Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, Australia has been through many booms and busts, and like many Western cities, especially in the English speaking world, lost notable buildings from earlier eras in the great redevelopment boom of the post WW2 decades. Melbourne is notable in particular for the land-boom of the 1880s producing "some of the world's most majestic buildings" of the era, as well as many large houses and mansions in the suburbs, which were in turn amongst those that were lost as the city sought to reinvent itself as a modern metropolis.
Whelan the Wrecker was by far the most successful demolition company in the postwar period, and was responsible for almost all of these losses, but often saved items such as statuary for resale.
The list is dominated by large, elaborate, Victorian era commercial buildings lost in the postwar years, but notable buildings from other periods were also demolished at that time, and some have been lost in more recent decades. Some notable early Victoria era buildings that were lost as early as the 1880s boom are also included, as well as some notable postwar buildings that have also been demolished.
The list is arranged by building type, and date of construction.
Background
Melbourne began in 1835 as the base for the rapid settlement of the hinterland mainly for sheep runs; the 1850s Gold Rush resulted in huge growth to a population of 300,000 by 1854. During this period of great wealth and optimism, many large public buildings were built or begun. This was followed by steady growth in pastoral wealth and an urban economy based on industrial enterprises, and the town became a metropolis. Many grand buildings survive from this period, notably public buildings such as the State Library of Victoria, Parliament House, and the Royal Exhibition Building. This rapid development so astonished visiting journalist George Augustus Sala in 1885 that he dubbed the city "Marvelous Melbourne".
His visit was in the middle of the boom of the 1880s, when land prices increased as investors took advantage of easy credit from London and lax local financial regulations to feed strong demand. Speculation led to the development of large, elaborate offices, hotels, and department stores, along with large houses and mansions in extensive grounds, and suburban development along rapidly expanding railway lines. Surviving commercial buildings from this period include the Windsor Hotel, the Block Arcade, the Princess Theatre, and the Rialto Building Group.
Amongst the buildings of this boom period were a dozen office or hotel buildings of eight or nine levels, along with the eleven-storey Australian Building. These Victorian-era skyscrapers not only maximized the value of the land but were possible because of Melbourne's newly installed pressurized water system that was used to operate hydraulic lifts (elevators). This boom included the replacement of landmarks of the earlier decades, in some cases less than a decade old. This boom reached a climax in 1891, and was followed by the inevitable real estate bust, with many office buildings, shops, houses and mansions vacant or defaulting to bank ownership. City and suburban development did not restart until around 1900, and Edwardian era saw many fine commercial buildings added to the city skyline, and the first demolitions of mansions for smaller building lots. Development continued through the 1920s and 1930s, with increasing suburbanisation, as well as flats in the middle suburbs (including the conversion of mansions), and more commercial city buildings.
After the privations of WW2, and subsequent rationing, the economy began a long boom in the mid-1950s, which coincided with the ideals of efficiency and progress, disdain for anything old, Modernist architectural trends, a rapidly growing market for office buildings, and further suburban growth. Most of the largest Victorian era office buildings were demolished in this period, as they did not provide modern open plan office space, and were in the financial quarter of the city, where modern office space was in demand. More old mansions in the middle suburbs were demolished for subdivisions in this period as well.
In response to the many losses (in particular the threat of demolition of the Windsor Hotel), the Historic Buildings Preservation Act 1974 was introduced, establishing the Historic Buildings Preservation Council who determined which places were deemed to be of the highest 'State level' significance. Local heritage controls were introduced in the early 1980s, confirmed under the Planning and Environment Act 1987; now known as Heritage Overlays, large swathes of the inner city and middle suburbs, as well as many local landmarks, were protected.
However, some Councils were and still are slow to protect places, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal can overturn a listing, and the Planning Minister has always had powers of intervention,Ministerial Interventions - Planning Victoria so significant buildings have continued to be demolished.
The buildings
Office Blocks The boom of the 1880s, along with the acceptance of lifts, led to the construction of speculative office blocks, sometimes quite large and elaborate. From a norm of five levels at most, from the late 1880s they suddenly emerged much taller, up to 10 floors, simply employing the existing technology of thick load bearing brick walls. The development of a high-pressure water system starting in 1888 allowed many buildings to adopt hydraulic lift systems, considered to be 'perfectly safe'.
Robbs Building (1884–1982)
In 1884, businessman and director of the Federal Bank, John Robb, financed a building 'of mammoth size' with 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. 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 (x3) (1889, 1890–1967, 1969, 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 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 had moved from Melbourne's previous 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, Fink's Building was a ten-storey office building, 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 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. It was rebuilt in 1898, but as a much less imposing six-storey building, losing the attic and the top two floors. Purchased by the Commonwealth Bank in the late 1940s, they demolished it in 1969, along with the adjacent Craig Williamson's Department Store, 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)