One of the most popular entries on this blog since its inception has been my entry on the 1959 proposal by Sydney City Council to demolish the Queen Victoria Building and replace it with a public square and underground carpark.
I mentioned in that entry that one supporter of its demolition was architect Harry Seidler and made reference to the 1970's when he called for a carpark to replace the building.
In that search for information on Harry Seidler and his advocacy for demolition, I had come across photos on the internet of a scanned newspaper article which in inital searches was undated - "Tear down this city horror". However one photograph taken of a pasted article from one of his scrap books had "Mirror 26/9/61" which was enough for me to locate the article which was featured in the September 26, 1961 edition of The Daily Mirror.
Below is a Microfische copy of the article.
What was Seidler's position?
Seidler told The Daily Mirror that the building was "an architectural monstrousity, a wasteful stuipd building". At the time, the building housed the Sydney County Council and construction had been halted on the building of its new offices at the corner of George and Bathurst Streets (not completed until 1968). He argued that there was a "desparate need" for a Civic Square and underground carpark in central Sydney.
Seidler had his supporters including Professor Denis Winston, Professor of Town and Country Planning at Sydney University who stated that "the time to act is now" along with Cr. W. Doherty, Chairman of the Sydney County Council.
How did Sydney City Council respond to the article?
Source: Anon. 1961. "Only a bomb will shift it". The Daily Mirror, September 27: 7.
The following day (September 27), Lord Mayor Harry Jensen, told The Daily Mirror that "insurmountable obstacles" had stopped the building from being demolished. The civic square could only be built if the Sydney County Council vacated the building. Construction had been halted on its purpose built headquarters at the corner of George and Bathurst Streets due to construction costs. The building was not completed until 1968.
Jensen believed that any Civic Square on the site of the QVB would be determined by future councils and not him.
Finally note this statement at the introduction to the article:
"...todays teenagers will probably be old men and women before they see the last of the building's clutter of columns, cornices and cuploas."
In 2021, the teenagers referred to in 1961 are now senior citizens. The QVB is here to stay following its restoration into a retail complex during the 1980's. This was opened in 1986 and 2021 is 35 years of retail trading at the QVB.
And the headline "Only a bomb will shift it" is true in itself.
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