When the new Sydney Fish Market opened last month after years of cost blowouts, squabbles and delays, the state government hailed the $836 million site as the “Opera House for fish”, the “best smelling fish market in the world”, and the harbour’s third crown jewel alongside the white sails and the bridge.
But has the long-awaited facility established itself as an unmissable, must-visit Sydney icon? Or is it still in its honeymoon phase? As the dust settles following the ribbon-cutting a few weeks ago, the Herald returned to Blackwattle Bay to discover whether it is meeting expectations.
Seating, shade and seagulls
While the fish market was still far from its capacity of 5000 visitors on the retail floor, by mid-morning on an overcast Tuesday, it was teeming with people.
Visitors demonstrated a preference for sitting at the shaded outdoor dining tables over the wooden and concrete steps dotted with seagull and ibis faeces. Only once the tables were taken did people start spilling onto the steps, which are also more open to the elements.
Amanda Saw said her first visit to the fish market had fallen short of expectations. Online videos, she said, had made the space seem more grand.
“There’s not enough seats, chairs and toilets. But the outdoor seating is nice. People can enjoy their food here and at the same time can enjoy the beautiful view,” she said.
Parking pressure
While the new site is expected to attract double the number of visitors of the old site, it has the same number of parking spaces, 400, which has come under scrutiny.
Attendants at the underground car park said the spots are usually filled by noon, but even earlier on sunnier days. Parking is free for the first 20 minutes, after which visitors are charged a minimum of $12 and a maximum of $90, for 24 hours. There is a $15 flat rate after 5pm.
Asa Wahlquist, from the Glebe Society resident group, said the high demand for parking on-site pushes motorists into the nearby residential streets of Glebe and Pyrmont, adding more pressure on locals.
“People have gotten quite distressed because you go out on the weekend and you can’t park within streets of your house,” said Wahlquist, who is also on a fish market community consultative committee.
“Parking is already difficult to get on the narrow streets of Glebe without having so many people visiting. Not only are the streets parked out, particularly on the weekends, there are cars cruising around looking for parking.”
City of Sydney Deputy Lord Mayor Jess Miller said the council had received many requests since the new site opened to increase the number of inspectors enforcing local parking restrictions.
Another point of tension has been the shared path for pedestrians and cyclists along Bridge Road and Wattle Street, which Wahlquist said increased the risk of accidents.
Miller said the City of Sydney had pushed for separate cycleways to address the issue. “We have always advocated for separate cycleways and would like Transport for NSW to look at that again – a design solution that takes a lane of traffic on the western side of Bridge Road.
“It’s not as if any of this has come as a surprise. That’s why people have been frustrated because these are things that have been raised time and time again.”
Toilets … or the lack thereof
On the marketplace level, home to fresh seafood outlets, specialty stores, cafés and restaurants, there are six toilet cubicles for women at either end of the floor, to be shared between staff, retailers and visitors.
Visitors have taken to social media to express their disappointment at the low number, which one user said was the “only real downside” to their experience.
“I waited a long time in line, only to realise there were about six tiny cubicles servicing a massive space. I swear my local RSL has more toilets than that. We couldn’t easily find any on the other side either,” they said.
A spokesperson for Sydney Fish Market said they were monitoring visitation levels: “We are in the early days of trading with peak interest in our world-class facility. Recognising that our facilities will experience high demand during peak periods, particularly those at the retail level, we are working on improving wayfinding and signage across the site to help visitors more easily locate available amenities.”
Visiting at night
The new fish market has longer trading hours than the old site – it is open until 10pm from Sunday to Thursday and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
However, only a handful of seafood retailers operate past 4pm. GetSashimi and The Boatshed close at 8pm on most days and Sushi Bar operates until 7pm. Musumeci, GetFish, Fish Market Cafe, Claudio’s, Christie’s Seafoods, Peter’s Sydney Fish Market and Nicholas Seafood all close by 4pm on most days.
Of the 38 retailers listed on the fish market website, six have not yet started trading. Little Red, Tavira Bakehouse, Tin Tin Harbour, Sergio, Nanjing Dumplings and Lua by Luke Nguyen are still in preparation stages.
While the Sydney Fish Market requires tenants to adhere to minimum trading hours, individual retailers can determine their own operating hours. A Sydney Fish Market spokesperson said, “as with any new precinct of this scale, trading patterns are still settling” and they would “work closely with tenants to support and encourage longer trading where it makes commercial sense”.
The existing tenants moved to the new building on the same below-market rate they paid at the crumbling premises on Bank Street, but they will be subject to a rent review after five years.
Still in the honeymoon phase?
Since the fish market opened on January 19, huge crowds have flocked through its doors. Visitors were told to turn around and come back later on day one. By the end of its first week, the new site had attracted more than 230,000 visitors. Eventually, the site is expected to attract more than 6 million people annually.
Questions remain about how the new site will adapt over time and how it will deal with its teething problems, but Glebe resident Patrick McGlinchey remained upbeat: “There are things that can be improved [on] every infrastructure project. But you have to see things in their totality – what’s the overall effect of the infrastructure? And I think it’s very positive.”
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