Market City (facade- former Paddys Markets)

Statement of Significance

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Description

Assessed significance: Local

Item type: Built

Current use: Shopping Centre / Residential Accommodation

Former use: Markets / Car Park

Group: Commercial

Category: Market building

Designer/Maker:

Builder/Maker:

Construction Years: 1909 - 1910

Physical Description: 1909 and 1910 Edwardian functional brick facade still intact, including the tower on the south east corner of the block. Subsequent development includes modern shopping centre and residential tower.

Property Description

Address

Historic Notes and Themes

Historical notes: Soon after landfall at Sydney Cove in 1788, the civic centre of the new settlement developed around Circular Quay. To the west Cockle Bay (renamed Darling Harbour in 1826), divided the Pyrmont peninsula from the rest of the colony. Cockle Bay and Pyrmont were relatively unpopulated by Europeans until the middle of the 19th century, because these regions of Sydney were considered to be on the extremity of the main settlement, and in the case of Cockle Bay, the swampy land unsuitable for building on. At the time of European settlement in Australia, Cockle Bay stretched back towards the intersection of Sussex and Hay Streets. This part of Cockle Bay, later to be the site of the Paddy's Markets, was covered by water at high tides. However, from around 1813 onwards, the swampy marshlands of the Cockle Bay headwaters began to be dammed and used for industrial purposes. By 1815, John Dickson?s damming works at Cockle Bay led to the formation of a Mill Pond, which provided fresh water for Dickson?s Steam Mill constructed two years previously in 1813. The Mill Pond later serviced other steam mills in the area, including Barker?s Mill, erected in 1823. In May 1818, a twelve and three quarter acre allotment, which included the future site of Paddy's Markets, was grated to Surgeon John Harris. This was the final portion of land added to Harris's Ultimo Estate, which comprised 233 acres in total by this time. Four years after Harris's acquisition of this land, in 1822, reclamation works commenced in neighbouring Brickfield Hill area. By the late 1830s, Sydney was expanding, with the centre of burgeoning town moving southwards along George Street. This expansion and subsequent shifting of the town centre saw additional land reclamation in the Darling Harbour and Brickfield Hill areas from 1838. Pyrmont, Ultimo and Darling Harbour became increasingly industrialised at this time, with activity focused on flour milling, factories, breweries, foundries, shipping and sandstone quarrying. Industrialisation was accompanied by an increase in the residential population, who generally worked close to their workplaces. After Surgeon John Harris's death in 1838, the Ultimo Estate was willed to his brothers in Ireland, George and William, 'for their lifetimes', and on their deaths was then to be divided equally between their respective sons. The Ultimo Estate was not capitalised upon by the Harris family owning to the complications arising out of Harris's will, which meant that the bulk of the land here remained in the Harris family until the late 19th century. While some parcels of land from the Estate on George Street were subdivided and auctioned in the 1840s, and 14? acres of land resumed for a railway at Darling Harbour in the 1850s, the Harris family did not sell their land in the Haymarket area. One exception to this was the eastern portion of the Paddy's Market site that was sold to John Terry Hughes in 1838. Hughes established a flourmill there in 1845, first named for his business partner John Hoskins, and then renamed a number of times between 1845 and 1909 by (and for) its subsequent owners as the Victoria Steam Mill, Smart's Mill and Pemmell's Mill. For the most part, the Harris family never developed their land in the Haymarket area during the 19th century. Instead, they tended to lease out their land here, leaving the redevelopment of the Paddy's Market site in particular, to their lessees. James Stenson was the first lessee on the site in 1844. Although his lease was quite substantial in size, comprising 'the sites of the later 2-26 Engine Street and 82-84 Quay Street, as well as a 25 feet frontage to Hay Street', it appears that Stenson never developed this land. As industrialisation in the Haymarket area increased in the 1840s, a number of streets were gazetted and formalised, such as Victoria, Quay and Hay Streets (Victoria Street was renamed Engine Street in 1875). Housing was built on the reclaimed land in the Haymarket area from this time onwards, in order to provide accommodation for the new population of workers in local industries. Between 1845 and 1848, a row of eight joined terraces was constructed at 90-106 Victoria Street, named the Victoria Terrace. It is presumed that these houses provided accommodation for the workers at the Victoria Steam Mill. Other housing was erected on Victoria Street around this time, later numbered 14-18 Engine Street. Between the 1860s and the 1890s, Sydney underwent an economic boom. In these prosperous times, the population of Sydney grew substantially, which coincided with a shortage in rental accommodation. During this time, the Paddy's Market site, and Haymarket more generally, was a mix of residential accommodation and industries, such as factories, breweries, foundries and mills. More houses were constructed on the Paddy's Market site in the 1860s, including 28-30 Engine Street in c1862 and a row of joined terraces at 22-26 Engine Street in c1864 (GML & Thorp 1993: 73). It is estimated that around 20 terrace houses were located on the Paddy?s Market site, fronting Engine Street by 1865. For the most part, housing for working-class people living close to their industries in the Darling Harbour and Brickfield Hill areas.The Castlemaine Brewery constructed in 1869, and rebuilt in 1882, was to the rear of these houses on the other side of Mill Street and fronting Hay Street. The Tangyes Machinery Stores was adjacent to houses at 32-36 Engine Street, when it was established in c1887. Other industries on this block included McEwan & Co. Machinery Works (38-44 Engine Street), G. & C. Hosking's Ltd. Engineering Works (46-60 Engine Street) and the Victoria Steam Mill at 62-88 Engine Street (the official address was listed as 91-123 Hay Street). Presumably these industries would have provided a conveniently located source of work for people living on Engine Street, but the resultant smells, sounds and pollution would undoubtedly have had an impact on their olfactory and aural senses.At the turn of century, four acres of land surrounded by Ultimo and Thomas Streets to the southeast, Hay Street to the north and Quay Street to the west were selected by the City Council as the location for new markets to replace the nearby Belmore Markets on Campbell Street and to supplement the Queen Victoria Building Markets (QVBM) next to the Town Hall on George Street. This site was chosen for its proximity to the coastal shipping wharves and railway goods yards at Darling Harbour, and the recently constructed Central Railway on the site of the former burial grounds. As well, markets had operated in this vicinity from the late 1820s, including the cattle markets established in 1829 at Brickfield Hill, and the hay and corn markets, for which the area was named, in the early 1830s. Another factor influencing the decision to locate a market here was that this was one of the parts of Sydney affected by the outbreak of the Bubonic Plague in early 1900, and consequently earmarked for resumptions and clearance. After some deliberation, the houses, mills and workshops on the site were resumed by the City Council in 1908, and demolished a year later. Architect and City Building Surveyor R. H. Broderick was selected to design the two market buildings located here, the first of which was officially opened in 1909. The second market building was erected a year later. These markets soon became known as the Paddy's Markets: this was the name given to the informal, carnivalesque market located on the empty block opposite the Belmore Markets on Campbell Street during the 19th century. Paddy's Markets expanded to other sites in the surrounding Haymarket until 1938, when Market Building 6 was constructed. Between 1938 and 1975, the Market Buildings 1 and 2 were left empty, while the Paddy's Markets operated out of Market Building 6. Several development proposals were put forward for the Paddy's Markets site between the early 1970s and the late 1980s, including educational facilities and a convention centre. During this time, the owner of the site changed a number of times, including the Sydney Council, the Department of Education, the Department of Tourism and the Darling Harbour Authority (DHA). In 1989, the site owners, the DHA, released an Expression of Interest (EOI) to develop Paddy's Markets. Girvan were named the successful tenderer, with a scheme to develop the site as underground studios and a commercial tower, known as Studio City. In 1989, the market buildings were partially excavated and gutted for this development. When this scheme failed a year later, another proposal was put forward by Rockvale Pty Ltd to redevelop the site as a shopping centre topped with a residential tower. Prior to development, the Paddy's Market site was excavated between November 1990 and January 1991 by Godden Mackay Pty Ltd (now Godden Mackay Logan Pty Ltd [GML]) and Wendy Thorp for Jason Property Management on behalf of Rockvale Pty Ltd. This excavation revealed extensive structural remains and an assemblage comprising 100,000 artefacts. These artefacts were examined in the following months and all forms of evidence relating to the site-structural, artefactual and historical-was synthesised by GML and Thorp in their six-volume report for Rockvale Pty Ltd, issued in September 1993. The site was bulked excavated in the early 1990s and the new Market City development was opened in 1997.

Historical significance: Originally located at the southern extremity of Cockle Bay, which defined the western boundary of Sydney, during the 19th century, this precinct and the area around it developed an industrial character as the century progressed and the focus of the town expanded southwards. Part of a relatively early land grant to Surgeon John Harris, the area was subsequently subdivided and used for a variety of residential and industrial purposes before the market buildings were constructed in 1909 and 1910. Early industrialisation on the site included some of the first steam driven mills in Australia and the market buildings themselves were built in the area because of their proximity to the industrial and transportation area of Darling Harbour.

Historical association: The site is associated with John Harris and family, it was originally part of his land grant.

Aesthetic significance: Contribution to Streetscape and the Haymarket conservation area.

Social significance: The buildings contribute to Chinatown and are part of the cultural landscape of the Chinese community in Sydney since 1870.

Research significance: There are no extant archaeological remains due to construction of the shopping centre and residential tower behind the facades of the market buildings. There is no archaeological potential remaining.

Rare assessment: Paddy's markets are a rare example of continuously used commercial markets, dating to the early 20th century. It is the only remaining market complex in the area which formerly had numerous such buildings since the 1840s, and the area itself (Haymarket) takes its name from this use.

Representative assessment: The facades of the buildings are representative of Edwardian Functionalist architecture. They are representative of early 20th century large market buildings in the inner city and associated with the nearby port and railways of Darling Harbour.

Intact assessment: The facades of the buildings are all that exist of the original and is considered the reason for listing.

Physical condition: From its inception the Market building was essentially an open space between external walls and roof. In the redevelopment in the 1990s the walls were retained and a new building constructed within the footprint, incorporating the original walls. The original market hall space was retained, to continue its former use.As the site was archaeologically excavated below bedrock for the Market City development, all extant archaeological remains had to be removed. This meant that the archaeological excavation was embarked upon as an archival record as there would be no more of the site left to excavate (GML & Thorp 1993: 4, 27-28).One aim of the archaeological investigation was that the results would belong to the ?historic archive for this part of Sydney', which would also enable reanalysis of the site (GML 1993: 4). This historic archive comprises of the artefacts themselves as well as photographs of the excavations and the excavated areas, trench reports, drawings, plans, accumulated historical research and a final Archaeological Assessment Report.

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