The site where Her Majesty’s Theatre now stands was first purchased in a government land sale by George Porter for £100 in February 1839. Little development occurred until the gold rush boom years of the late 1850s. By 1858, the site was fully occupied by various merchants and offices. From about 1880, a large open air entertainment venue known as the Hippodrome was in place, with the entrance off Browns Lane (now Cohen Place). The Hippodrome was known mainly for equestrian shows, circuses and the like.