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QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET

Other Names

VIC MARKET ,  QUEEN VIC MARKET ,  OLD MELBOURNE CEMETERY ,  Melbourne's first General Cemetery

Location

65-159 VICTORIA STREET MELBOURNE, MELBOURNE CITY

File Number

delete

Level

Registered

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
Queen Victoria Market including the land, buildings and structures (including the exteriors and interiors), roads, trees and historical archaeology.
How is it significant?
The Queen Victoria Market is of historical, archaeological, social, architectural and aesthetic significance to the State of Victoria.
Criterion A
Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria's cultural history.
Criterion C
Potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Victoria's cultural history.
Criterion D
Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places and objects.
Criterion G
Strong or special association with a particular present-day community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. 
Why is it significant?
The Queen Victoria Market is of historical significance as one of the great nineteenth century markets of Victoria and the only one surviving from a group of important central markets built by the corporation of the City of Melbourne. It has been in continual operation as a retail market since the 1870s. The Queen Victoria Market is of historical significance as the site of Melbourne's first official cemetery, which was in use between 1837 and 1854, and intermittently from 1854 until its final closure in 1917. [Criterion A]

The former cemetery site is of archaeological significance because it contains an estimated 6,500 to 9,000 burials. The site has the potential to yield information about the early population of Melbourne, including Aboriginal and European communities, and their burial practices and customs. [Criterion C]

The Queen Victoria Market is of architectural significance as a notable example of the class of produce market. It is a remarkably intact collection of purpose built nineteenth and early twentieth century market buildings, which demonstrate the largely utilitarian style adopted for historic market places combined with the later attempt to create a more appealing 'public' street frontage through the construction of rows of nineteenth century terrace shops along Elizabeth Street and Victoria Street. [Criterion D]

The Queen Victoria Market is of social significance for its ongoing role and continued popularity as a fresh meat and vegetable market, shopping and meeting place for Victorians and visitors alike. [Criterion G]

Group

Cemeteries and Burial Sites

Category

Cemetery/Graveyard/Burial Ground