- Address: 455 George St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia;
- Website: qvb.com.au;
- Phone: +61 2 9265 6800;
- Open: on weekdays - from 9 to 18 hours, on weekends - from 10 to 16
The building of Queen Victoria is one of the most majestic structures of Sydney . It rises in the business center of the city and attracts thousands of tourists who want to enjoy unsurpassed architecture and amazing hours that show off scenes from Australian history.
Now in this building is one of the largest shopping centers of the country with a lot of shops and boutiques, original cafes.
History of construction
The building became a kind of symbol of the reign of Queen Victoria - it was to her 60th anniversary, celebrated in 1897, it was decided to erect the structure. The project was worked by the Scottish architect J. MacRae. However, the construction was completed only one year after the queen's anniversary.
The building was erected on the site of the old market, called the place of its location - Market Street. Georg. By the way, the new building just had to become the walls for the bazaar. Initially, it even received an appropriate name - the Queen Victoria Market. And only 20 years after its discovery was given a new name - the Queen Victoria Building. Apparently, the Australians considered that the word market and the royal title do not "get along well" with each other.
Features of interior decoration
Initially, the project provided for four options for the interior design of the building:
- in the style of Queen Anne;
- in the Renaissance style;
- in the Romanesque style;
- in the Gothic style.
However, in the end, we decided on a perfect combination of styles and directions under the name of the Federal Romanesque.
Note that the construction was not easy, because in those years, Sydney was in decline. To give the city an external gloss, at least visually show that not everything is so bad, and chose a magnificent version of the design. Moreover, he gave an opportunity to attract as many different workers as possible, not only physical work, but also arts - artists, sculptors, and others.
The main attraction of the building is the dome, whose diameter reaches twenty meters. It consists of two layers:
- inner completely glass;
- outer - made of copper.
Under the dome is set Christmas spruce.
In addition to the dome inside the building today you can admire the incredible stained glass windows, a unique, fabulous staircase, now part of the top ten most beautiful staircases on the whole planet. And in general, the architecture strikes a variety: balustrades, chic columns, colorful arches. A strong and bright tile is laid on the floor.
Unique watches
In the Queen Victoria Building there are two hours. The first of them were delivered from the UK and called the Royal Clock. They say that the watch dial, created by Neil Glasser, is an exact copy of the famous Big Ben.
But it is not the Royal Clock, but the Great Australian, that not only show time, but also show scenes from the history of the island state, are not particularly attractive.
Chris Cook worked on their creation, and the total weight of the watch reaches four tons! They were established relatively recently - only in 2000 year. Among the variety of scenes shown by these ten-meter hours, it is worth highlighting:
- the life of aborigines before the arrival of European settlers;
- the appearance of European travelers and settlers;
- travel through the Blue Mountains;
- the battle of 1861;
- the opening of the parliament;
- the return of soldiers from World War II.
How to get there?
The building of Queen Victoria is located at Sydney, George Street, 455. You can get here by train (Town Hall Station) or on a monorail (Victoria Gallery Station). There are also buses №412, 413, 422, 423, 426, 428, 431, 433, 436, 438, 439, 440, 470, 500 and 501 - you need to go to the station of the Queen Victoria building.
The entrance to the shopping center is free. Working hours are from 9 to 18 hours on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, from 9 to 21 hours on Thursday and from 11 to 17 hours on Sunday.
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