Queen Victoria Market
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The Queen Victoria Market is a major landmark in Melbourne, Australia and is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Market is named after Queen Victoria who ruled the British Empire, including the Colony of Victoria, from 1837 to 1901. Starting as a small Market to the east of the city in 1850's, it gradually expanded to space made available from the closure of the old Melbourne Cemetery west of Queen Street and north of Franklin Street. The reinternment of human remains from the closure of the cemetery caused a great deal of controversy at the time. The Market was originally wholesale and retail fruit and vegetable, but has been retail since the wholesale market in Footscray Road was opened in 1969. The Queen Victoria Market is the only surviving 19th century Market in the Melbourne central business district.
The roof of the market is equipped with "the largest urban grid-connected solar photovoltaic installation in the Southern Hemisphere", generating 252,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year.
Today the Market is a tourist destination, offering fruit and vegetables, meat, poultry and seafood, gourmet and deli foods as well as specialty delicacies. It also has a large non-food related market selling a diverse range of things such as clothes, shoes, jewellery and handmade art and crafts.
The Market is open every day except Mondays and Wednesdays. On Wednesday evenings in the summer months, there is a night market which offers dining, bars, live entertainment and a variety of other stalls.
[edit] References
- Brown-May, Andrew & Swain, Shurlee (2005) The Encyclopedia Of Melbourne. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-84234-4
- Queen Victoria market solar energy
[edit] See also
- List of farmers' markets
