Queen Victoria Market is one of Melbourne's most visited tourist attractions and one of our most loved local icons. Trading continuously since 1878, the Market’s seven hectare site is in the heart of our growing City North district, and is an important cultural and economic centre. It houses around 820 businesses, employing more than 2000 people and attracts more than 10 million visitors a year.
As custodians of the Queen Victoria Market, the City of Melbourne has its long term viability and success front of mind. We are developing a comprehensive program of renewal that will ensure Queen Victoria Market’s ongoing success as a working, trading market.
The City of Melbourne is committed to preserving its heritage and place as a traditional working market, ensuring it can compete in a rapidly changing retail and leisure environment.
The City of Melbourne has been thinking about the future of the market for some time now. We have identified some improvements to help maintain the market’s position.
We are committed to undertaking an extensive community engagement process where traders, market shoppers, local residents and visitors can contribute to discussions about renewal.We have lots of ideas, but our main goal is quite simple: to maintain an important working market in the heart of the city.
To do this we need to consider:
- upgrading the site and facilities for traders and customers such as cool rooms, waste disposal units and loading docks
- improvements to retail areas including better lighting and signage
- public spaces for market events and community gatherings
- traffic connections and parking
- making it easier to walk around
Last year, we asked traders about which aspects of the market are working well and where improvements could be made. Many ideas were raised and we now have a clear understanding of our joint priorities.
We have started to explore how we can achieve these priorities. We understand from traders that customer’s ability to conveniently access the market is critical to the market’s success, and car parking is one of many areas that require improvement. Any proposal that removes parking from the existing customer car park will only proceed if it can be replaced in an alternative, improved location.
The City of Melbourne appreciates the significant community interest in the market’s future and we remain committed to keeping people informed, including outlining opportunities for community engagement at the appropriate time.
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