Queen Victoria Building

Our latest trip into the city took us the the Art Gallery of New South Wales to see a traveling exhibition from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Lots of really great paintings on display. I must say it was way better than the MONA in Hobart. That was just weird.

Afterwards, we headed to the Queen Victoria Building. On the way we passed the Unknown Street Performer.



The Queen Victoria Building was built in the late 1880's as a marketplace. After going through several lives, it was remodeled near the end of the 20th century to restore it to full Victorian glory.

The escalators have reflective bottoms making for an interesting scene. You can look up and down at the same time. There are 5 floors in the building and the center is open all the way.

At one end is the clock you see below. It tells the date and time and has scenes of British Empire conquest of Australia around it.

There is a cafe bed low us dishing out coffees an pastries.

Among the glories of the place are the stained glass windows. These remind me of the windows in Waterloo Station in London.

At the other end of the mall is a different clock hanging from the ceiling.

At the top of it is a castle. the other clock is seen in the distance.

Here's a close up of the other one showing a particularly horrid scene of someone (I presume to be a convict) being beaten while tied to a frame.

One the way home, the double-decker trains coming through Town Hall Station (connect to Queen Victoria Building underground) have people flagging the train driver. This seems to be how Australian tell the driver to close the doors, everyone is on-board.

I'm not sure I'd want this job...crushed by people all day, enveloped by noise, and never a rest from the trains.