Market Street small space

Good Place

Great initiative by the BCC, we need more spaces like this in Brisbane. I'd like to see even more greenery used in these spaces.

This space is part of Council’s Vibrant Laneways and Small Spaces Program, intended (we hope) to transform the city centre into a rich, people-focussed tapestry of individual and useful public places, one car-park at a time. And credit where credit’s due, for Market Street was once road space (like part of Jacob’s Ladder) but has now been adaptively reused for more cultured pursuits like coffee drinking, provided from the existing café on the street corner.

There’s plenty of twisty, T-shaped benches under shade trees here, ideal for lunching, reading and (yes) smoking, and the space appears well used by workers from nearby offices.

We like the interpretive artwork, in the form of a colourful food narrative exposing the truth about our ‘fresh’ produce. Where did that apple come from and how long did it take to get here???

Full marks for the bespoke street furniture and thoughtful seating options. Comfortable, shady seating makes or breaks public space in the subtropics. This one does OK. Only gripe is that the crushed granite on the ground is eroding in the storms and the engineers will say “told you” (anyone know if we can get bigger, crunchier stones for our hard landscapes around here?). Small is beautiful. Queensland. Remember that.