved by providing expert statement of environmental effects, heritage impact statements and more for the Council development applications. If you need assistance with your project, simply fill out the form below and we will be in touch.