A marketplace has operated in central Sydney since the early 1800s. Toward the end of that century, Scottish architect William Priestly MacIntosh was tasked with creating a grand replacement. He selected a Richardsonian Romanesque style made popular during the mid-19th century by Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson. The Queen Victoria Building opened in 1898 as a magnificent Victorian arcade. In the center of the 620 foot market is a copper dome flanked on either side by marble statuary created by William Priestly MacIntosh. This version along George Street is called the “Guardian Genius of the City.”