Middle Park Light Rail Station rebuild includes reduced veranda

A characteristic Middle Park light rail station which burnt down last year is being rebuilt but — due to modern day safety standards — a large part of its charming facade will be missing.

Builders at work on the Middle Park Tram Stop. Picture Norm Oorloff

A tram stop destroyed by fire last year is being rebuilt brick by brick, but with its characteristic veranda only half the size it originally was.

Yarra Trams and the state government promised to rebuild the Middle Park Light Rail Station, home to Mart 130 Cafe, after it burnt down in February last year.

But the cafe owner Kate Anstee said the reduced veranda wasn’t good enough

“The major feature of the original station building was its sprawling veranda, its mammoth size stretching to just under 13 meters long by just over four meters wide,” she said.

A fire destroyed the Middle Park light rail station and a cafe February 20 2018.

“At the very least, the veranda should be extended from the proposed two-meter depth to at least three meters.

“Anything short of this will ensure the building looks amiss and a poor and cheap reproduction of the original.”

Not only is Ms Anstee worried about the heritage value of the building, she also thinks a two-metre veranda would be inadequate for providing shelter.

“The original veranda stretched over both the upper platform and lower platform, providing shelter to cafe patrons and travellers alike,” she said.

Mart 150 Cafe owner Kate Anstee says a two-metre veranda is inadequate. Picture: Josie Hayden

“The proposed reduction in veranda size will now see tram passengers, many of whom are schoolchildren, get very wet.”

The cafe has operated at the building since 2006, with Ms Anstee and Richard Anstee taking over about seven years ago.

The former railway station was built in 1883 but Port Phillip Mayor Dick Gross said the building did not have a heritage overlay and believed the proposed veranda would provide adequate shelter.

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Yarra Trams spokesman Ginny Hollands said the rebuild would maintain the area’s historic character.

“The new structure has been built to meet current building, access and safety standards while retaining the look and feel of the original architecture.”

Mr Gross said those guidelines included maintaining a minimum distance between any new building and overhead tram wires.

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