Meaningful Retail Environment: Victorian-Style Houses In Sydney

Another meaningful retail environment is the strand arcade which was designed by English architect John Spencer and was one of the first Victorian-style buildings in Sydney. The plans of it were ambitious, “the arcade was to be 340 feet long, and three storeys high, running between Pitt street and George Street”.9 The strand arcade is influenced and inspired by the Burlington arcade which is a shopping arcade in London. It was one of the predecessors of the European shopping mall and modern shopping centres in the mid-19th century. The Burlington Arcade is mainly retail as it holds the fashionable demands and jewelry and is a new form of shopping designed to serve the growing middle classes.10 Based on following the mode, interior setup and

No detail was overlooked, even the toilets were described as being ahead of their time. The lighting was especially innovative as it was a combination of fittings designed by the architect. “The concourse was lit by two huge central chandeliers suspended from the crown of the roof trusses and having fifty gas jets and fifty electric lamps in each”.14 The lighting is a crucial factor of mastering the psychology of the consumer within its consumption. It is mentioned by “Mall Maker” whom conveyed the idea of Victor Gruen that strategic lighting could transform an ordinary store into what Gruen sensationally called “a machine for selling”.15 This also highlights the theory that the more time people spent enjoying themselves in the commercial environment, the more money they would spend. The early 1900s are remembered by people who travelled to the city from the suburbs especially to see the electric lights in the Strand Arcade which was known to be one of the first places in the city to be lit by electricity. There were also two Victorian states of the art hydraulic lifts.16 Above all, this interior design demonstrated that the Victorian style and delicate ideas held an important aura that attracted

However, the mall experienced two world wars, two depressions and two fires. As time went by, the arcade ran down gradually. Since the war and during the fifties the arcade had become quite run down until Prudential Assurance bought the arcade in 1974. Before being classified by the National Trust the structure had a questionable future. Officially the question was left unasked, but it is not difficult to imagine. “Would this place be more profitable if it was a high rise building or a multi-storey carpark or both?” However, 1974 saw the end of the arcade speculation about the arcade’s future. In that year it was given an “A” classification by the National Trust and bought by the prudential who began restoration work. The fire sparked debate about the future of the arcade so the painstaking process of rebuilding and restoration began until it was ready for a fashion parade in