 The Cat and Fiddle clock. A cow jumps over the moon | |
 | |
| Location | Hobart central business district, Australia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°52′55″S147°19′37″E / 42.88194°S 147.32694°E /-42.88194; 147.32694 |
| Opening date | 31 July 1962[1] |
| Developer | Charles Davis (from 1959, designed by Philp Lighton, Floyd and Beattie[2][3] with planning by Hartley Wilson andDirk Bolt[4]). Gerard O'Brien (since 2010)[5] |
| Management | Silverleaf Investments Pty Ltd |
| Stores and services | 70 |
| Anchor tenants | 2 |
| Floors | 2 |
| Parking | 1700 (Centrepoint and Hobart Central)[6] |
| Website | www |
TheCat and Fiddle Arcade is ashopping mall and hub located inHobart,Tasmania, Australia and covers a city block made up of about 17 buildings[7] at 49-51Murray Street. It is famous for itsmusical clock, which plays theHey Diddle Diddle nursery rhyme hourly[8][9] withglockenspiel andvibraphone,[better source needed] and is a local tourist attraction.[10] Cat and Fiddle Square (the location of a food court, and formerly a fountain) also holds other music events and occasionally art installations.[11] Along with at least 70 specialty stores, the mall is Hobart's major clothing and fashion retail centre containing aMyer andTarget which each cover two levels, as well as anH&M.[12]
It is accessible via theIcon Complex onLiverpool Street and Murray Street, and theElizabeth Street Mall (close to theHobart Bus Mall), and bounded byCollins Street where there is a skybridge toTrafalgar Place. It is also located directly between other malls in the shopping precinct, including the Wellington Centre (via Wellington Court or the Bank Arcade, anchored by aWoolworths) and Centrepoint Shopping Centre.
The arcade's name is the legacy of the 1817 alley (now called Elizabeth Lane), where at Wellington Bridge over theHobart Rivulet an inn flagged by a painting of a yellow cat and fiddle (The Cat and Fiddle) was situated until the 1830s (between Charles Davis' ironmongery andJohn Watt Beattie's photography studio).[13] Into the 1860s the Cat and Fiddle Alley retained a notoriety as a characterfully rough and unsanitary, but central locale.[14] The arrangement of the arcade still follows the path of the underground Rivulet.
The 1962 opening was attended by Alderman Basil Osborne and theABC Orchestra.[1] The hardware department storeCharles Davis operated from 1847 to 1984 (and later acquired nearbyFitzGerald's in 1981, both nowHarris Scarfe) at the site, and the business pursued its redevelopment inspired by other modern malls such asChadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne which opened two years prior.[better source needed] After 1973 the name is used by Cat & Fiddle Press,[15] a reference to WE Fuller's Bookshop and J Walch & Sons which had at various times been based nearby.
Major floods have affected the mall, including in1929,1947 and most recently in2018.[citation needed] It received upgrades during 2010 to 2015,[16][17] but during reconstruction works for the ICON Centre in 2016 (following the 2007 Myer fire), part of the Rivulet retaining wall collapsed beneath some arcade tenancies.[18]
Don't miss the clock tower at the Cat & Fiddle Arcade, where a playful cow figurine jumps over the moon every hour on the hour.
