Queen Victoria Building Sydney

Built between 1893 and 1898, the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) is an iconic shopping destination in the heart of Sydney, Australia. Originally designed to replace the Sydney markets, the QVB housed a concert hall, coffee shops, showrooms, warehouses and a wide variety of tradespeople. Over time things changed, the concert hall became the city library, tenants left and others moved in. In the 1930’s the original Romanesque architecture was remodelled into the Art Deco style, while shop fronts were modified and internal galleries are floored over.

As the building aged it deteriorated until there were constant calls for its demolition from 1959 to 1971. Fortunately this did not occur and the building underwent a refurbishment and restoration from 1982. Original plans, drawings and photographs were not available, so this was an envisaged refurbishment, done to the best abilities of the architects.

Today with it’s floors and galleries restored it is a wonderful place to wander through, either browsing, shopping or eating.

Tour

We organised a tour through the building which takes visitors behind the scenes into places where the general public is not able to go. The guide gave a detailed history of the building explaining many of the design features.

One of the major features of the building is the copper clad domes on the roof. Dominated by the large central dome, there are also 20 smaller cupolas on the roof. We were able to go through a service door and see the interior of several domes, being able to view their timber structure. We were also able to walk on the roof, getting a close up look at the dome’s exterior.

The true beauty of the building though is the internal design, where the stained glass of the dome, ceiling and windows provide an amazing sight. Even the floor tiles are works of art and they are best viewed from one of the upper galleries. From here you not only get a get view of the interior, but a birds eye view of the tiles’ design.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to climb the spiral staircase that is a feature of the upper floor. Apparently it is unsafe to take a group of tourists up it. Instead, this old staircase that used to be for maintenance access is now just a decoration.

What Did We Think?

This was a great tour, where we got to go behind the scenes. Being able to see inside the domes and onto the roof was great. The knowledge of the guide was amazing, not only could they talk about the building and answer questions but were also able to keep a group of tourists all heading the same way so that we stayed on time.

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To see what else there is to do in New South Wales, please see some of our other stories.