Mitchell Toy on the grand building plans for Melbourne that never happened
AS Melbourne boomed in the mid-1800s and its foundation infrastructure — including that of Federation Square — was being drawn up, a myriad of designs competed to be the vision of a modern city. These are the plans that could have given Melbourne a very different look.
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THE iconic clocks of Flinders St Station and the towering spires of St Paul’s Cathedral were not always in the minds of Melbourne’s founding architects.
As the city boomed in the mid-1800s and its foundation infrastructure was being drawn up, a myriad of designs competed to be the vision of a modern city.
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And Melbourne might have looked very different if some of these old plans were favoured.
PARLIAMENT OF VICTORIA
When the Colony of Victoria claimed self-governance in 1851, it took three years for officials to select the present site for the construction of a house of parliament.
It took even longer for designs to be considered and rejected. When a plan was finally settled, construction went into the 1890s and was hit by an economic slump, meaning the building never reached the complete vision of its designers.
A prominent feature of the original design was an ornate and towering dome, the top of which would have commanded spectacular views of the entire city.
An alternative design had a thinner tower with a large clock.
FLINDERS ST STATION
A competition to design a new Flinders St Station was held in 1899 and 17 entries were received.
The name of the winning entry, by design partnership Fawcett and Ashworth, was ‘Green Light’.
But other proposed designs included an open station spanning under the northern end of the Princes Bridge and stretching out symmetrically on either side.
Accompanying designs of Spencer St Station show palatial structures that stalled on the drawing board.
Another early design of Flinders St Station by the winning architects included large arched canopies, which were never built.
NORTHCOTE TOWN HALL
The Northcote Town Hall was designed by the prolific George Raymond Johnson, who also drew plans for the Collingwood Town Hall, the Prince of Wales Opera House in Bourke St, the North Melbourne Town Hall and the Fitzroy Town Hall.
His original vision for Northcote included a grand tower, which was never built.
JOLIMONT RAIL YARD
Between 1925 and 1996 the old Jolimont yard to the east of Flinders St Station was the subject of 10 redevelopment plans, with proposed names including Matthew Flinders Square, Jolimont Pleasure Gardens and the prevailing Federation Square.
But one of the oldest and boldest ideas for the Jolimont area was a huge building project spearheaded by American Walter Burley Griffin, the designer of the city of Canberra.
But Burley Griffin’s riverside dream never got past the design stage.
ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL
The first church on the St Paul’s site was made in bluestone and completed in 1852, but prior to that the area had been used for religious worship and as a marketplace.
Over the next three decades the population of Melbourne boomed and architect William Butterfield was commissioned to design a cathedral to replace the church.
His original vision included a grand spire and two pitched columns at the front, but after long-running disputes with the diocese, Butterworth resigned from the project and it was handed to a local architect.
The cathedral was constructed without its present spires, which were completed in the early 1930s, about four decades after the cathedral’s initial completion.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
Nestled in among the trees and plants of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria’s Government House has been the residence of Governors since 1876.
The design was taken from architect William Wardell, who also designed St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne and St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney.
Although the final design was loosely based on the summer residence of Queen Victoria on the Isle of Wight, an early proposed design put forward a taller, grander version of Government House.
The landscaping was undertaken by Ferdinand von Mueller, a German-Australian botanist and director of the Royal Botanic Gardens.
ROYAL ARCADE
A competition to design Melbourne’s grand Royal Arcade was won by Charles Webb in 1868 and the building was opened in 1870.
But an earlier entrant into the design competition by an unknown architect shows a much loftier version of the arcade with two tall storeys of shops, a fully curved and glazed ceiling and an arched passageway at the end.
The iconic statuettes of Gog and Magog beside Gaunt clock were not part of the original design and were added more than two decades after the arcade’s opening.
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