User:Rohanstorey/sandbox

The list is ordered by building type and date of construction

Robbs Building (1884-1982)
In 1884, businessman and director of the Federal Bank, John Robb, financed a large building with 132 ft of frontage on Collins Street, designed by architect Thomas Watts. It had two separate entrances, each with lifts and stairs, and goods lift from a rear lane, and spaces that could be offices or storerooms. The exterior featured vertical piers topped with Corinthian columns dividing its five storeys.

A number of mishaps were reported early in its life; in March 1888, a lift wire broke, causing an elevator to crash to the ground, and in August 1889, a fire broke out on the top floor, with fire or water destroying documents of the Railway Office, the Traffic Audit Office, and the bank that occupied the ground floor corner. In the crash of the 1890s, Robb was declared bankrupt in 1894, owing £653,000. In 1926, the two eastern bays were separately known as the Dudley Buildings and sold for £88,000. The Dudley Buildings were demolished in 1975.

In the 1970s, National Mutual acquired the Robbs Building and the nearby Rialto Building Group, selling to the Grollo Group in January 1981, who revealed plans for a trio of high-rise office towers that would retain the Rialto but demolish the Robbs Building. The plan drew community opposition, and a Builders Labourer's Federation (BLF) ban. The BLF lifted the ban in November 1981 and demolition commenced in early 1982. The Rialto Towers were completed in October 1986 and the site of the Robbs Building became an open plaza, part of the Rialto towers forecourt. Between 2015 and 2017, a six level office building was built along the Collins Street frontage reinstating a continuous streetscape.

Prell's Buildings (1880-1980)
Friedrich Wilhelm Prell was born in Hamburg, Germany, and migrated to Australia in 1851, founding an import/export business, and in the 1880s moved into property development. One of his first forays was a four storey building at 7-11 Queen Street in 1886 (later known as the Felton building). Designed by architect FM White in a simple Renaissance Revival style, it features squared windows divided by piers, each floor the same, topped by an elaborate cornice with protruding large lion heads.

A later anecdote claimed that Prell met the vice-president of the Otis Elevator Company, W. F. Hall, while on holiday in Australia in late 1886, who remarked that men who had to climb stairs would reach the top floor with "aching legs, a fluttering heart, and a firm resolution to do business elsewhere", and Prell promptly added two floors to an office building already under construction, using the faster Otis hydraulic safety elevators. The veracity of this story is uncertain, but in late 1887 Prell was completing a five storey office block (plus basement) on the northwest corner of Queen Street and Flinders Lane, using Otis safety elevators, though this was not their first use in Melbourne. Also designed by FM White, it was very similar in style to the earlier block, but somewhat more elaborate.

In late 1887 when that first taller building was nearly complete, Prell announced plans for two more buildings, both nine storeys (eight plus half basements), all in the same block of Queen Street, one on the southeast corner of Flinders Lane, the other on the corner of Collins Street. F. M. White was again the architect, using a similar approach, but adding more elaboration such as superimposed piers and window pediments, elements repeating both vertically and horizontally, and topped by even larger cornices, featuring heads of Minerva and Mercury. In late 1888 Prell commenced a third block, also nine storeys, on the southwest corner of Flinders Lane, also by FM White, in matching style. By July 1889, a high-pressure hydraulic system was established in the city, and one of Prell's high-rise buildings was amongst the first to be connected to it, and the safety of the Otis elevators also demonstrated. The first two towers were completed around August 1889, and the third completed some time in 1890. Collectively known as Prell's Buildings, these structures dominated the southern aspect of the city and were known as "Towers of Babel of the elevator type". Sold to other investors the buildings variously became known by the name of the new owners or the main tenants.

Prell's building on the corner of Collins Street was bought by the Australian Provincial Assurance (APA), and extensively altered in 1929, simplifying the exterior, and adding an enormous decorative tower, becoming Melbourne's tallest building at 76 metres (the APA moved from Melbourne's first tallest building, the 1888 API Building). Later it was owned by Legal & General, who demolished it in 1969 for a new tower.

The five storey Prells building was demolished in 1938, and the other two of Prell's Buildings were demolished in 1967 and 1980, leaving only the Felton Building as evidence of his once dominating presence in the city.

Fink's Building (1888-1969)
Located on the northeast corner of Elizabeth Street and Flinders Street, the Fink's Building was a ten-storey office building. It was briefly Australia's tallest building when completed in 1888. Architects Twentyman & Askew designed it for Benjamin Fink, a speculative developer. The elaborate Renaissance Revival style Fink's Building had a high mansard roof that encompassed its top two storeys. When the real estate market crashed, Fink fled to England, leaving behind debts of £1,520,000; he was declared bankrupt in 1892.

The building was gutted by the great fire of 1897 which swept across the block bounded by Flinders Street, Elizabeth Street, Flinders Lane, and Swanston Street. The brick carcass remained intact and was rebuilt in 1898, minus the attic floors. In 1969, Commonwealth Bank owned the building and demolished it, along with the adjacent Craig Williamson and Thomas Emporium, to make way for a modern office tower.

Empire Buildings (1888-1938)
Located at 414 Collins Street opposite the Western Market, the Empire Building was an elaborate six storey Tudor/ Gothic style office building, topped by a gable roof, and designed by TJ Crouch of Crouch & Wilson. Later it was occupied by Royal Insurance, who decided to replace it with a larger premises, and it was demolished in 1938. Some of the elaborate Gothic windows were dismantled and re-erected as part of the Great Hall at the Monstalvat artists colony in Eltham.

Australian Building (1889-1980)
API Building or the Australian Building was on Elizabeth Street at the corner of Flinders Lane. It was the tallest building in Australia and the third tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1889. It included eleven storeys plus an attic, with a height to the top of the attic floor of 47 m, and to the top of the spire 51 m, The Australian Building was envisioned by F. T. Durham, postmaster general of Melbourne and director of the biscuit company Swallow and Ariell. Durham formed the Australian Property Investment Co. (API) which borrowed heavily to buy the site and build the Australian Building.

The building was designed by Oakden, Addison & Kemp with John Beswicke in the Queen Anne Revival architectural style. Its exterior was finished in red brick with stone bands, topped by a gabled mansard roof and corner turret. Soon after its completion, the economy faltered and API had a surplus of empty offices, In addition, Durham's debt was greater than the market value of the building. In 1920, the Australian Provincial Assurance Association, an insurance company, bought the building as their Melbourne base and renamed it the APA Building.

It remained the tallest building in Melbourne until the late 1920s and a city landmark until its top gables and turret were removed in the 1950s. The Australian Building was demolished in 1980 with a permit from Heritage Victoria because they agreed that the cost to upgrade the building to modern fire regulations was onerous.

Temperance & General (T&G) Insurance Company (1889-1974)
Erected in 1889 on the corner of Little Collins and Swanston Street the tall seven storey tower was executed in an impressive Second Empire style complete with baroque details, one of the most elaborate and grand constructions of the land boom. The iron cresting featured such details as sunflowers. Featuring a large sets of Diocletian windows richly decorated mansard roof with iron cresting and decorative caryatids and gargoyles. With the Second Empire Town Hall Administration building like the Town Hall being set back from the street, the tall thin tower of the elaborate first bay was designed have a commanding presence along the northward Swanston Street vista, however it extended its Renaissance Revival facade down Little Collins an entire city block to Royal Lane including a carriageway for access through to what is now Rainbow Lane.

In 1928 the City of Melbourne purchased the building, renaming it Town Hall Chambers, using it for offices. In the 1960s the council earmarked the site, like the nearby City Square, as potential open space. In 1968 it was demolished by Whelan the Wrecker. However the site remained empty and a concrete carpark for decades until being occupied by a plaza small single storey cafe in the 1990s. The rear of the site later became Council House 2 (CH2).

Cromwell Building (1891-1970)
The Cromwell building was an elaborate Mannerist/ Italianate style six storey office building on the corner of Bourke & Elizabeth Streets built in 1891 featuring a deeply modelled array of pilasters and windows, and a top level with large circular windows. It had a wide range of tenants, including the Fox Art Academy in the 1930s. In the 1940s and 50s, Coles & Garrard Optometrists occupied a streamlined moderne shopfront on the Bourke Street side. The building was purchased by the Commercial Bank of Australia in 1946, and it was replaced by a new Cromwell Building in 1971, a sixteen-storey brown brick building which was itself demolished just two decades later in the 1990s for a three storey retail development.

Equitable Building (1896-1959)
The headquarters of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States opened at 316 Collins Street at the intersection of Elizabeth Street in 1896. German-born American architect Edward Raht designed it as "the grandest building in the Southern Hemisphere and to last forever". His design was in the style of the skyscrapers of New York City with an internal steel frame covered by granite blocks. The seven-story structure consisted of a stack of classical floors that were massively proportioned. At 138 ft, it was one of the tallest buildings in Melbourne at the time. Its construction took five years and cost £500,000. In 1923, the Equitable Building became the Victoria headquarters of Colonial Mutual Life. By the mid-1950s, Colonial Mutual contemplated demolition, as Victorian-era buildings were considered outdated, ostentatious, and gloomy. It was demolished in 1959. The statuary group over the entrance was saved and placed outside the Baillieu Library at the University of Melbourne, and some of the carved elements were salvaged and remain with private owners. In 2000, a sample was purchased by Museums Victoria and displayed outside its Carlton Campus on Nicholson Street.

Leonard House (1924-1976)
This small office building at 40-46 Elizabeth Street near Flinders Lane was designed by renowned architect Walter Burley Griffin, who was from Chicago, and had settled in Melbourne after winning the competition to design Canberra in 1913. It was commissioned by Russian-Australian Nisson Leonard-Kavensky, a successful clothing manufacturer, and completed in 1924. It was the first building in the city to feature a curtain wall composed mainly of glass, as well as precast masonry blocks featuring Griffin's distinctive geometric patterning, and was later considered to be a pioneering Modernist design. When it was proposed to be demolished along with numerous other buildings in 1976 for an expansion of the nearby National Bank, opposition by the National Trust led to a portion of the facade being reconstructed within a light court of the new building, completed in 1980. Later this was discovered to be a replica, and it was covered over or removed.

Eastern Arcade (1872-2008)
The Eastern Arcade stood on Bourke Street between Russell and Exhibition Streets. It was built in 1872 adjacent to the Eastern Market on the site of the Haymarket Theatre, which had burned down. Designed by George Raymond Johnson. in the Second Empire style, with three large mansard domed roofs, it was described as "one of the best examples of street architecture in the city", while its grand arched roofed arcade rivalled other arcades in the city. It was however just outside the central retail area, and perhaps was not as popular as it was hoped.In 1894 the frontage of the building was remodelled by Hyndman and Bates with an additional storey, and transformed into an fine example of the exotic, and rarely used Moorish or Moghul style. The Bourke Street facade featured richly decorated tiled mosaics as evident in photos from the 1920s.

Following the turn of the century, the Eastern Market precinct had developed an unsavoury reputation, leading to the Herald describing it as a "resort for the undesirables" in 1923. In 1926 the arcade portion of the Eastern Arcade was demolished to create two floors of the showrooms for furniture company Clauscen & Co. In the 1970s the facade was completely covered in sheet metal hoarding. By the 1990s it was home to Allans music store. In 2000 the facade was rediscovered after the metal hoarding was removed which prompted the National Trust to list the building in September of that year.

A hotel tower was proposed in 2007, and despite calls that it was "shameful", a permit was granted and it was demolished in 2008, to become the Citadines on Bourke.. The Little Collins Street facade is all that remains.

Coles Book Arcade (1883-1929)
The enterprising EW Cole established his first book arcade in 1873 in Bourke Street near the Eastern Market, moving to a much larger three level 'arcade' building at 299 Bourke Street in the retail heart of the city in 1883. His huge store grew into neighbouring buildings and across Little Collins Street, to link to Collins Street, and offered not only books, which were 'free to read, no need to buy', but also stationary, knick knacks, sheet music, artworks, and there were entertainments such as a small orchestra, caged monkeys and birds, and a fernery. He also published his own works, most famously the Coles Funny Picture Book series, which delighted generations of children. After he died in 1911, the store continued on until 1928, when it was demolished and replaced by the main store for discount retailer Coles (no relation) which opened in 1930.

Victoria Building and Queens Walk (1888-1966)
The Freehold Investment & Banking Co., one of the many land banks of the real estate boom years, built the Victoria Building in the heart of town on the corner Swanston and Collins Streets, opposite the Melbourne Town Hall. Designed by architect David Wormal, the building’s Renaissance Revival façade was topped by a lively roofline of mansards and pediments. Completed in 1888, the Freehold Investment & Banking Co. had their office on the corner, and there were numerous shops, and three floors of offices above. The building was in two parts, separated by an L-shaped walkway called Queens Walk which contained some shopfronts and connected Collins Street to Swanston Street. A statue of Queen Victoria sat on the corner beneath the building’s landmark tall diagonal roof (the latter was removed by 1910).

In 1922 the walkway was refurbished as an arcade, with more shops with new shopfronts, a glass roof with large leaded-glass cupolas at the entrances, and renamed Queens Walk Arcade. Later, the arcade included twenty shops with tenants such as Cavalier Tea Rooms, Drummunds, tailor Henry Bucks, and the Savage Club was located upstairs. The Victorian Government Tourist Bureau, an arm of the Victorian Railways, occupied the corner shop from 1908 to 1940, later occupied by Henry Bucks menswear. The Victoria Building was sold in 1963 and demolished in 1966 for potential high-rise development. However, the City of Melbourne purchased the vacant site for its new City Square, which was completed in 1980. The square was replaced in 2000, and the replacement was itself demolished in 2018 as part of works for the Melbourne Metro.

Craig, Williamson and Thomas Emporium (1890-1969)
Craig Williamson and Thomas began as a drapery in 1874. In 1883, they expanded into a four-storey building on Elizabeth Street. In 1890, they expanded into an adjacent seven-storey building that became the Craig, Williamson and Thomas Emporium. The emporium sold an expanded selection of fabrics, clothing, millinery, and homewares departments. The Great Fire of 22 November 1897 started in the store, and destroyed a large part of the city block, leaving the store a gutted shell and a stock loss of £100,000.

The façade was preserved and the store was rebuilt with an extension to the south. Later, there was an extension to the north and an addition of two floors, creating a much larger department store. The business closed in 1937. In 1945, the building was sold to the Federal Government for a branch of the Commonwealth Bank. The former emporium and the adjacent Finks Building were demolished in 1969 for an office tower,

National Museum, University of Melbourne (1863-1968)
The National Museum was once hailed as one of the finest works of Melbourne architect Joseph Reed. In 1863 he together with Frederick Barnes designed the elaborate gothic building in keeping with the theme of the university buildings. The National Museum, along with the original university Quad building and Wilson Hall created a magnificent and picturesque gothic heart to the university complete with ornamental lake and garden. The exterior of the building was prominent for its large gothic arches, central mansard roof and cast iron cresting, though the interior was equally spectacular, consisted of an open vaulted hall with exposed gothic trusses and a central mezzanine similar to his design for the great hall of his the later Royal Exhibition Building made an open airy exhibition space which was frequently used displaying a range of impressive artefacts. In 1884 it became home to the university's Student Union. In 1938 a new wing was added by architects Gawler & Drummond in a sympathetic deco-gothic style.

In 1967 the university commissioned architects Egglestone Secomb McDonald who had designed many of the other postwar buildings on campus to design a replacement. The result was a brutalist brick construction which called for demolition of the National Museum. Building 130, completed in 1970, was done on a budget and it built around some parts of the interior and exterior original building remained embedded within. Despite being newer than the original it continued to be known as the Union Building.

For decades the 1970s replacement was labelled ugly and an eyesore with the university, with plans drawn up for its demolition in 2015 and 2022. In 2023 the university announced the planned demolition of numerous modern campus buildings. It was announced that Building 130 would become the new Science Building for the university and plans were shown for a modern glass building on the site, presumably the remains of the National Museum will be demolished.

Wilson Hall, Melbourne University (1878-1952)
Wilson Hall was one of the largest and most important secular Gothic Revival buildings constructed in Melbourne's history. George Tibbits described the building as the 'architectural jewel in the 19th century university and its soul'.

The building was a gift of Sir Samuel Wilson, who donated £30,000 toward its construction. Designed by prominent architect Joseph Reed and A.C. Smart, and built by James Nation & Co, it was completed in 1882 and became a prominent part of the university. Featuring an enormous scale in the perpendicular Gothic style with high timber beamed ceiling with stained glass windows and a faceted bay at one end. After almost a century of academic tradition the building was gutted by fire in 1952 in front of a gathering crowd of shocked spectators. The basic structure, foundations and the Leckie window survived the fire, however the basement, roof and the west wall had been destroyed.

Instead of opting for reconstruction the university took the less expensive option and demolished the remains of the hall to build a contemporary replacement in 1956.

Eastern Market (1879-1960)
In 1847, the Melbourne City Council allocated half a block to create Eastern Market which was bounded by Bourke Street, Exhibition Street, and Little Collins Street. Starting in 1859, the market consisted of a series of open sheds. In 1877, the city council decided to rebuild the market on a grand scale. The architectural firm Reed & Barnes won a design contest for a structure featuring shops around the edge of grandly scaled two-storey and three-storey buildings. The structure also included a two-level central market hall topped by domed glass roofs. The new Eastern Market opened in 1879 but during its construction, its former fresh produce merchants moved to the expanded Queen Victoria Market and had little interest in returning.

In 1881, the city council leased the market to Edward Cole who operated the highly successful Coles Book Arcade. Cole filled the Eastern Market with amusements such as hoop-las, shooting galleries, and fortune tellers; second-hand stalls, a haberdashery, and fresh food vendors. After a year, the city council resumed control, but the Eastern Market never fulfilled its intended purpose. It remained low-rent retail and part of the amusement nightlife of Bourke Street for many decades. By the 1950s, the amusement business had faded, and the central hall became a car park and taxi depot. The city council began negotiations for a hotel and had Whelan's demolish the Eastern Market in 1960.

Another market on the corner of Market Street and Collins Street, known as the Western Market, was first established in 1841, and rebuilt in stages in in the 1870s, but was much less grand or busy than the Eastern Market. Like that market, the city council saw an opportunity for a large redevelopment, and it was demolished 1961 for the National Mutual Building, with a spacious plaza in front. The building was in turn demolished in the 2020s for an even larger building known as Collins Arch.

Fish Market (1890-1959)
The Melbourne City Council built the Fish Market buildings between 1890 and 1892 to replace an existing market at the corner of Swanston Street and Flinders Street. The Fish Market was on the western end of Flinders Street, between King Street and Spencer Street. The part facing Flinders Street housed general markets and storage, while the fish market itself was on the other side of the new railway viaduct, facing the river. It served as Melbourne's commercial fish market for more than fifty years.

R. G. Gordon won the design competition for the Fish Market, designed with the assistance of Gerhardt Brown. The Gothic Revival style buildings featured tall conical turrets, and a large clock tower, though the clock was never installed. Described at the time of its completion as one of the finest set of market buildings in the world, the Fish Market was also controversial, running 22% over budget at £220,000.

By the 1950s, the market was surrounded by busy roads and could not accommodate the increasing volume. Additionally the building had begun to subside due to the silt from the river, resulting in large visible structural cracks and leaning. At first, early in the 1950s the prominent clock tower was removed, reducing the visual impact of the building. The city council decided to build new markets in West Melbourne and hired Whelan's to demolish the Fish Market in 1959. Its elaborate wrought-iron gates were saved and are now at the entrance to Fawkner Cemetery. The site of the Fish Market was initially used as a car park. The riverside portion of the property eventually became Batman Park. In the early 2000s, the Flinders Street portion was developed into apartment buildings.

Menzies Hotel (1867-1969)
Reed & Barnes designed the Menzies Hotel for Scottish immigrants Archibald and Catherine Menzies. It was built on the crest of the hill on Bourke Street and the southeast corner of William Street for £32,000. The three-storey hotel featured a columned arcade and a corner pavilion tower. When it opened in November 1867, it was Melbourne's first grand hotel and was immediately popular with international visitors and wealthy pastoralists. In 1896, two additional storeys and a corner tower were added, along with electric lights, telephones, and a lift (elevator). The six-storey Bourke Street wing was added in 1922, providing en suite bathrooms and an enlarged dining room.

The Menzies Hotel hosted Mark Twain, Alexander Graham Bell, Herbert Hoover, and Dame Nellie Melba. In 1942, it became the South-West Pacific headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur for several months during World War II. The hotel was demolished in 1969 to make way for the BHP Tower.

Oriental Hotel (1878-1971)
The site in the prestigious eastern end of Collins Street opposite the Melbourne Club began as the Bedford Hotel in 1854, which was rebuilt in 1878 in a grander style and reopened as the Oriental Hotel, its fine dining restaurant popular with the elite. Its main claim to fame is that in 1958 new owner Leon Ress was granted permission to provide chairs and tables on the pavement, the first in Melbourne. It was however a temporary measure, and in the face of opposition from the Police Traffic Branch, they were removed two years later. Along with much of the surrounding block, the hotel was demolished 1971–72 for Collins Place.

Federal Coffee Palace (1888-1973)
The Federal Coffee Palace was on the western end of Melbourne’s premier thoroughfare, Collins Street. James Munro and James Mirams—both politicians, businessmen, and teetotalers—held a design contest for their alcohol-free coffee palace and hotel. The building featured Second Empire style, following the designs of Ellerker & Kilburn and William Pitt, the first and second prize contest winners, respectively.

The Federal Coffee Palace opened in time for Melbourne's Centennial Exhibition in July 1888. The first floors included billiards, dining, lounging, reading, and smoking rooms. Its decor was so unique that the building became a tourist attraction. Its upper five floors included nearly 400 luxury bedrooms. The Age wrote that the £150,000 hotel was one of "Australia's most splendid" buildings; in fact, it was "one of the largest and most opulent hotels in the world". Its guests included Alexander Graham Bell, Herbert Hoover, and Mark Twain.

Despite its opulence, the Federal Coffee Palace was never a competition for Melbourne’s other luxury hotels—the Menzies Hotel and the Hotel Windsor—perhaps due to its size and location that was far from the retail and social centre of town. In 1923, the hotel gave up on temperance and applied for a liquor license. At this time, it was renamed the Federal Hotel. A renovation in the late 1960s was not enough to revitalize the struggling business, and it closed in 1972. The building was demolished in 1973 to make way for an office tower that was, in turn, demolished in 2019.

Parer's Crystal Café Hotel (1888-1960)
Josef, Francisco, Juan, Felipe, and Estevan Parer—five brothers who immigrated to Australia from Catalonia in the 1850s—built Parer’s Crystal Café Hotel on Bourke Street in 1886. The hotel featured billiard rooms, a café, clubrooms, a saloon, and lavish dining rooms. It had a staff of eighty and hotel rooms that accommodated more than 650 guests. Leavitt’s Guide wrote, "Its wealth of mirrors so fantastically arranged, its tessellated floor, glittering tables, refreshing fountains and artistic draperies, remind one of the magnificent structures of a similar kind which grace the capitals of Europe and America."

Parer’s Crystal Café Hotel was demolished by Whelan's in October 1960. The site became Walton's department store, followed by Midcity Village Cinemas. In 2019, it was a Hello Kitty store.

Queen's Coffee Palace (1888-1970)
Queen's Coffee Palace was one of the largest and most imposing Coffee Palaces in Melbourne, however it never operated as such.

The Queen's Coffee Palace Company raised £30,000 in 1888 to construct a 600-room six storey hotel on the corner of Rathdowne and Victoria Streets, Carlton, facing the Carlton Gardens. Designed by Oakden, Addison & Kemp in German Renaissance Revival style, the investors hoped to capitalise on the 1888 Melbourne Centennial Exhibition at the Royal Exhibition Building opposite. A partial collapse of the cornice shortly after construction was followed by perpetual delays in opening and litigation. After the collapse of G.Lachal's estate in 1889 a proposal was hatched for the government to purchase it and turn it into a much needed hospital, however this did not eventuate. In 1890 it remained unfinished, and most of its investors were declared insolvent with the company finally wound up that year.

Tenders were called in 1898 to complete the building, becoming 'residential chambers', then converted in 1929 by the Catholic Church as St Anne’s girls hostel. In the 1960s, the impressive mansard roof was removed, apparently due to fire damage, and it was demolished in 1970, replaced by a small office building. Between the 1984 and 2013 it was the headquarters of the Cancer Council, still vacant in 2022, described as "city's worst eyesore".

Scott's Hotel (1912-1964)
This hotel at 444 Collins Street began as the Lamb Inn in 1852, and was rebuilt as the much grander Scott's Hotel in 1860. It was rebuilt again as a much taller modern hotel in 1914, designed by AH Fisher, and extended to the east in 1923. Scott’s Hotel held a reputation for some of Melbourne’s finest food and wine, and notable guests included Dame Nellie Melba and English cricket legend W.G.Grace. Sold to Royal Insurance, it was demolished in 1964 for a new office building.

Southern Cross Hotel (1962-2003)
In the late 1950s, the City of Melbourne decided to find a better use for the site of their mostly unused Eastern Market. A deal was brokered where a local consortium would build the hotel, leasing the land from the Council for 99 years, while InterContinental would provide management. Demolition commenced in 1960, and the new Southern Cross Hotel, designed by Los Angeles architects Welton Becket & Associates, with local architects Leslie M. Perrot & Partners, opened in 1962. It was an immediate success, attracting the growing international 'jet set', and many famous guests, notably the Beatles in 196, when crowds blocked traffic outside the hotel. The large ballroom hosted many important events, including such such significant events as the annual entertainment awards the Logies, and the ALF best and fairest award, the Brownlows for many years. With new more luxurious hotel opening through the 1980s, it lost its premier position, and was sold in 1995 and closed in 1996 pending a redevelopment. The hotel however remained abandoned until it was finally demolished in 2003, replaced by the Southern Cross Tower office development.

Theatre Royal (1872-1933)


The first Theatre Royal, built in 1855 in Bourke Street near Swanston Street, was one of the largest and important theatres in early Melbourne. After it was destroyed by fire in 1872, theatre impresario Geroge Coppin immediately rebuilt it as a larger venue that could seat 4,000 people over four tiers, which opened in November the same year, under joint management by Coppin, Stewart, Harwood and Hennings.

It was remodelled in 1904, seating fewer people more comfortably on three tiers, but the growing popularity of moving pictures in the 1920s affected theatre attendance, as did the Great Depression in the early 1930s. In November 1933 it was closed and demolished, replaced by Manton's department store.

Bijou Theatre (1890-1934)


The site of the Bijou was originally a theatre called the Academy of Music, built in 1876 and renamed the Bijou in 1880. The theatre itself was situated to the rear of the block, behind a long promenade / arcade, which the balcony crush room looked down into. In 1889 a fire destroyed the theatre portion, and immediately a new larger one was built, opening in 1890, which seated around 2,000 across three levels. The theatre was further renovated and altered in 1907. It was closed and demolished in 1934 by Whelan the Wrecker, a few months after the Royal, which stood opposite. The plan was to build a large new theatre and hotel complex, but this never eventuated.

Melbourne Opera House, later Tivoli Theatre (1901-1966)


The Tivoli once stood on Bourke Street. It was designed by Melbourne architect William Pitt as a new opera house which opened in May 1901. One of Melbourne's best examples of Moorish Revival architecture it was designed in partnership with Sydney architects Backhouse & Co. It was visually distinctive with few parallels with its chunky appearance, art nouveau sign writing, red brick and marble with cast iron verandah and balconettes and was topped by a landmark illuminated globe.

In 1914, in line with the other venues on the national circuit, the New Opera House was renamed the Tivoli. To survive it became a live variety venue until 1966. The theatre survived as a cinema for another few months, before being gutted by fire. The intact facade remained for several years until 1969 when it, along with the neighbouring Lyceum theatre was demolished to make way the 16 storey brutalist Tivoli Court office building at 235 Bourke Street, incorporating the ground level retail area known as Tivoli arcade, completed in 1971.

Kings Theatre (1908-1977)


Kings Theatre was located at 133 Russell Street between Bourke Street and Little Collins Street. Opening in 1908, the theatre was designed by William Pitt in the Victorian Second Empire style for the theatrical entrepreneur William Anderson. It was a major live theatre during the first half of the twentieth century, and became a cinema (under the name the Barclay) from the late 1950s until closing in 1976. The interior of the King's Theatre, as well as the façade were remodelled for the owner Norman B. Rydge. The theatre was then renamed the Barclay Theatre or Barclay Cinema and showed its first film in 1958, Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. The last film shown was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 and finally in 1977 the theatre was demolished to give way to a multiplex cinema, Greater Union Russell Cinemas, which itself was demolished in 2014.

Palace Theatre (1912-2020)
Located at 20-30 Bourke Street, the Palace started out as Brennan's Amphitheatre in 1912, before being rebuilt as a theatre in 1916, and renamed the Palace. It was remodelled again in 1923, and in 1951 became a full time cinema, known as the Metro, with a Moderne restyling of the facade, and the proscenium and side boxes removed to allow for Cinemascope. After a period as a church, it was refurbished as a nightclub in 1987. Sold in 2012, plans to replace it with a tall hotel generated considerable opposition, but without any protections for the interiors, all decorative detail was removed in 2014. Further demolition in 2020 left only the 1951 street facade, with a much lower hotel opening in 2024.

Bank of New South Wales (1857-1933-c1975)
An elaborately detailed new headquarters for the Bank of New South Wales was built in 1857 at 360 Collins Street, designed by Joseph Reed. In the early 1930s with plans for a much larger building, the bank gifted the facade to Melbourne University where it was re-erected in 1938, now incorporated into the Melbourne School of Design building. The ten storey Art Deco style building that replaced it, designed by Godfrey & Spowers, was completed in 1936, winning the Street Architecture Medal that year. That building was itself demolished in the mid 1970s for Collins Wales House.

Oriental Bank, Queen Street (1858-1888)
The Oriental Bank was built in 1858 at the southwest corner of Queen Street and Flinders Lane. Designed by Robertson and Hale, the grand Greek Revival facade was a landmark in the early city. Following a crisis, this branch bank was closed in the early 1880s, and the building was demolished in 1888 for one of Prell's office towers.

Union Bank (1881-1966)
A grand new premises for the Union Bank of Australia was opened in 1881 at 351 Collins Street, designed by English architect Macvicar Anderson. After the bank was taken over by the ANZ, demolition was proposed in the mid 1960s. Various ideas were floated for saving at least some of the stone facade, but all that was saved during demolition in 1966 were two statues, and five broken capitals, installed at the new Architecture School building at Melbourne University.

Colonial Bank of Australasia (1882-1932)
The headquarters for the Colonial Bank of Australasia was built in 1882 on corner of Elizabeth Street and Little Collins Street, a block away from the grand banking buildings of Collins Street. Designed by architects Smith & Johnson, it featured a rusticated base surmounted by a giant order of Corinthian columns, with an elaborate corner entrance. The bank was absorbed by the National Bank of Australasia in 1918, and the old headquarters was sold, and demolished 1932. The sculptural doorway was saved and re-erected at the University of Melbourne, at first on an existing faculty building, then relocated in the early 1970s as an entry to an underground carpark.

State Savings Bank of Victoria (1912-1975)
The head office of the State Savings Bank of Victoria was a large eight storey Commercial Palazzo style building began in 1912, and expanded twice up to 1935, occupying almost an entire city block. The building had an enormous banking chamber and a large prominent cornice which complemented the style and scale of the London Stores, Cromwell buildings and GPO opposite. The building was known by Melburnians and banking staff affectionately as 'Old Lizzy'. It was demolished in 1975 to make way for the 41-storey State Bank Centre completed in 1980.

Mansions
Through the boom of the 1870s and 1880s, the great personal wealth generated by business community often resulted in the construction of very grand homes, ranging from extravagant mansions in extensive grounds, to merely quite elaborate large houses, usually with a tower, on larger suburban lots in the middle suburbs and what were then the fringes of the city. Following the 1890s crash, many families could not longer sustain them, and some were put to other uses such as guest houses or schools, but beginning as early as the 1910s, many were demolished to make way for smaller lot subdivisions, a trend which accelerated in the post WW2 years. A full list would included many dozens, so a small selection of the most outstanding is given here.

Cliveden Mansions (1887-1968)
Built in 1887 for pastoralist and businessman Sir William Clarke, Cliveden was probably the largest private house ever built in Melbourne, with 28 bedrooms, five bathrooms and 17 servant rooms, and a ballroom that could fit 250 guests. Designed by William Wardell in Renaissance Revival style, the interior featured elaborate woodwork in the Queen Anne style. It was located on a prominent site very close to the city on the corner of Wellington Parade and Clarendon Street, East Melbourne. After Lady Clarke's death, in 1909 a floor was added and it was converted into 48 luxury apartments, a new idea in Melbourne, though they were not all self-contained, with a central kitchen that could deliver meals, and a communal dining room. It was sold and demolished in 1968 to make way for the city's first Hilton Hotel, with some interior elements reused in the 'Cliveden Room'; they were sold off in 2018, and a large stained glass window and a pair of elaborate doors were purchased by the National Gallery Victoria.

Norwood (1892-1955)
In the middle of large grounds on the Brighton foreshore, financier Mark Moss built one of the most extraordinary mansions in Melbourne. Built in 1891-2 and designed by local architect Phillip Treeby, it was a towered red brick mansion in the Queen Anne /Elizabethan style, with a dash of American Romanesque Revival. The interiors were even more elaborate, with baronial style hall, complete with an elaborate carved staircase and bronze knights and stained glass windows, and billiard room above, a large ballroom, a dining room with a huge over-mantel, opening into a conservatory, and a marble Roman bath, in a fully tiled bathroom. Architect and critic Robin Boyd described it in 1955 as ‘so terrible that it is good’, but also ‘a fairy tale castle’. Moss lost his fortune and the house in the 1890s crash, selling it in 1894, passing to the Johnson family, who sold it in 1955, when it was demolished. A 2013 booklet self published by Roland Johnson contains the most complete description and photographic record.

Goathland (1888-1960)
Built for industrialist George Ramsden on a large estate on Studley Park Road in Kew, Goathland was a very elaborate essay in the Queen Anne style, influenced by the United States Stick Style, designed by EG Kilburn. It featured three storeys under high gabled roofs, tall chimneys and a port cochere, with a huge large stairhall. Ramsden had to sell in the 1890s crash, and it went through various owners, a name change to Tara Hall, finally becoming a nurses hostel in 1946, and sold and demolished in 1960. It was extensively photographed in 1959, and most of the images held by the State Library Victoria.

Melbourne Hebrew Congregation Synagogue (1848-1929)
Located at the top of the Bourke Street hill near William Street (at no. 476), Melbourne's first synagogue started out as a small hall opening in 1848, which was replaced by a larger one with a grand columned portico designed by Charles Webb in 1854. The congregation built a much larger premises in Toorak Road, South Yarra, which opened in 1930, and the old synagogue was demolished for an office block the same year.

St Patrick's College (1854-1970)
St Patrick College was built in 1854 in the grounds of St Patricks Cathedral, East Melbourne, facing Cathedral Place to the south. It was the second independent school and the first Catholic secondary school in Victoria. Unlike the Gothic Revival Cathedral, it was designed in a restrained Colonial Georgian style, with a central pediment, and fanciful towers at each end. Always a small school, it was nevertheless an important pillar of the intellectual and spiritual life of the Catholic community. The decision to close it in 1968 and demolish it for a Diocesan Centre was met with spirited resistance, particularly from by the National Trust, but to no avail. One tower was however left standing on the corner of Lansdowne Street and Cathedral Place.

St Patrick's Hall (1849-1957)
Located at the top of the Bourke Street hill near William Street (at no. 470), St Patrick's Hall was built by the Irish Catholic community as as one of Melbourne's first venues for meetings, events and balls, opening in 1849. Victoria's Legislative Council met there from 1851 until the opening of Parliament House in 1856, and a grand columned front was added in 1872. For many years it was a starting point for the St Patrick's Day procession and the Druids' Easter procession. It was demolished in 1957.

Masonic Hall (1886-1971)
The Freemasons built a grand headquarters at the east end of Collins Street, which opened in 1887. Designed by John Grainger, it featured twin domes, dining rooms and a large hall. In the 1920s the hall was refurbished as a ballroom. In 1969 the Masons moved to Dallas Brooks Hall in Albert Road, East Melbourne (itself demolished in 2016). The old hall was demolished along with many other surrounding buildings in 1971–72 for Collins Place.

St Kilda Sea Baths (1906-1926-1993)
In the 19th century bathing in the waters of the bay usually too place in privately built enclosed structures, away from public view, and also with facilities for changing and other activities. The premier beach resort of St Kilda had up to four at once, providing facilities for ladies as well as men, and the grandest was simply called the St Kilda Sea Baths. Designed by Nahum Barnet, it was built in 1906, and featured a large domed pavilion and multiple smaller domes. The head building was destroyed by fire in 1925, and the whole baths was completely rebuilt by St Kilda Council in a Spanish style with twin domes, opening in 1931. It featured separate enclosures for men and women, and a head building that included hot sea bathing facilities and a cafe and nightclub, but lacking maintenance and custom, the sea bath enclosures were demolished by the 1980s. A redevelopment of the deteriorated main building in 1993 saw only the domes themselves retained, and the facade between reproducing the original, housing cafes facing the bay, and a larger section adjacent housing a new indoor pool.

Palais de Dance (1913-1969)
The Palais de Danse was a large dance hall located next to the Palais Theatre on the foreshore of St Kilda, a beachside inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Built in 1919, it featured remarkable geometric interior decoration, created in 1920 by the renowned architects Walter Burley Griffin and his wife, Marion Griffin. It was a popular entertainment venue throughout the early 20th century, until it was destroyed by fire in 1969.

Other lost buildings

 * Melbourne Hospital, later Queen Victoria hospital (c. 1848–1860s), corner of Swanston and Lonsdale Streets. Demolished 1990, except for the central pavilion
 * Spencer Street Power Station (1952). Demolished 2008-9.
 * Spencer Street Power Station (1952). Demolished 2008-9.
 * Spencer Street Power Station (1952). Demolished 2008-9.
 * Spencer Street Power Station (1952). Demolished 2008-9.