Flinders Street Station in pictures: a Melbourne icon for 162 years

ASK any Melburnian to “meet you under the clocks” and they know exactly where to go. But Flinders Street Station — once the busiest in the world — hasn’t always looked this way.

Ask any Melburnian to “meet you under the clocks” and they know exactly where to go — the iconic Flinders Street Station.

On any given day you’ll find punks, goths, bums, teens and office workers waiting on the steps — just as they have since 1909.

The station is about to get a lick of paint to restore the building to its original 1910 colour — toning down the slightly gaudy mustard to a less jarring natural stone.

It’s also preparing for a major upgrade to fix the dingy toilets, crumbling walls and leaky roofs — and there’s even word the station’s grand ballroom will be returned to its former glory.

This is the story of Flinders Street Station.

WHAT WAS THERE BEFORE FED SQUARE?

This postcard shows Flinders Street Station in 1910, just one year after it was built. The station is soon to be repainted this original colour. Picture: State Library of Victoria.

Back in 1854, Flinders Street Station was a collection of weatherboard train sheds that were known as the Melbourne Terminus.

It was the first city railway station in Australia and it had a had a single 30 metre long platform that was located beside an open air fish market (imagine the smells).

An additional platform was added in 1877, along with two overhead bridges to provide passenger access, followed by a third platform in 1890.

Melbourne’s other major city station, Spencer Street (now Southern Cross), opened in 1859 and a ground level railway was built connecting it to Flinders Street in 1879.

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Men standing on Flinders Street Station’s centre platform in 1888. Picture: State Library Victoria.

Flinders St Station in 1895 with ramps leading to the Princes Bridge entrance. Picture: HWT Library.

Passengers exiting the station onto Prices Bridge in 1892, prior to the building of the iconic station. Picture: HWT Library.

Flinders St Station in the late 1800s before the new station was built. Picture: HWT Library.

Then in 1882, amid the rivers of cash flowing in from the state’s goldfields, the Victorian government decided a grand new station building was needed.

A competition was then held in 1899 that received 17 detailed plans for a new station building, with the £500 first prize going to railway workers James Fawcett and HPC Ashworth.

The pair designed a French Renaissance style building that included a large dome and tall clock tower, with work beginning in 1900 to rearrange the station tracks as the final station designs were tweaked.

Under Melbourne: the construction of the City Loop

The design for Flinders Street Station’s clock tower form 1899. Picture: State Library of Victoria.

By 1903 the foundations of the building were erected and a mammoth seven year construction effort began to bring the station to life.

Plans were changed slightly mid-construction to replace a proposed train shed with individual platform roofs — which delivered more natural light — and by 1905, work began on the station building itself, starting at the Elizabeth Street end and progressing towards the main dome.

The station was originally going to be faced in stone, but the cost was too high, and it was decided instead use red brick with cement render.

Flinders Street Station under construction around 1908, before the dome was built over the main entrance. The old station entrance is still visible in the foreground. Picture: HWT Library.

Work on the dome started in 1906, but two years later the builder, Peter Rodger, was fired with a Royal Commission finding him accountable for the slow progress.

The Victorian Railways then took over construction and the station was finished by mid 1909 — aside from a few minor features that were added after the opening.

The station was finally complete by 1909, after five years of construction. Picture: HWT Library.

Much of the top floor was purpose built for the then new Victorian Railway Institute, including a library, gym and a lecture hall, which was later used as a ballroom.

In the 1930s and 1940s the building even featured a child care centre with an open-air playground next to the main dome on an adjoining roof.

The hat store in the basement near the front steps has been continually trading there since 1910.

The ballroom in the station set up for an event in 1912. Picture: PROV.

An undated function in the ballroom in the early 1900s. Picture: State Library of Victoria.

In need of repair: the ballroom as it appears today. Picture: HWT Library.

Children looking out from the creche at Flinders Street Station in the 1930s. Picture: PROV.

Men enjoying a meal in the Flinders Street Station cafeteria in the 1950s. Picture: State Library Victoria

The first electric train operated from Flinders Street to Essendon in 1919, and by 1926 it was the world’s busiest passenger station.

It remained congested and vastly over capacity until the City Loop was opened in 1985.

Throughout the 60s and 70s, the station fell into disrepair after decades of neglect and plans were put into motion to demolish or redevelop it.

The peak hour crush at Flinders Street Station in 1955. Flinders Street was once the busiest station in the world. Picture: HWT Library.

Peak hour rush in 1956 in front of Flinders Street Station. Picture: HWT Library.

In 1962 an agreement was signed for a £30 million redevelopment that would have resulted in the demolition of the clock tower in favour of a 60 storey office building.

Work was to begin in 1964, but instead the Gas & Fuel Building was constructed over the Princes Bridge station.

The idea was — thankfully — put on ice.

In 1967 a company purchased the option to lease the space above the station, with plans to build a shopping plaza and two office towers, but the plans were widely disliked by the public and the idea collapsed.

The station master manually changing the Flinders Street Station clocks. During an 8-hour period the clocks at the main entrance were changed an average of 900 times. Picture: HWT Library.

The clocks at Flinders Street station taken down in the 1980s and set to be replaced with digital screens, but they were reinstalled and automated after public outrage. Picture: HWT Library.

The John Cain Government signed an agreement to construct the “Festival Marketplace” over the existing platforms that included shops, restaurants and cafes in 1989, but the 90s recession hit and government couldn’t raise the required $205 million needed — another failed attempt at a

Since then, the stations retail areas, escalators and passenger walkways have been upgraded and retiled, but the main station building remained relatively unchanged and continued to become increasingly dilapidated.

The State Government embarked on a new design competition in 2014 to revamp the station — but when it was realised the winning design would cost billions to build, the designs were quickly put in a basket of unattainable dream projects.

Most recently, the Andrews government announced in 2015 that $100 million will be spent on urgent refurbishment works to upgrade station platforms, entrances, toilets and information displays.