She's housed boisterous fruiterers, hushed libraries, dim wine cellars and been routinely slated for demolition.
But just like the long-reigning monarch after whom she was named the 19th-century Queen Victoria Building has a defining quality.
"It's a survivor," City of Sydney historian Laila Ellmoos told AAP.
The QVB, which marked its 120th birthday on Tuesday, has undergone crises and numerous renovations since its early days as a replacement to the city's markets.
Best known now for its grand Romanesque Revival design and as a shopping hub, the companion piece to Town Hall welcomes more than 90,000 visitors each day.
It's been threatened with destruction over the past century including in 1959 when the mayor wanted to turn the site into a park.
"In a way that's sadly characteristic of Sydney," Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.
"Happily, the people of Sydney ensured its survival."
Ms Moore said her spirits were lifted whenever she entered the building which has hosted a vast array of shops and services over the years.
"In the early days, it was home to Quong Tart's Tearooms - perhaps an indication of the diverse multicultural city Sydney would become," she said.
Mondial Pink Diamond Atelier has been a retailer in the QVB for 25 years with director Michael Neuman describing the building as "one of the world's grandest" shopping precincts.
"As the city around it changes, the QVB stands gleaming and beautiful in the middle of the CBD," he told AAP.
At present visitors are being invited to mark their time in the building by attaching notes and padlocks to a giant metal keylock in the building foyer.
The interactive structure was inspired by the intricately inscribed golden key used to open the doors to the QVB in 1898 and the more recent love locks on Paris' Pont des Arts.
