Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, Australia, was an important Victorian-era city and erected "some of the world's most majestic buildings" of the era.[1] Many grand buildings survive from the period, particularly public buildings, including the State Library of Victoria (1856), Parliament House (1856), the General Post Office (1867 and 1887), the Royal Exhibition Building (1880), and commercial buildings such as the Windsor Hotel (1884), the Block Arcade (1893), and the Rialto Building Group (1888–1891). However, many other architectural gems of Melbourne's central city from the Victorian and other periods were lost in the 1950s-70s when Melbourne, like many other cities, sought to reinvent itself as a modern metropolis.
Whelan the Wrecker was by far the most successful demolition company in the period, and was responsible for almost all of these losses, but often saved items such as statuary for resale.[2]
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, which puts local councils in control of Heritage Overlays. This has resulted in many significant buildings that cannot meet the strict criteria for listing under the act being listed at a local rather than state level.
Some Councils have however been slow to protect places, and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal can overturn a listing, and Planning Minister has always had powers of intervention,[3] which are sometimes used to allow demolition involving projects considered to have a high economic value. As a result, significant buildings continue to be demolished in Melbourne in the name of progress.
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.
In the 1880s, there was another boom in Melbourne. Land prices increased as speculators took advantage of easy credit from London and lax local financial regulations. Speculation led to the development of large, elaborate offices, hotels, and department stores in Melbourne, along with suburban subdivisions along rapidly expanding railway lines.[4] This growth so astonished visiting journalist George Augustus Sala in 1885 that he dubbed the city "Marvelous Melbourne".[5] Growth continued at an accelerated pace for the next five or six years, until the inevitable real estate bust.
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 land but were possible because of Melbourne's newly installed pressurized water system that was needed to operate hydraulic lifts (elevators). Most of these early skyscrapers have been demolished, leaving the 8 storey Stalbridge Chambers (1890) and the former National Mutual Building (1893), and at 7 storeys the Lombard Building (1889), Former Stock Exchange (1888) and Safe Deposit Building (1890).
The following is a list of the largest, most elaborate, or otherwise notable buildings that are lost.
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 47m (154feet), and to the top of the spire 51m (167feet), 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.
A new Bijou Theatre was built on the site of an earlier theatre, opening in 1890 in the Renaissance Revival style. The new theatre seated around 2,000 across three levels.[6] The theatre was further renovated and altered in 1907.[7] It was demolished in 1934 by Whelan the Wrecker,[8] a few weeks after the Royal, opposite.[9]
The Cromwell building was a prominent baroque styled seven storey landmark at 370-374 Bourke Street on the prominent mid city corner of Bourke & Elizabeth Streets. In 1971 it was demolished for the Cromwell, Chandris Line office tower, a sixteen-storey brown brick building which was almost immediately labelled an eyesore and promptly demolished just two decades years later in 1992. The original Cromwell was noted for its bold and complex facade reminiscent of the later Block Arcade including prominent portal styled windows and juxtaposed pediments, its masculine appearance corner chevron and bold cornice. From 1940 to 1948 it became the headquarters of optometry firm Coles & Garrard as the company expanded to fill the whole building the ground floor was modernised with a streamlined moderne shopfront.[10] The building was a favourite for turn of the century artists, photographers and musicians.[11] However the building was purchased by the Commercial Bank of Australia in 1946 which had announced its intentions to replace it with a modern building.[12]
Craig Williamson and Thomas began as a drapery in 1874. In 1883, they expanded into a four-storey building on Elizabeth Street.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] 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,[16]
The Eastern Arcade stood on Bourke Street between Russell and Exhibition Streets. It was first erected in 1872 on the Haymarket Theatre site adjacent to the Eastern Market complex and designed by George Raymond Johnson.[17] The Second Empire styled building with three large mansard domed roofs was described as "one of the best examples of street architecture in the city", while its fashionable internal promenade was equally grand, its vaulted ceilings and spaces said to rival all other arcades in the city.
In 1894 the building was remodelled by Hyndman and Bates, with an additional storey and the original roof removed and a recessed bay turned into a giant keyhole arch, it had become one of Melbourne's earliest examples of Moorish Revival Architecture.
Following the turn of the century, the Eastern Market precinct had passed its heyday and had developed an unsavoury reputation with both retailers and consumers, leading to the Herald describing it as a "resort for the undesirables".[18] The internal arcade itself was later demolished in 1926 for the showrooms of furniture company Clauscen & Co.[19] The Bourke Street facade featured richly decorated tiled mosaics as evident in photos from the 1920s, during the 1960s these were painted over in white before being having its cornices removed and the facade covered completely in sheet metal hoarding. The building was used as a retail showroom for many businesses including Allans music over the years.[20] 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.[21]
In 2007 property developers requested permission to demolish the Bourke Street frontage for the foyer of a new apartment tower known as Citadines on Bourke. Despite calls that consideration of the application was "shameful" a permit was granted after a failed attempt at heritage protection and it was demolished in 2008.[22] The Little Collins Street two storey facade is all that remains, while not as spectacular as the Bourke Street frontage, with the addition of a mansard styled roof and dormers it was converted into an boutique apartment building in the 1990s.
See main article: Eastern Market, Melbourne. 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.[23] 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.
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.[24] German-born American architect Edward Raht designed it as "the grandest building in the Southern Hemisphere and to last forever".[25] 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 138feet, 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.[26]
See main article: Federal Coffee Palace. The Federal Coffee Palace was on the western end of Melbourne’s premier thoroughfare, Collins Street. James Munro and James Mirams—
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.
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.
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.[27] The riverside portion of the property eventually became Batman Park. In the early 2000s, the Flinders Street portion was developed into apartment buildings.[28]
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.[29] [30] 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.[31] [32] 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.[33] 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.
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.[34]
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.
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.[35] 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.[36] 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.[37] 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.
Josef,[38] 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.[39] 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.
Friedrich Wilhelm Prell was born in Hamburg, Germany, and migrated to Australia at the age of 21. There, he founded the import/export business of F. W. Prell and Company Limited.[40] In 1886, the vice-president of the Otis Elevator Company, W. F. Hall, visited Melbourne from the United States and had a conversation with Prell, noting that Sydney had six Otis hydraulic lifts in operation, while Melbourne had none. Hall remarked that men who had to climb stairs in Melbourne's offices would do so with great difficulty, reaching the top floor with "aching legs, a fluttering heart, and a firm resolution to do business elsewhere".
In response, Prell built a five-storey office building on the northwest corner of Queen Street, to which he added Otis safety elevators that operated using water pressure.[41] Prell planned two more buildings, one of seven storeys and one of nine storeys. His plan changed to three nine-storey office buildings in the same block of Queen Street, between Collins Street and Flinders Street. F. M. White and Sons designed the three complementary buildings in Renaissance Revival style. They were constructed between 1888 and 1889. By July 1889, the city's high-pressure hydraulic system was improved and all of Prell's high-rise buildings were connected to it.[42] 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".
Prells I was renovated in 1929 resulting in all of its original ornamed being stripped and its exterior renovated in Palazzo style architecture with a large Italianate an enormous decorative tower adding to its already significant height giving it an exemption to existing height limits and at 14 and 76 metres (increased by 35 metres), made it for a time Melbourne's tallest. It was rebranded as the APA Tower in the 1920s which was later known as the Legal & General Tower before being demolished in 1969.
All four of Prell's Buildings were demolished between 1967 and 1980. The four storey Felton building (1886) on Queen Street is all that remains of his legacy to the city.
The head office of the State Savings Bank of Victoria was a large 8 storey Commercial Palazzo style building began in 1912 which occupied almost an entire city block.[43] 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 old GPO opposite as well as the Equitable Building on Collins Street. The building was known by Melburnians and banking staff affectionately as 'Old Lizzy'. It was demolished in 1975 to make way for a 41-storey tower offset 45 degrees to the street known as the State Bank Centre completed in 1980.
The Royal was one of the largest and important theatres in early Melbourne. The 1870s theatre was rebuilt by Coppin immediately could seat 4,000 people over four tiers), and opened in November the same year,[44] under joint management by Coppin, Stewart, Harwood and Hennings.[45]
It was remodelled in 1904, seating fewer people more comfortably on three tiers, but the growing popularity of the moving pictures in the 1920s affected theatre attendance, and the effects of the Great Depression led to the closure of the theatre in 1932. In 1933 it was finally demolished, and replaced by Manton's department store, later becoming a Coles store, itself redeveloped into a Target store in the 1970s. Kmart now occupies the site.[46]
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.[47] 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.[48]
Originally the premises of the Temperance & General (T&G) Insurance Company, it was one of the most elaborate and grand constructions of the land boom. Erected in 1889 on the corner of Little Collins and Swanston Street the tall seven storey tower was executed in and impressive Second Empire style complete with baroque details. 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 council purchased the building, renaming Town Hall Chambers due to its proximity to the Town Hall and Administration Building and used it for offices. In the 1960s the council earmarked the site, like the nearby City Square, as potential open space. In 1974 it was demolished by Wheland the Wrecker. However the site remained empty and a concrete carpark for decades until being occupied by a small single storey cafe in the 1990s. The rear of the site later became Council House 2 (CH2).
Queen's Coffee Palace was one of the largest and most imposing built in Melbourne, however for many years stood as a "colossal folly" to the city's speculative land boom.
The Queen's Coffee Palace Company conceived in 1887 raised £30,000 in investment before paying in 1888 a sum of £24,571 to construct a 600-room six storey plus basement temperance hotel on the corner of Rathdowne and Victoria streets.[49] The large building was designed by architects Oakden, Addison & Kemp in a baronial German Renaissance Revival style.[50] The speculative development's prospectus focused on its strategic location close to the site of the Carlton Gardens to capitalise on the 1888 Melbourne Centennial Exhibition at the nearby Royal Exhibition Building, it would directly compete with the Federal Coffee Palace, the Melbourne Coffee Palace and the Grand (now Windsor) among others.[51] However the venture failed. A partial collapse of the cornice shortly after construction [52] was followed by perpetual delays in opening which saw significant losses to shareholders.[53] Construction issues and delays saw it the subject of litigation.[54] After the collapse of G.Lachal's estate in 1889[55] and having remained empty for much of 1889 a radical proposal was hatched for the government to purchase it and turn it into a much needed hospital[56] however this did not eventuate. In 1890 it was still vacant, remained unfinished with much of it covered in scaffolding, and most of its investors were declared insolvent[57] with the company finally wound up in 1890.
After remaining vacant for a decade and numerous failed bids to turn it into a hospital, tenders were called in 1898 to complete the building to make it suitable for renting as affordable city lodgings which it served as not long after.[58] It was later sold freehold.[59]
Like many buildings in the 1960s, the impressive mansard roof was stripped off, apparently due to fire damage,[60] significantly reducing the visual impact of the building. It was demolished in 1970 and the site remained vacant until 1984 when it was replaced by the headquarters of the Cancer Council, a nondescript two storey box described as the "city's worst eyesore".[61]
In 1884, businessman and director of the Federal Bank, John Robb, financed a large building with 132feet of frontage on Collins Street. Robb hired architect Thomas Watts to design his building.[62] The Robbs Building consisted of five storeys plus a basement, with large spaces that could be used for offices or retail. It had three separate entrances, each with lifts (elevators) and stairs.[63] The exterior featured vertical piers topped with Corinthian columns that spanned its five-storeys.
Though successful as an investment, the building suffered from mishaps. In March 1888, a lift wire broke, causing an elevator to crash to the ground.[64] In August 1889, a fire started on the top floor, destroying documents of tenants such as the Railway Office. In addition, water from the fire brigade damaged the Traffic Audit Office and the bank that occupied the ground floor corner.[65] When the real estate market crashed in the early 1890s, Robb was heavily indebted and was declared bankrupt in 1894, owing £653,000.[66] By the 1920s, the two eastern bays were separately known as Dudley Buildings and sold for £88,000 in 1926.[67] The Dudley Buildings were demolished in 1975.
In the 1970s, National Mutual acquired the Robbs Building and the nearby Rialto Building Group. In January 1981, National Mutual sold the site. The new owner, the Grollo Group, revealed plans for a trio of high-rise office towers that would replace the Robbs Building.[68] Their plan was stymied for a few months when the Builders Labourer's Federation (BLF) placed a ban on the demolition of the Robbs Building. There was also community opposition to its demolition. BLF lifted the ban in November 1981 and demolition of the Robbs Building commenced in early 1982.[69] The Rialto Towers were completed in October 1986 and the site of the Robbs Building became an open plaza. Between 2015 and 2017, that plaza and the forecourt of the Rialto Towers were turned into office buildings.
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 Victoria Building housed the Freehold Investment & Banking Co. on the corner, as well as 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.[70] A statue of Queen Victoria sat on the corner beneath the building’s landmark tall diagonal roof (the latter was removed by 1910).
Queens Walk was initially challenged by sewage problems, with the City of Melbourne's Inspector of Nuisances receiving several complaints from the building's occupants in the 1890s. In 1922 the walkway was refurbished as an arcade, with more shops, a glass roof, large leaded-glass cupolas at the entrances, and was renamed Queens Walk Arcade.[71] Later, the arcade included twenty shops with tenants such as Cavalier Tea Rooms, Drummunds, tailor Henry Bucks, and the Savage Club. 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.
Wilson Hall was one of the largest and most important academic buildings constructed in Melbourne's history. George Tibbits described the building as the 'architectural jewel in the 19th century university and its soul'.[72]
The building was a gift of Sir Samuel Wilson, who donated £30,000 toward its construction.[73] Designed by prominent architect Joseph Reed and A.C. Smart in the gothic revival tradition of universities it was built by James Nation & Co it was completed in 1882 and became a prominent part of the university quadrangle. Featuring an enormous cathedral scale in the perpendicular gothic style with high vaulted ceiling with massive stained glass windows and a faceted bays at one end. After almost a century of academic tradition the building burnt down in 1952 in front of a large saddened community of spectators. The university was faced with the decision of reconstruction of the original from the ruins or but opted to build a modern replacement. 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.[74] The building's destruction was significant in that it began a shift in the university's planners away from gothic revival in which almost all previous campus buildings had been constructed to the modernist and International style of the late 20th Century.