SYDNEY WHITE ELEPHANT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1503, 27 July 1912, Page 6

SYDNEY WHITE ELEPHANT.

A NEW USE FOR QUEEN VICTORIA MARKETS. ' Bγ TeleeraDh— Press Association-Oopyriirlit Sydney, July 26. A proposal has been mooted that the New South Wales Government should purchase tho Queen Victoria Markets and utilise tho building as an underground railway station. Mr. Hay (the English expert who roported on the means of dealing with the city's congested traffic) considers tho markets an ideal site. These markets have involved the City Council in a loss of £170,000 in twenty years.

A COSTLY PILE. The Queen. Victoria Markets are not markets in the ordinary sense of tho word. They are, as a matter of fact, a magnificent pilo of buildings "occupying the whole ot a central city block en tho Darling Harbour side of George Street, next to the Sydney Town Hall. Originally it was iutended by the council that the building should be utilised for tho disposal of perishable goods, but the idea did not commend itself to those engaged in tho .trade, and the public, did not show any marked disposition to transfer their patronage from accustomed haunts to tho new ond palatial structure. So gradually the shops within the Markets were either vacated or rents wero reduced, and t in short the place became a hnge white elephant on tho hands of tho Sydney City Council. At one time prizes were offered for the best suggestion as to how to maketho building pay, and though many; were received none of them was considered practicJiblo enough , to be put into operation. Tho shops on the George Street frontago have always let fairly well, but they have not produced the rents which shops on the opposite side of George Street command. In a word, the Markets are on tho wrong side of the widest part of George Street, and tho_ pedestrian traffic on the Markets' sido is not a titho of what it is on the opposite eido of the way. An arcade runs right through tho building from end to end, parallel to George Street, but as it doe 3 not connect two busy streets the through traffic is insignificant. A few mrfnths ago there was some talk of tho building Iteing acquired for Commonwealth Post Office purposes, but since that time tho Federal Government has proposed to acquire the whole of Ihe block on which the Sydney Post Office stands. A year ago Mr. William AnderRon inado a proposition to the council for the conversion of tho Town Hall end of the Markets into a theatre, but though the offer was seriously considered, an arrangement satisfactory to both parties could not be arranged.

The building has a frontanro to both. George and York Streets of CIO feet, nnd to.Market and Drnitt Streets of 100 feet resnectivoly. It consists of a basement and three stories. Thern are a number of towers rifini? to n height of 100 feel, and a crowning dome which ."oars to ifiO fe°t. The. construction wa = bpmin in IS!). , ), the total cost being .Kβ! ,000.