Sydney Town Hall is distinguished by its lavishly ornamented sandstone facade, featuring a prominent clock tower and steep mansard roofs characteristic of the French Second Empire style. Completed in stages between eighteen sixty-eight and…
Victorian Sydney Arcades
This walk connects Sydney's most opulent 19th-century shopping arcades and civic landmarks to show off the grand design of the city's gilded age.
Listen to this tour in the Mira app →Walk it in street view
1. Sydney Town Hall
2. Hong Kong House - Former "Gresham Hotel"
Hong Kong House stands at the corner of Druitt and York Streets, identifiable by its ornate Victorian Free Classical facade of red brick and decorative sandstone. Built in eighteen ninety-one and designed by architect Ambrose Thornley, the…
3. Queen Victoria Building
The Queen Victoria Building fills an entire city block in central Sydney, marked by a massive copper-sheathed central dome and twenty smaller surrounding domes. Opened in eighteen ninety-eight, this Romanesque Revival structure was…
4. Marble Bar
The Marble Bar is a subterranean room defined by its heavy, ornate use of marble, with one hundred tons of it sourced from Africa and Belgium covering the walls and pilasters. Hidden beneath the Hilton Sydney on George Street, this space…
5. The Strand Arcade
The Strand Arcade features a glass roof that spans three stories, casting light over a narrow concourse of tessellated ceramic tiles and cast-iron balustrades. Designed by English architect John B. Spencer, the building opened on April…
6. General Post Office Building (GPO) old
The General Post Office in Sydney stands as a massive, Victorian Italian Renaissance block of Pyrmont sandstone, defined by an arcade of arches that spans the length of Martin Place. Before the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Opera House rose…