Eastern Market, Melbourne

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Established in 1847 on the corner of Exhibition & Bourke Streets. The first incarnation of the Eastern Market was intended to be the city's principal fresh produce market, but it had been anticipated by the newly opened Queen Victoria Market, which quickly took over this role. The Eastern Market lived on as a flower market and as a rendezvous for the city's workers, promenaders and curiosity seekers. However, as Melbourne acquired more sophisticated amusements it was eclipsed in this role as well. Into its terminal decline in the 1950s, the Eastern Market retained a distinct flavour of sideshow raffishness; fortune tellers, test-your-strength machines, electric-shock therapists, tattoo artists, taxidermists and bric-a-brac dealers were among the last ghosts to desert it in the 20th Century.

The Market was demolished in 1962 and the Southern Cross Hotel was built on the site.

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