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Plan of the proposed Werribee irrigation Colony and the Town of "Chirnside" 1889. This was one of Chaffey's schemes that began well and ended not so well. Not much was achieved although much had been promised. Courtesy Werribee District Historical Society. The original map is on the display in the museum.
FLINDERS STREET & FLINDERS LANE
St Kilda Rd - Flinders St - Elizabeth St 2019
3d Aerial Video Created by Christine Mauboy
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Bird ’ s eye view of Flinders Street c.1906 and surroundings
showing prominent buildings and Yarra from Melbourne guide book : with pictorial map of the city and bird's-eye view of Hobson's Bay and bird's-eye views of the streets, and other illustrations. McCarron, Bird & Co. Facsimile (re-print) of 1906 lithograph Hand coloured lithograph .Private Collection
Map Mahlstedt, G. Date 1910. Identifier(s) Map 12 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/127268
Source : Remembering Melbourne 1850 - 1960 Royal Historical Society of Victoria
RHSV - Robyn Annear
Flinders Street was named for Matthew Flinders, the navigator who, as the first to explore Port Philip (1802), observed the 'pleasing and .... fertile appearance' of the land reaching back from the bay.
For generations of newcomers and commuters, Flinders Street was Melbourne's gateway. All approaches via bridge, ship or rail, brought them first to Flinders Street. But, for much of its history and much of its length, the street has paraded no great charm. Its low lying situation, susceptibility to flooding and proximity to the docks and railways determined its flavour. For decades, trafiic to and from the wharves made the street's western end a morass for half the year.
A wooden customs house was built facing the Basin (or Pool), the original landing place on the Yarra, in 1838. Rebuilt and enlarged in stone then brick over the following decades, its site marked the eastern extent of Melbourne's wharves: Queens Wharf, with Cole's, Raleigh's, and Australian Wharf further west. As well as bluestone warehouse, industrial works such as sawmills, flourmills and iron foundries were established early along Flinders Street, particularly towards the wharf end. Situated on the 'dry' (north) side of the street, ship's chandlers, sail makers, luggage stores, carters and carriers, commision and customs agents also had business on the wharves.
Hotel flourished, catering to the waterside and, later, railway trade. Of the nine hotels west of William Street, four survived until 1960, among them the Yarra Family Hotel at William Street and the Sir Charles Hotham Hotel at Spencer, both of which dated from 1850s. Further east, the great survivors were the Duke of Wellington, Young & Jackson and, especially, the Port Philip Club Hotel, founded in 1840s.
The Royal Highlander Hotel, established east of King Street in 1840, was one of many to disappear under the Lincenses Reduction Board (from 1907). Its name is perpetuated in Highlander Lane. Replacing the hotel in 1916 was the headquarters of the Wharf Labourers' Union, with 2 life sized bronze ship prows jutting out over Flinders Street. The centre of bitter strikes on the wharves in the decade following World War I, it was demolished in 1953 and its prows melted down. It was mourned by architect Robin Boyd as 'a building of strong individual character'.
During Melbourne's early decades, Flinders Street's eastern end was dominated by private villas, one housing Mrs Louisa Barrow and her 4 children by Sir Redmond Barry. Normanhurst, a mansion built in 1865 at the Stephen (Exhibition) Street corner, stood until 1920s before making way for the landmark Herald & Weekly Times building.
St Paul's Cathedral replaced a small bluestone church erected in 1852. The cathedral was consecrated in 1891, but took shape in stages between 1880 and 1931. In the 1840s, a hay market had occupied the site. With the surge of gold rush immigrants late in 1892, a riverside market 'Rag Fair' spanned Flinders Street from Market to Elizabeth Streets. There new arrivals, threatened with penury in the face of Melbourne's high prices, sold their possessions to survive. A fish market at the south west corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets from 1865 was replaced by Flinders Street Station.
A railway station had existed in Flinders Street since 1854 as terminus of the privately owned Melbourne & Hobson Bay railway. The entrance to the Hobson Bay station (as it was called) faced Elizabeth Street. Princes Bridge station, opened in 1859, served the government run Epping and Hurstbridge lines. On taking over the private railways in 1878, the government devised plans to link the 3 city railway stations (Spencer Street was the third). The viaduct over Flinders Street between Queen and Spencer Streets, completed in 1892, incorporated fresh food storage vaults and a Gothic style fish market, complete with spires and clock tower. With goods traffic based at Spencer Street, good sheds were removed from the Flinders Street stations. But the 1890s depression delayed completion of the grand Flinders Street Station entrance until 1909.
With the docks moved westward and Flinders Street now cut off from the river by the railways, the character of the street gradually changed. Opposite Flinders Street station, department stores Ball & Walch, Mutual Stores replaced old warehouses. And the State Theatre (now the Forum), opening in 1929, could seat a large audience than any in Australia. Thousands of stars twinkled on the palatial theatre ceiling, and the red neon sign of Ball & Welch could be seen from the Dandenongs.
Augmented Reality Animations from the postcards. Flinders Street and Flinders Lane Created by Christine Mauboy
Flinders Street Heritage Buildings based on i-Heritage City of Melbourne database
Mapping by Christine Mauboy . 2019
Flinders Street: The Road to The Wharves
When Melbourne's main wharf was located on the Yarra near Queen Street, Flinders Street played a more important role than it does today. Combined with the rail terminals of Princes Bridge and Flinders Street Stations it thronged with pedestrians and a variety of horse-drawn vehicles. The area immediately around the wharves hosted numerous hotels and inns, and large department stores were established, particularly between Swanston and Elizabeth Streets. When the Yarra River was widened the waterfront developed further downstream and Flinders Street lost the importance it once enjoyed. In the 1880s it was described thus: "The aspect of Flinders Street West is animated and busy, and on landing on here broad enough for the requirements of a large traffic and from morning until night there is a continual passing to and from of lorries, drags, carts, cabs and timber wains. Outside the taverns are congregated groups of lumpers awaiting the arrival of the vessels they are to unload, and inside area seamen not yet converts to temperance principles."
The Yarra River
It is only in recent years that Melburnians have turned back to the Yarra River with a kind heart and good intentions. From being our first water supply and virtual lifeline we turned it into our major drain and are only now undoing 150 years of abuse. The first white man to sail up the Yarra was Charles Grimes, who was sent to make a survey of Port Phillip Bay in 1803. He went as far as Dight’s Falls, and his expedition diary noted, 32 years before John Batman, that the banks of the Yarra were an ideal place for a settlement. The Yarra was Melbourne’s source of water, transport and drainage. A small waterfall at the present Queen’s Bridge location stopped the saltwater of Port Philip Bay proceeding upstream. Pioneers fetched water directly from the Yarra, or bought it from pump or cart operators. The Yarra continued as Melbourne’s water supply for the first 22 years of settlement. In 1857, at the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Street, the first tap was turned on, drawing water from Yan Yean reservoir. A public holiday was declared and the whole town celebrated. The Yarra fought back during the first 50 years of settlement with massive floods that put the city streets under water. Subsequent river widening and other improvements eased the flood danger. The river also took its toll of pioneer settlers – suicides, murders, the odd drunken fall from a boat or slip on a bank, or just accidental drowning, including Batman’s young son, who slipped on the Falls while fishing.
Source RHSV Claire Ribaux
Pictures RHSV PH-970220
Flinders Street, showing on its north side Custom House (Customs House) and Yarra Family Hotel 1857
The Customs House between Market and William Streets, was built 1856-58 initial designs by Knight & Kerr. The final building designed by Johnson, Clark & Kerr of the Public Works Department and built 1873-76, incorporated the original building. The Customs House indicates the former location of Melbourne's port, the trade it fostered and Victoria's strong stance on protection and opposition to free trade during the late 19th century.
Source RHSV Elisabeth Jackson
Pictures RHSV S-19
Commercial Buildings in Flinders Street East near Swanston Street circa 1858
Principal Buildings are from left Sargood, King & Sargood (23 Flinders Street East) and the Port Philip Club Hotel (33 Flinders Street East). Sargood, King & Sargood was a 'softgoods' (drapery) shop founded by Frederick James Sargood and John King in 1852. Frederick James Sargood (1805-1873) and his son, Frederick Thomas Sargood (1834-1903) were prominent in Melbourne business and political circles. Frederick Thomas Sargood was elected to the first Senate in 1901. The Sargood family home, Rippon Lea in Elsternwick, is now owned by the National Trust. The Port Philip Club Hotel opened at this Flinders Street location in 1850.
Princes Bridge 1867
For the first 10 years the only method of travel between the north and south banks of the Yarra was by row boat or privately owned punt. In 1840, the Melbourne Bridge Company announced it would build a substantial bridge, but instead took over the punts and made excessive profits. It was not until 1845 that the company eventually opened a wooden trestle bridge, charging a toll of 2s 6d for loaded drays and 2d for pedestrians. Their rickety structure was inadequate and before long a new bridge was constructed beside it. Princes Bridge opened in 1850 and was one of the largest bridges in the world, its 150ft span second only to the centre span of the London Bridge. The arches in this photograph were temporary, erected especially for the visit of Prince Alfred in 1867. Steps lead down from St.Kilda Road to a rough walking tract along the south bank of the river. The first St. Paul’s can be seen in the distance, along with the spires of St.Enoch’s (since demolished) Wesley Church and the Independent Church. The single- span Princes Bridge was intended to serve for generations, but Melbourne’s population boomed with the gold rush and the bridge became heavily congested and the scene of frequent accidents. It was replaced in 1888 by today’s triple arch bridge.
Flinders Street 1875
Sacks of produce line the Yarra banks at Queens Wharf. The wharf had the character of a true pioneer settlement, with ships docking virtually in the heart of the city and with hotels and inns lining the waterfront and catering for seamen, merhants and passengers. The wharf was used not only for cargo vessels, but also for passengers ships which sailed regularly to Victorian coastal and interstate ports.
Source RHSV Elisabeth Jackson
Pictures RHSV PH-980104
Elizabeth Street entrance with clock tower circa 1883
This photograph of Flinders and Elizabeth streets intersection shows the entrance to St Kilda and Port Melbourne railway lines (Flinders Street Railway Station) with free standing metal clock tower 1883, horse drawn vehicles including buses (Melbourne Omnibus Co.), advertisements for the Railway Refreshment Rooms, Odorbane deodorant and disinfectant (on Lewis & Whitty sign board) and W.T. Clark (rubber stamp manufacturers). Clocks were vital for the working of the railways and large public clocks like this were common at busy hubs like Flinders Street.
Flinders Street 1890
A busy Flinders Street from the Elizabeth Street intersection. The Queen Street wharves were still a hive of activity in the city’s daily routine and this, coupled with the rail lines converging on Flinders Street Station, gave the street more importance than it has today. Pedestrians, hansom cabs, lorries, drays, jinkers and cable tram all vied for road space, and Melbourne’s first big department stores began to spring up along Flinders Street. With the decline of the wharf area around Queen Street and the loss of pedestrian and vehicle traffic, Bourke Street gradually took over as the main retail centre.
1891 Yarra in Flood
Yarra River floods were a constant problem in the first 50 years of settlement, The river was narrower than it is today and the Falls, at the site of today’s Queens Bridge, caused a build up of water during heavy rains. A flood in March, 1839, saw the postmistress, Mrs Baxter, rescued by boat from her cottage on the corner of King Street and Flinders Lane. Four big floods occurred in the 1840s, with boats being rowed up Swanston and Elizabeth Streets. The 1860s saw yet another two. But the worst on record was in July, 1891. The river broke its banks on both sides, flooding the boat sheds in the right of the photograph and spreading across the Botanic Gardens. Punt Road was under water right up to Brunton Avenue and Chapel Street, Prahran, was flooded. Factories on the south bank of the Yarra, around South Melbourne and Port Melbourne were inundated. A lengthy programme of river improvements was begun in the late 1880s, greatly reducing the chance of flooding. The removal of the Falls in 1891 prevented water from banking up and eased the flood danger, particularly around South Melbourne. Subsequent river works eliminated some difficult bends and gave the Yarra a more direct flow into the Bay.
Market Street looking south from intersection with Collins Street 1891
Source RHSV Elisabeth Jackson
Pictures RHSV S-122
A note on the reverse of this image reads 'An instantaneous photograph taken from Mr Hick's window at 59 Temple Court', On the left hand corner is the Union Club Hotel. Market Street deviates from the Hoogle Grid as it runs only between Collins and Flinders Streets. It was named for the Western Market on its western side.
The Old Fish Market 1895
Although hidden alongside the Fish Market Building, Flinders Street Station in the 1890s was one of the busiest stations in the world. Victoria’s first train ran from the city to Sandridge (now Port Melbourne) in 1854, and by the turn of the century Flinders Street Station was the heart of a thriving rail network. Mr Hanton took advantage of the heavy commuter trade by offering bicycle stabling at 3d a day, or the budget rate of 6d a week. The station entrance is just visible at the left of the photograph, next to the pork butcher, Mrs Isabella Donald. The white-helmeted policemen found point duty a little more relaxed than their counterparts stationed at the same intersection today. The present Flinders Street Station was built in 1905, the result of a design competition.
Source RHSV Richard Barnden
Pictures RHSV GN-GN 0507
Fish Market circa 1890
Between 1865 and 1892, the Melbourne Fish Market occupied the Flinders and Swanston Streets south west corner. It was of white brick and stucco with a large central central chamber 16 metres high surrounded by 14 slate slabbed stalls, fountains for washing fish, and arcade, and room for carts to enter at auction time. The building housed railway officials attached to Flinders Street Station and along its Flinders Street frontage, refreshment rooms, a newsagency, a tobaconist and a fruiterer. The needs of the railway, improved health regulations and congestions spurred the move to new premises on the south side of Flinders Street between Market and Spencer Streets in 1892. The building housed Hanton's Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Market and Bicycle Stables until it was demolished in 1900 to make way for the new Flinders Street Station.
Flinders Street Fire 1897
One of Melbourne’s worst fires last century started at the department store of Craig Williamson’s in Elizabeth Street (the 6 storey building on the left) and swept through Fink’s Building, on the corner, along Flinders Street to the roof of the Mutual Store. The licensee of the Prince Bridge Hotel on the corner of Flinders Street and Swanston Street took the precaution of rolling his beer barrels to the safetly of St.Paul’s Cathedral porch, to the probable horror of church officials. Two hundred firemen took more than 4 hours to control the fire, and the damage bill was more than half a million pounds. Fire was a constant hazard in early Melbourne, and the first insurance companies affected by disastrous fires formed their own brigades. Melbourne’s first fire was on April 25, 1838 when two aboriginal prisoners set fire to a wattle and daub watch house between Collins and Little Collins Streets and escaped. Until 1857 Melbourne’s only water supply was the Yarra River and there was keen competition among water carriers to reach a fire. The first water cart driver on the scene received eight shillings for his load, the second arrival six shillings and the third four shillings. Fire fighting was largely by volunteer or insurance brigades until the formation of Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade in 1891.
Source RSHV Elisabeth Jackson
Pictures RHSV GN-0314
Meat Market and Fish Market circa 1900
The Corporation Markets (also known as the Fish Market) were constructed by the City of Melbourne in 1891-92 on a site near the railways and the river to facilitate deliveries of produce. The Market covered 5 acres on a irregularly shaped site bounded by Spencer and Flinders Streets and Queen's Wharf Road. Designed by Robert George Gordon, the building was faced by red tuck pointed brick set off by Waurn Ponds stone. It included wholesale and retail components, a cold storage area and freezing rooms. The foundations, set on river silt, led to cracking and subsidence. The Fish market was relocated to Footscray Road in 1957 and the old market demolished.
Source RHSV Elisabeth Jackson
Pictures Reproduced from J.A.Sears. Victoria Illustrated, Melbourne, J.A.Sears, circa 1920. RHSV BL008-014.002
SLV Link
Flinders Street from Queen Street looking east circa 1920
This photograph looks east along Flinders Street from near Queen Street, showing Commerce House and the Commercial Travellers's Club building, designed by architects H.W. & F.B Tompkins in Edwardian Baroque style, was built in 1912-13. The tallest building in the city prior to the construction of the Manchester Unity Building, it was an important base for travelling salespeople. It is now the Rendezvous Hotel.
Source RHSV Weston Bate
To make Robert Hoddle's grid plan for Melbourne more practical, Governor Bourke added the east-west little streets. Then, to provide small allotments for worker's homes, the little streets spawned lane, alleys and courts. The land market thus planted a distinctive element of Melbourne's future character. Although unplanned, those lanes were essential. Running mostly north south, they made a pattern of their own. And, because early development focused on the river port and north along WIlliam Street, the first lane, to accomodate workers building the town, were on the north west outskirts. Speculation continued during the 1850s gold rush, as Melbourne's focus mover eastwards to the railway station in Flinders Street, where a Swanson Street bridge (later Princes Bridge) connected the city to major suburbs. Subdivision surged by 1856, Melbourne had 80 named and 112 unnamed 'rights of way'. Primitive and unsanitary housing grew alongside stables and piggeries.
Four zones are evident. A south-west quadrant, related to the port, housed shipping agents, importers, dealers and merchants. Seamen, often drunk frequented bars and lodgings towards Spencer Street. where country trains disgorged further itinerants. Official beginnings brought the law courts, stock exchange, Western Market and St Jame's Cathedral. Accomodation for lawyers, brokers and public servants developed. Many drank at the Mitre Tavern in Bank Place, rare for its narrow entry from a major Collins Street. Cloth merchants in Flinders Lane defined the south east quadrant, linked to garment makers in Hosier, Olivers and Higson lanes.
Prestige lanes like The Block, Royal Arcade and Cole's Book Arcade developed along the trail from Flinders Street Station to Collins and Bourke Streets through Centreway.
The southern side of Bourke Street between Swanston and Elizabeth Streets in the 1880s featuring Coles Book Arcade
Flinders Lane
Melbourne's lanes were never meant to be used as streets at all. In Hoddle's plan of the city they were intended as rear access to the main street properties. The idea was to free the main streets from the loading and unloading of goods. However, within a few years, people began to build in the lanes and began to agitate for names for them, as officially, they were without an address. So the lanes were duly named and Melbourne's streets became either "Great" or "Little". The "Great" was gradually dropped. leaving us with Flinders Lane and the "Little" streets. Our most notable little streets are Flinders Lane, renowned for its classic bluestone warehouse.
Flinders Street (and Flinders Lane) were named after navigator Captain Matthew Flinders who
claimed the discovery of Port Phillip in April 1802 aboard the Investigator, but who later conceded the
prior arrival of Acting Lieutenant John Murray on the Lady Nelson in February 1802 (RHSV). Flinders
Lane was also known as Little Flinders Street until 1948 when the Melbourne City Council declared
Flinders Lane the official name (Age 8 June 1948:2).
The dominant use of the Flinders Lane Precinct is for manufacturing, predominantly clothing and
textiles although carriage builders are also present in the nineteenth century. Clothing and textiles
become important from c.1910 and grow in importance throughout the century.
Flinders Lane looking west from near Russell Street circa 1900
Source RHSV
Pictures RHSV BL006-009
Many of premises on both sides of Flinders Lane were occupied by warehousemen and wholesale merchants, principally in the 'rag trade'. This photograph shows Richard Allen & Son, manufacturers agents and importers, 164 - 168 Flinders Lane.
Flinders Lane 1895
As early as 1895 traffic congestion was a problem in Flinders Lane. Robert Hoddle, who planned Melbourne’s streets in 1837 did not want the small lanes, but the Governor of the day, Governor Bourke, insisted on them. Flinders Lane, once called Little Flinders Street, developed as the warehouse hub Melbourne. The early warehouses went up close to the first wharves, on the Yarra near Queen Street. Many of the Flinders Lane warehouses were grand buildings and reminded some 19th century visitors of the mansions found in the narrow streets of European cities. The eastern end of Flinders Lane became the centre for textile warehouses and developed as the home of Melbourne’s “rag” trade.
Source RHSV Elisabeth Jackson
Flinders Lane looking west from Swanston Street 1903
Pictures RHSV S-20
On the left corner is Monahan's Building were the Nicholas Building now stands, with the Queens Arms Hotel on the right. Also visible are the Australian Building (background at Elizabeth Street) and the office of Charles Troedel & Co. (centre), one of the foremost printing firms in Melbourne, specialising in chromolithography images composed of at least 3 colours and producing high quality lithographs by well known artists for supplements to illustrated newspapers, theatre posters and programs, and advertising materials
Flinders Lane Map Mahlstedt, G. Date 1910. Identifier(s) Map 12 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/127268
FLINDERS STREET STATION
The Encylopedia of Melbourne edited by Andrew Brown-May & Shurlee Swain Page 272
Melbourne's iconic central railway terminus has been the heart of the suburban rail network since its construction in 1910. Strategically sited on the southern boundary of the city grid, it dominates views of the city from the Yarra River and St Kilda Road.
A railway terminus was first established in the vicinity in 1854, when the privately owned Hobson's Bay Railway Co. opened the first railway line in Australia. This line ran from Sandridge (Port Melbourne) to the city, where a two-storey station building and goods sheds were constructed on Flinders Street, opposite the end of Elizabeth Street. In the mid-1860s the company purchased several other newly established suburban train lines, establishing the station at Flinders Street as the terminus for its expanding network.
The government assumed ownership of all suburban lines in 1878 and within two years had embarked on an extravagant railways-construction program. In 1882 £80 000 was set aside for a new central station to serve as the main terminus for all passenger services in Melbourne. Various schemes were developed in the 1880s and 1890s, but it was not until 1901 that work began on the new station building, designed by two Railways Department employees, architect James Fawcett and engineer H.P.C. Ashworth. One of the lengthiest and most substantial public works of its time, the station was finally completed in 1910.
The station is dominated by its long Flinders Street façade, a powerful exercise in banded red brick and cream painted render. This is terminated at the Swanston Street end by a massive copper dome over the arched main entry with its row of indicator clocks, and at the Elizabeth Street end by a giant banded clock tower. Stylistically, the building is an eclectic combination of various late-Victorian and Edwardian treatments, combining elements of French Renaissance and Romanesque styling. Other features of architectural interest include the art nouveau-influenced detailing in the stained glass and pressed metalwork, and the extensive use of zinc cladding on the exterior.
The layout and presentation of the station are generally as constructed; the open-air platforms with their open truss verandahs still overlook the Yarra River to the south, and the subways connecting the platforms also remain, complete with their ceramic tiles and 'Do Not Spit' signs. Although the development of the underground city loop has reduced the number of commuters using the station, Flinders Street remains the city's best-known railway station. Its imposing presence and distinctive architectural treatment, combined with its prominent location, make it one of Melbourne's great landmarks. Under the clocks has been a time-honoured central city meeting place.
(by KATE GRAY)
Central Railway Station, Flinders Street, Melbourne circa 1913 Postcard. City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection.
Registration number 1089173 . Link
The Encylopedia of Melbourne edited by Andrew Brown-May & Shurlee Swain Page 273
One of Melbourne's most important business centres, Flinders Lane runs east-west from Spring to Spencer streets. The name Flinders Lane, which varied from the nomenclature of Melbourne's other little streets, was officially gazetted in 1843. For much of its history, however, 'Flinders Lane' and 'Little Flinders Street' have both appeared on maps and business letterheads as alternative versions. Melbourne City Council street nameplates indicated 'Little Flinders Street' at least until the 1930s, but a council resolution in 1948 reaffirmed the official name as Flinders Lane. More generally known as simply 'the Lane', in its late 19th-century heyday it was renowned as the centre of Melbourne's wholesale (and especially soft-goods) trade.
The lane, as laid down in Hoddle's 1837 grid, roughly followed the course of one of the settlement's first rough tracks. Through the 1840s it was notorious as an often muddy, rutted and scarcely passable passage. By the 1860s, as its swamps were filled in, and as its proximity to the wharf encouraged the construction of warehouses and showrooms, the street gained a reputation as a busy and important thoroughfare, the chosen location of mercantile houses, importers, brewers, timber yards and wholesalers. As one of the city's narrowest streets, Flinders Lane and its network of side lanes and alleys bustled with traffic and were commonly congested with travellers' buggies backed into shops, or by the lifting or lowering of boxes, sacks and other heavy goods.
Most of its bluestone warehouses have now been demolished, some replaced by hotels or carparks. They were exemplified by the New Zealand Loan Woolstore, built in 1882 at 546 Flinders Lane, backing the firm's offices on Collins Street. The imposing six-storey warehouse section had massive load-bearing walls, floor-to-floor bale chutes and a sawtooth glazed clear span roof. By the 1890s Flinders Lane's palatial emporiums and multi-storey warehouses gave it a canyon-like appearance, and some of its well-known premises included the warehouses and factories of the Denton Hat Mills, Beath, Schiess & Co. (clothing), W. McNaughton, Love & Co. (soft goods), Borsdorff & Co. (corsets and hosiery), W. Detmold (stationer), Melbourne Chilled Butter & Produce Co. Ltd, Felton, Grimwade & Co. (wholesale druggists and manufacturers), Sargood's, and Paterson, Laing & Bruce. From Spring to Queen streets, clothing warehouses, manufacturers, mill suppliers, button-and belt-makers, and clothes designers made the lane the centre of fashion, an industry pioneered by Jewish immigrant families such as Slutzkin, Blashki, Merkel, Haskin, Mollard and Trevaskis.
In the 1920s, the growth of specialty houses saw retailers increasingly importing their own goods. Property values rose as ground floor frontages were given over to shops (costumier, tailoring, luxury goods), with soft-goods merchants retreating to the upper floors. Problems with space and parking forced the rag trade into decline from the 1960s. The former Port Authority Building (1929) at the corner of Market Street is a link to the area's maritime and mercantile past, while the old Western Market boasted great low colonnaded façades with remarkable bluestone catacombs, once entered from the lane.
(by ANDREW MAY)
Flinders Lane Heritage Buildings based on i-Heritage City of Melbourne database
Mapping by Christine Mauboy . 2019
Source RHSV Elisabeth Jackson. Pictures J.A Sears photographer. Reproduced from Souvenir of Melbourne, Sydney, NSW Bookstall Co., 1905 RHSV BL093-0039
Flinders Street Railway Station, looking east from near Elizabeth Street, showing preliminary work on new station building circa 1905.
The Flinders Street Railway Station occupies a site at one of the central points of Melbourne's rail system since the 1850s. The first train line at Flinders Street was constructed in 1854. It was the town terminus for the Melbourne & Hobson Bay Railway Company, which was the first steam locomotive hauled passenger railway operation in Australia, running a service between Flinders Street and Sandridge (Port Melbourne). The present building was designed by James Fawcett and H.P.C. Ashworth of the Railways Department and constructed between 1900 and 1910 by Peter Rodger, a significant contemporary Melbourne.
SWANSTON STREET
St Kilda Rd - Swanston St - Collins St 2019
3d Aerial Video Created by Christine Mauboy
Source : RHSV - David Dunstan
Swanston Street began at Young & Jackson's Princes Bridge Hotel on the north west corner at Flinders Street and ended at the City Bath until 1925. After that date, Madeline Street which ran from the baths to the cemetery was renamed Swanston Street. Some Melburnians believed that Swanston Street, with its view of the Shrine of Remembrance at once end and the Carlton Brewery at the other, summed up the city. The brewery has gone, alas, but the Shrine remains.
Charles Swanston was an East India Company soldier turned Tasmanian colonist, and a clever banker, who, together with John Batman, initiated occupation of Wurundjeri territory on the Yarra in 1835. Both Swanston and his bank were ruined by economic downturn in the 1840s, a typically Melburnian end. He died in 1850, on the eve of gold rushes that made the city he helped to found rich and famous.
Hoodle and Russell's 1837 grid layout on thr Yarra's north bank created the street, at first a shallow gully draining to the river and lined with makeshift dwellings. Even after road works in the 1850s, its open gutters remained hazardous and smelly, drainage from the Melbourne Hospital (1848) being the main culprit.
Flows of different character soon made Swanston Street Melbourne's busiest thoroughfare. By 1860 it had a distinct commercial district featuring grocery, plumbing, photographic, drapery, headwear, bakery, medical, real estate, building, horticultural and religious services. By the end of the 1880s boom, these had multiplied considerably in arcades and new lift serviced multi storey buildings
The first Princes Bridge (1851) made Swanston Street the city's southern gateway. The second larger bridge (1888), still in use today, consolidated it. Cabs and horse driven traffic, congregated there to collect and disperse travellers. Pedestrians too hawkers, buskers, processions, vagrants crowded the street and pavements adjacent to the river.
All manner of transport has tranversed Swanston Street horse drawn vehicles, cable and electric trams, bicycles, buses and automobiles. The city's railways and the tram networks interchange here, feeding commuters and shoppers into and out the city day and night. The grand Edwardian Flinders Street Station on the corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets (completed 1909) was preceded on the other side of the street by the Melbourne & Suburban Railway Company's Princes Bridge Street Station (1859), a cutting under Swanston Street (1865) linking it with Flinders Street's predecessor station at Elizabeth Street. In the 1970s the City Loop provided another station at the northern end of Swanston Street, Melbourne Central (originally Museum), opposite the State Library.
Automobile traffic, a problem since the 1920s, was only restricted from the 1990s. The Street would be inconceivable without its intersections, notably Flinders, Collins and Bourke Streets but also Lonsdale and La Trobe Streets to the north. They have been meeting poitns since the city's earliest days. Only Lonsdale Street does not carry an east west tram service. Swanston Street forms part of 'The Block' along with Collins, Elizabeth and Bourke Street, historically the city's main retail and promenade precinct. The corners, too, are platforms for monumental buildings. Architect Joseph Reed was responsible for the Melbourne Town Hall (1870) and the Public Library (1861). The Town Halls portico (1886) from which the Beatles gazed in 1964 locates it unmistakably in Swanston Street.
Other such monuments include architect Marcus Barlow's gleaming white modernist Century Building (1939), the Manchester Unity Building (1932), St Paul's Anglican Cathedral (consecrated 1891) and the so called City Square on Collins Street. A misplaced longing for central city open space, led by Lord Mayor Sir Bernard Evans, saw splendid Victoria Building and the Cathedral Hotel, where writer Mark Twain once stayed, demolished. Federation Square, a multi purpose complex on the edge of the grid above the old Princes Bridge Station has been more succesful.
The post war education boom, the 1990s CBD property slump and fee paying international students saw RMIT University (once the Working Men's College) expand northwards along Swanston Street with a bevy of post modern structures. Among them, architects Edmond & Corrigan's colorful Building 8 (1990-94) and Ashton Raggatt McDougall's Storey Hall (1996) complement a revitalised State Library to form a knowledge precinct.
Other aesthetic treats include: the 1936 Nicholas Building ( a massive stone rabbit warren of artists studios and residence hideways); the Manchester Unity murals; the statuary outside the State Library and the Burke and Wills Monument, Melbourne's finest. Swanston Street also features Walter Burley and Marion Mahoney Griffin's wonderful Capitol Theatre, Chevalier Jules Levebvre's nude painting 'Chloe' upstairs at Young & Jackson, Queen's Hall and the Domed Reading Room at the State Library. Although often taken for granted, Swanston Street is arguably Melbourne's greatest thoroughfare.
Augmented Reality Animations from the postcards - Swanston Street Created by Christine Mauboy
Swanston Street Heritage Buildings based on i-Heritage City of Melbourne database
Mapping by Christine Mauboy . 2019
Swanston Street The Main Thoroughfare
When Melbourne’s first bridge went up across the Yarra in 1845, Swanston Street’s position as the main route through town was assured. Elizabeth Street retailers had lobbied strongly for the bridge to cross the Yarra near them, but Swanston Street was chosen because the river there was much shallower. Once the township began to develop eastward Swanston Street became the dividing line between the two sides of town. It separated Collins Street East from Collins Street West and both sections had separate street numbers. Eventually the “east” and “west” designations were dropped and the streets re-numbered. With the construction of later city bridges, Swanston Street became less important as a thoroughfare but it still led to St. Kilda Road, the most direct route to the exclusive bayside suburbs of 19th Century Melbourne.
Source RSHV Brad Underhill
Pictures RHSV GN-GN-0321
Old Town Hall circa 1855
This photograph shows the Swanston Street facade of Old Melbourne Town Hall. To its left the watch houes and, behind, a tower used to watch for fires. Initially the site was selected by Charles La Trobe to be a post office, with a town hall located at Eastern Hill on the present site of Parliament House. This plan was rejected on the grounds that the location was not central enough for a town hall. Designed by city surveyor James Blackburn and built by Charles Fredrick, the 3 storey building was completed in 1854. The lack of a public hall and its apparent diminutive size were given as the main reasons for its demolition in 1868 to be replaced by the grander present Melbourne Town Hall
Source RSHV Elizabeth Jackson
Pictures RHSV A-238
Young & Jackson's Princes Bridge Hotel, north west corner Swanston and Flinders Streets circa 1866
The hotel remains a Melbourne landmark. The original 1853 bluestone building was a 3 storey residence with a ground floor butcher's shop but opened as a hotel in July 1861 with John T. Toohey as a licensee. It was later extended but the original stone corner building can still be readily identified. In 1875 Henry Figsby Young and Thomas Jackson took over the licence and gave the hotel its current popular name. Young & Jackson is famous as the home of Chloe a demure nude female painted by Frenchman Jules Lefebvre, and purchased by Henry Young in 1908. Chloe, part of the Melbourne 1880 Exhibition, was initially considered scandalous. She is now displayed in the upstairs lounge. In 1888 the hotel was one of the first chosen by the Foster Brothers to sell their revolutionary new lager beer.
The City from St. Kilda Road circa 1870
A wooden post and rail fence edges St. Kilda Road at its approach to Princes Bridge and the city. The wooden buildings surround by trees and scrub are the boat sheds of James Edwards who operated from the Yarra banks for many years. Across the river can be seen the Town Hall spire, the first St.Paul’s and the spire of the Independent Church to the right. From a rough track through the bush, St.Kilda Road developed into one of Melbourne’s most elegant boulevards. Wealthy merchants and professional men built many fine mansions along St. Kilda Road, but in the past 20 years most of these have given way to office development. Some remain today as a reminder of the era when St. Kilda Road was one of the most fashionable addresses in town.
St. Paul’s Church 1870s
But for the buildings in the background this could easily pass as a photograph of a quaint country church. But the corner of Swanston Street and Flinders Steet lost its rural charm long ago. Its destiny as a place of worship, however, was established very early. In the first year of settlement regular services were held on the site, in a tent under a large gum tree. There was talk of building a court house on the spot, but in 1841 the area was leased to a contractor as a hay and corn market. He moved in 1847 when the Eastern Market opened in Bourke Street. The vacant allotment was an opportunity for Bishop Charles Perry. For some years he’d been looking for a better site for the Church of England, whose St. James Church, on the corner of William and Little Collins Street, was located in what was becoming the less central part of town. When Perry asked for the land, surveyor Robert Hoddle had no objection, particularly as “a goal and courthouse” had been built in “another part of the city”. James and Charles Webb designed the bluestone church and the foundation stone was laid in 1850. St Paul’s was the first bluestone church in Melbourne proper and established a pattern that was to be repeated in many city and suburban churches. To the left of the church is St. Paul’s school which ran through to Flinders Lane.
(Inset) St. Paul’s School 1877
Pupils pose outside St.Paul’s School, beside the church in Swanston Street. The wearing of a hat was compulsory, but from the variety of hats clutched by the boys in this photograph there was no strict rule on what sort of hat it should be.
Swanston Street circa 1873
Melbourne begins to take shape in the 1870s with some of today’s landmarks already in existence. To the upper right is the GPO, without its tower. To the left of it is the National Bank building in Collins Street, still standing today. At the corner of Swanston Street and Collins Street the Town Hall dominates the skyline. At the extreme left is the spire of the Independent Church at the corner of Collins and Russell Streets. In the left foreground is the original Public Baths, a Melbourne landmark since the 1860s. Beyond it on the corner of La Trobe Street and Swanston Street is the County Court building,
Source RHSV Richard Barnden
Pictures RHSV AL001-0056
St Paul's Church 1875
St Paul's Church, precursor to St Paul's Cathedral, was built on the site on the north east corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets where the first public Christian services in Melbourne were led by Dr Alexander Thomson in 1836. Soon afterwards a small wooden chapel was built elsewhere, and the area became a corn market until 1848, when it was made available for the building of one of Charles Webb's earliest commissions, the bluestone St Paul's Parish Church. Consecrated in 1852, this church was used until 1885, when it was demolished to make way for the present cathedral (whose foundation stone had been laid in 1880). The photograph also shows on the left a portion of St Paul's School and Garden.
Source RHSV Database
Pictures RHSV A-427
Swanston and Little Collins Streets corner circa 1880
The T&G building shown was the original Victorian headquarters of Temperance & General Mutual Life Assurance and was built in the 1880s. It was replaced by the better known T&G building on the corner of Collins and Russell streets in the 1920s. The photograph also shows Collier Bros Tailors & Shirtmakers and an advertisement for the pioneering Chaffey Irrigation Colonies. A number of businesses connected with the Chaffey Irrigation Colony at Mildura had offices in the T&G Building.
Source RHSV Richard Barnden
Pictures RHSV PH-011024-010
St Paul's School 1880
From 1850, St Paul's School had been conducted in a schoolroom in Bourke Street between Russell and Swanston Streets. As the site gained in value, owing to the discovery of gold and the subsequent in population, it was leased and, with the proceeds, a range of school buildings in Elizabethan style was erected in Swanston Street on vacant land north of the then current St Paul's Church. These opened in in 1857 and accomodated 350 pupils. The construction of St Paul's Cathedral entailed, in the first instance, the removal of St Paul's School. The school closed in 1879 and the building was taken down and re-erected at the western end of Bourke Street as a new St James' Grammar School. In this photograph the building and grounds appear derelict.
Swanston Street circa 1890
A Melbourne City Council cart and a passenger coach look set for a collision in the centre of Swanston Street. Council vehicles and workers patrolled the city streets, just as they do today, but the tasks were somewhat different. Water carts constantly travelled the street keeping down the dust of unmade roads. Another major task was the control of 19th Century traffic pollution – the collection of horse droppings.
Town Hall Corner circa 1893
Three workmen that beneath a gas lamp on the corner of Swanston Street and Collins Street. Their clothes, and in particular their hats, act as a social indicator, contrasting with the top hats and bowlers of a group of businessmen on the opposite corner. Few of the buildings on the southern side of Collins Street remain today, a notable exception being the seven storey building at 271 Collins Street, refurbished by the National Bank. Down from it, on the Elizabeth Street corner, is the City of Melbourne Bank with its tower and cupola. It occupied the site of the old Clarence Hotel, one of Melbourne’s most famous early hotels. Describing this section of Collins Street in the 1880s a writer of the time said it was “almost monopolized by banking institutions, and the offices of building societies and financial companies.”
Swanston Street 1900
Four-thirty on a wintry Melbourne day. A cloud of steam bursts across the footpath from the rail lines at Princes Bridge Station. On the opposite side of the street, the low-roofed building is Flinders Street Station, the construction of today’s grand structure being some five years away. St. Paul’s Cathedral adds to the glum atmosphere of this photograph, its elegant spires not being built for almost another 35 years.
Source Encylopedia of Melbourne, After Graeme Tucker
Pictures Reproduced from J.A. Sears. Victoria Illustrated Melbourne circa 1920 RHSV BL008-001
Town Hall and Council Offices, corner Collins and Swanston Streets circa 1920
This photograph shows the Melbourne Town Hall, Queen Victoria Building and Government Tourist Bureau. The current town hall, opened in 1879 was designed in the French Second Empire style by the competition winning architect Joseph Reed. The portico was added in 1887. For many years from 1906 the home of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, it also showed films until the 1930s, including the world's first narrative film with the premiere of Soldiers of the Cross in 1900. After a fire in 1925, a lager auditorium was built, extending across the site of the former Victoria Coffee Palace and featuring murals designed by Napier Waller. Many overseas performers and rock bands appeared at the Melbourne Town Hall, and the Beatles were given a civic reception there in 1964
Source Rosemary McConnell
Pictures RHSV BL010-006
Collins and Swanston streets corner looking west and north circa 1924
To the right of the image is the Capitol Theatre at 113 Swanston Street, built 1921-24 and designed by internationally acclaimed architects Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahony Griffin in the Chicagoesque Style, in association with Peck & Kenter. The building was designed too include more than 100 offices, and 6 shops. On the ground floor was a theatre with seating for over 2000 people. Acclaimed as a masterpiece of design, it is topped by a plaster ceiling of intricate geometrical patterns. Since its opening the building has undergone some changes as it was scheduled for demolition but saved by public campaign. After languishing in the 1990s it was purchased by RMIT University as part of its Swanston Street campus.
Source Clare Ribaux
Pictures John Gollings photographer. Copyright © 1994 John Gollings
West side of Swanston Street between Collins and Little Collins streets 1994
This magnificent streetscape view shows from left to right, the Manchester Unity Building (1932) and Capitol Theatre (1924). To their right is the Talma Building (1924) and Aeolian House (1926), both seemingly squeezed in against the taller Century Building (1938) on the right. The latter was designed by Marcus Barlow in Art Deco style with vertical ribbing on the facade and a corner tower to maximise the impression of height.
Source RHSV Clare Ribaux
Pictures Reproduced from Centenary Souvenir: Manchester Unity IOOF in Victoria, Melbourne, H. Hearne & Co., 1934. RHSV BL011-019.002
Manchester Unity Building 29 July 1932
The north west corner if Swanston and Collins streets, was known as Stewart Dawson Corner after the jewellers on this site. being opposite the Melbourne Town Hall it rivalled 'under the clocks' at Flinders Street Station as a popular meeting place. The site was purchased from Stewart Dawson Jewellers in 1928 by the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the premises demolished. A new building designed in a Gothic Commercial style by Marcus Barlow was constructed by W.E. Cooper in less than an year. The 11 storey building with a 24 metres tower, had a basement tea room and a garden roof top cafe with fountain. The whole project cost a massive £600.000. The Manchester Unity offices and boardroom were located on the 11th floor. In 1997 the top 2 floors were converted into apartments. The building once opened in December 1932 became symbol of Melbourne's modernity. This photograph shows the week by week construction achievement.
Source RHSV Elisabeth Jackson
Pictures Commercial Photograph Company, RHSV PH-970568
Foy & Gibson Building north east corner of Swanston and Bourke streets circa 1937
William Gibson arrived in Victoria in 1882 and the following year set up a drapery shop in Smith Street, Collingwood, in partnership with Francis Foy. The partnership dissolved in 1884 but the name continued. The premises, one of Melbourne's earliest department stores, became a landmark for decades, notable for the large Father Christmas figure erected there each year. The company was taken over by Cox Brothers in 1955 and this buildings was sold to Woolworths in 1967. The photograph also shows the Esquire Theatre and Manton's department store (in Bourke Street). This was during the changeover period from cable to electric trams and the photograph shows electric trams running north south and cable trams running east west.
Source RHSV Database
Pictures Reproduced from Beautiful Victoria Australia, Melbourne, Osboldstone & Co., 1924. RHSV BL010-007
Swanston and Bourke streets intersection circa 1924
Panoramic view along Swanston and Bourke Streets, looking south and west from their intersection, showing The Leviathan Store, Melba Theatre, Cole's Book Arcade, cable tram, motor vehicles and a motor bus. The Leviathan Clothing Co. began in 1865 and moved to this Edwardian Baroque building in 1913, where the company created a lavish emporium, which declined with age and ceased trading in 1972. Next door to the Leviathan was Swanston House with 7 floors containing a number of dressmakers and milliners and with an Ezywalkin boot store at street level.
Most of the images are drawn from the RHSV’s collections and many appear in the RHSV’s recent publication Remembering Melbourne 1850 - 1960 Royal Historical Society of Victoria . A Superb Portrait of Melbourne .This book is an exceptional collection of images not so readily known. Every photograph is identified and explained in extended captions written by over 75 volunteers from twenty suburban historical societies and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, the latter being Melbourne’s history society. Caption writers also assisted in the final selection of photographs.The book, an imaginative collaboration by the Royal Historical Society of Victoria and the QBD, and based on the voluntary efforts of over 100 people, has established a new benchmark in recording the early history of one of the world’s most liveable cities.
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