Haymarket still smells like a market even when you’re only cutting through to Chinatown — fruit crates, discount jeans, the Saturday crush on Campbell Street. Paddy’s Markets take their name from a long Sydney habit of popular evening and weekend trading. In 1834 Governor Richard Bourke moved cattle, hay and grain markets to Campbell Street and created the district still called Haymarket. Around those official yards a fringe of food sellers, second-hand dealers and Saturday-night stallholders grew up; allowing late Saturday trading is widely treated as the start of the Paddy’s-style market culture locals later named after similar “Paddy’s” markets in Britain.

By the later nineteenth century the Campbell Street / Haymarket site was as much farm-produce and popular market as hay yard. Buildings were rebuilt and stalls relocated several times. When wholesale markets shifted to Flemington in 1975, a Paddy’s retail market was retained there — and the Haymarket Paddy’s also continued, remaining a Chinatown landmark rather than vanishing with the wholesale trade.

Todays Campbell Street / Haymarket Paddy’s is still a working market precinct within Sydney Markets’ operations, even as individual buildings and tenancies change.

Paddy’s Markets in Haymarket take their name from a long Sydney tradition of popular evening and weekend trading. In 1834 Governor Richard Bourke moved cattle, hay and grain markets to Campbell Street, creating the district still called Haymarket. A fringe of food sellers, second-hand dealers and Saturday-night stallholders grew up around those official markets; allowing late Saturday trading is widely treated as the beginning of the Paddy’s-style market culture that locals later named after similar Paddy’s” markets in Britain.

By the later nineteenth century the Campbell Street / Haymarket site was as much a farm-produce and popular market as a hay yard. Market buildings were rebuilt and stalls relocated several times (including moves associated with Belmore markets and twentieth-century market halls). When wholesale markets shifted to Flemington in 1975, a Paddy’s retail market was retained there — and the Haymarket Paddy’s also continued, remaining a Chinatown landmark rather than disappearing with the wholesale trade.

Today’s Campbell Street / Haymarket Paddy’s is still a working market precinct within Sydney Markets’ operations, even as individual buildings and tenancies change. Photographs here document the Haymarket market presence on Campbell Street.

Paddy’s Markets - Campbell Street - Haymarket - Sydney - New South Wales