Queen Victoria Building

The Queen Victoria Building (QVB) occupies an entire block on Sydney's George Street, and has over 180 of Sydney's finest fashion boutiques, jewellery shops and home wares, accompanied by delightful cafes and restaurants.

The grand building, built in the 1890s was erected as a Municipal Market on the scale of a Cathedral. The QVB was beautifully restored and re-opened in 1986, and quickly became Sydney's most popular and prestigious shopping centre.

The building was first opened at the end  of the 19th century, but 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 in 1910. In 1915 and 1916 the building was described as a "municipal white elephant' .

In 1913 a decision to re-model was arrived at over the options to demolish or sell.  Although it had been accepted that nothing could be done until after the First World War, in 1917 the Council accepted a tender for alterations to the building.

Between 1934 and 1938 some areas were remodelled in an Art Deco style.  The building steadily deteriorated and in 1959 was threatened with demolition.  Proposals to replace the building which many saw as "overdue for demolition" included ones for a fountain, a plaza and a car park.

The debate extended from whether or not the building should be demolished to what uses it could be made to serve if preserved and a campaign to preserve it ensued and on 31 May 1971, the Lord Mayor of Sydney announced the building would be restored.

The Queen Victoria Building was restored between 1984 and 1986 by the Malaysian Company, Ipoh Ltd (now owned by the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore), at a cost of $86 million, under the terms of a 99-year lease from the City Council and now contains mostly upmarket boutiques and "brand-name" shops.

The restoration 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.

Between 2008 and 2009, Ipoh performed a further $48 million refurbishment adding new colour schemes and shop fronts, glass signage, glazed balustrades and escalators connecting ground, first and second levels.