Encompassing nearly an entire city block in the centre of nipaluna/Hobart, The Hanging Garden precinct houses a collection of multiple commercial, retail and hospitality spaces.

Since 2004, across 14 separate transactions, Riverlee has strategically accumulated a 9,000sqm site, with four-street frontages to Liverpool, Watchorn, Bathurst and Murray Streets.

Envisaged as a place that shifts and evolves according to community needs and engagement, the precinct has its origin story in a temporary cultural activation, ‘In The Hanging Garden’, which was launched at MONA’s boundary-pushing Dark Mofo Festival in 2019.

Conceived as a temporary cultural activation in partnership with MONA subsidiary DarkLab, it encompasses the Garden and Cathedral, live music venue (Altar), nightclub (High Altar) and the Odeon Theatre.

At David Walsh’s suggestion, ‘In the Hanging Garden’ is an experimental project, to test and explore what the community wants and whether a full-scale activation of the entire site would even be viable.  Deliberately temporary in nature with structures designed to be relocated elsewhere in the precinct as required, it originally opened as a hospitality and live music venue but was transformed into a community market during the pandemic to support local traders.

Relaunched in 2021, In The Hanging Garden now encompasses a series of green spaces, two kitchens, a cafe, wood-fired pizza oven, two live music venues, a nightclub, and partnerships with three neighbouring F&B vendors.