Melbourne Town Hall

Hours Open
10am - 5pm

Address
90-130 Swanston Street

Architects
Joseph Reed and Frederick Barnes

Year Built
1867-70

Building Type
Office

What is Open
Level 2 rooms including the Council Chamber, The Portico Room and balcony, The Melbourne Room and The Yarra Room

Tour Frequency
None

Tram Stop
Stop 11: Swanston Street and Collins Street on routes 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 16, 64, 67 and 72 Stop 6: Town Hall and Collins Street on routes 31, 112 and 109

Description
Melbourne Town Hall is a resoundingly picturesque urban composition, befitting its status as the primary local government civic building for Victoria's capital city. The building, which rekindles the glory of Victoria's Gold Boom, celebrates its corner site with a tower (this time in grand French Renaissance style). The progressive additions of the Prince Alfred Tower (1869), temple-like portico (1887), subsequent enlargement of the hall itself, creation of the lower hall and extension along Collins Street (1925) have contributed to the building's scenographic form. An Administration Building was constructed to the north of the town hall in Swanston Street in 1908, and various alterations were made after a fire in 1925. The exterior facades, made from Tasmanian freestone, sit above a rusticated bluestone plinth and are modulated by giant order Corinthian pilasters and attached columns, overlaid onto a richly modelled composition. The clock tower, with its mansard roof and stacked classical composition, houses clocks donated by the son of Melbourne's first mayor.

Significance
A magnificent collection of classically composed pavilions, the Melbourne Town Hall was the prototype for numerous suburban town halls that were built in the late 1870s and 1880s. The Administration Building has impressive functional and stylistic relationship to the Town Hall, resulting in a coherent civic centre. Recent renovations to the Town Hall have preserved its original grandeur and unique period features such as the impressive wood-panelled Council Chamber. From the mid-1880s to the late 1890s, the Town Hall was the venue for several important meetings on the question of Federation. These meetings marked significant advances in the progress of the Federation movement.

What’s Open?
Entry to the building is via its administration offices at the ground floor of Swanston Street. The magnificent Council Chamber, in which Committee meetings are still held, is open for public viewing, along with various meeting and function rooms on Level 2 including The Portico Room and balcony, The Melbourne Room and The Yarra Room.

Referenced from: "A guide to Melbourne architecture", by Philip Goad, 1999, p. 41. The Watermark Press, Sydney