Markets

This collection contains a small selection of archives relating to key markets and market related spaces in the Sydney local area. 

Market places were the civic and commercial heart of the city. Produce – fruit, vegetables, butchered meat, poultry, dairy products and other goods – are brought and sold, both retail and wholesale. Because of this retail activity, the market place was the place where people gathered, to trade and to socialise and be entertained.

Sydney’s first markets were at Circular Quay, but in 1810 Governor Macquarie relocated them west along George Street, on the present site of the Queen Victoria Building. This site was close to the wharves at Darling Harbour, and goods transported by boat were unloaded at the Market Wharf.

The George Street Markets (also known as Central Markets) provided undercover stalls that traders could lease to sell their produce. They were regulated from the City Council from the time it was formed in 1842.

As the George Street Markets occupied prime retail land, there was soon pressure to move them from the city centre. 

The Haymarket district of Sydney was named for the hay and corn markets that operated here from the early 1830s. The City Council officially established produce markets on Campbell Street in 1869, named Belmore Markets. These were replaced by a new markets building on the present site of the Capitol Theatre, in 1893 which were officially named for the Mayor, Sir W P Manning. In practice, they were generally referred to as the ‘New Belmore Markets’ while the original Belmore Markets were known as the ‘Old Belmore Markets’.

In the late 1890s, the George Street Markets were torn down and replaced with the Queen Victoria Building. New fruit and vegetable markets (City Markets) were established in the early 20th century, closer to the coastal shipping wharves at Darling Harbour and the associated railway goods line and yards. In 1976, the Sydney Markets moved to Flemington and the market buildings were redeveloped for other uses, although one of the original buildings remains home to Paddy’s Markets.

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