page_title: Queen Victoria Village
section_title: History of the site
hierarchical_section_title: Queen Victoria Village / History of the site
context_page_description: Queen Victoria Village, generally known as QV Melbourne or just QV, is a precinct in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Covering the city block bounded by Lonsdale, Little Lonsdale, Swanston, and Russell Streets, and located directly opposite the State Library of Victoria and Melbourne Central, QV comprises a large shopping centre, a central plaza, an underground food court, Melbourne central city's first full-size supermarket and apartment buildings.
  QV takes its name from the Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne which formerly occupied the site.
context_section_description: The site was originally the Melbourne Hospital, built in the 1840s-1860s as series of Tudor style buildings. The hospital was completely rebuilt on a much larger scale between 1910–1916 to a design by architect John James Clark in partnership with his son E J Clark. The hospital was composed of several 5-6 storey Edwardian pavilions or towers, running north–south, housing the ward blocks, each with open verandahs for patients to convalesce in the open air. Tudor domed cupolas topped the front corners of each tower. The hospital became the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1935, and moves began to relocate to a former pig market site in Parkville. The new hospital was completed in 1941, but was occupied as a military hospital during the war. The move finally took place in 1944, and the old buildings were then occupied by the Queen Victoria Hospital, established 'by women for women' in 1896.
  In 1986 with the pending relocation and amalgamation of the hospital, the site was to be redeveloped to house expansions of the State Library and Museum located on the block next door to the north, and a competition was held, with a condition being the preservation of the three towers.  One such design by post-modern architects Edmond & Corrigan included a giant pyramid as the new book stacks on Swanston Street.
  The hospital was closed in 1987, and the site was valued at A$63 million. During the financial squeeze of the early 1990s, it was eventually sold for only $15 million to property developer David Marriner in 1992. All but three of the hospital pavilions were demolished in the following years, with the final two that would have been preserved demolished in 1994 with a permit from then Planning Minister Rob Maclellan over-ruling the Historic Buildings Council.
  From 1996 the Swanston and Londsdale Street corner of the site was home to the YMCA managed Sailyards Skatepark, it was closed by Melbourne City Council in March 2001 and relocated to Boathouse Drive on the Yarra River in the city's Alexandra Gardens. During this time it also hosted a series of failed ventures, including a craft market and a mini golf course before becoming a simple carpark.
  Marriner sold-on the site (except for the remaining tower) to the country of Nauru, which owned several other sites in the city, notably Nauru House, for $50.3 million.
  As the site continued to remain relatively unused and abandoned in the centre of Melbourne's business district, it was called a "bloody disgrace" by then Premier Jeff Kennett. After Nauru struggled to pay for the empty block, it was returned to the Melbourne City Council in 1999, which announced plans to develop the site. Grocon was awarded the tender to develop a $600 million "urban village" on the site, with the remaining building to become the Queen Victoria Women's Centre.
caption: Cable tram dummy and trailer passing the QVH on route between Carlton and St Kilda in 1905.
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