Sydney Markets

Traders gathering at the wharves on ration day quickly took on the appearance of an organised
market, and became the social and economic hub of the colony. As the town expanded, the marketplace moved westward along George Street, settling on the present-day site of the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) in 1810.

From the 1840s, a ‘Paddy’s Market’ existed in the Haymarket, near the Campbell Street cattle market.

Late trading on Saturday nights encouraged a public promenade along George Street between the
market sites. Redevelopment of the QVB site into a palatial arcade in the 1890s saw the Sydney Markets permanently relocated outside the CBD, first to Haymarket (1910) and later to Flemington (1974).