Melbourne in the 1920s and 1930s   1. Royal Exhibition Buildings The Royal Exhibition Buildings were built for the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880 and also to accommodate the Centenary Exhibition of 1888. It was the site of the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January, 1901 and served as the State Parliament of Victoria for the next 26 years, while Canberra was being built and the Federal Government occupied Parliament House in Spring Street. From 1923 until 1941 the buildings housed the Australian War Memorial. Prior to the completion of the Shrine of Remembrance in 1934, the Anzac Day parades marched past Parliament House in Spring Street, and terminated at the Royal Exhibition Buildings. The famous St Patrick’s Day procession of 1920 also terminated at the buildings, and maypole dancing and sports were played on an oval nearby. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 2. Melbourne High School (potential site for Shrine of Remembrance) The irregular block at the corner of Spring Street and Victoria Parade that now houses the Royal College of Surgeons was once the site of Melbourne High School. During the late 1920s it was touted as a potential site for the Shrine of Remembrance, in preference to the King’s Domain site. This map from The Argus provided readers with an idea of what the proposal looked like. the Royal College of Surgeons now occupies this site. Australian National Library from The Argus, 1927 3. St Patrick’s Cathedral Designed by the noted English architect William Wardell, the grand edifice of Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Catholic cathedral was constructed in stages from the 1860s to 1897. From the 1920s it was the seat of the outspoken Archbishop Daniel Mannix, who stirred controversy with his anti-conscription stance during the Great War, and his unflinching support for the cause of Irish independence in the immediate post-war period. Albert Jacka VC was a pallbearer here for the funeral of Sergeant Vincent Buckley, VC, in January, 1921. After Albert Jacka’s death in 1932, his widow married Frank Duncan at St Patrick’s Cathedral. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 4. Federal Parliament House Commenced during the Gold Rush in 1856 (only 21 years after the founding of the Colony of Victoria), Melbourne’s State Parliament House embodied confidence in a great future. Between 1901 and 1927 this building served as the Federal Parliament House, where in the Senate Chamber in 1921 Senator Brigadier-General Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott raised a controversial debate over the ‘supercession’ of Captain Albert Jacka during the Great War. Photograph: courtesy State Library of South Australia Until the completion of the Shrine of Remembrance in 1934, Anzac Day and Armistice Day (Remembrance Day) were commemorated at Parliament House in Spring Street. A temporary cenotaph was erected on the steps, and senior public figures (including the Duke of York in 1927) took the salute from there. Albert Jacka marched past this building giving the salute on several occasions, the first being as a private in the 14th Battalion in December 1914 prior to embarkation. Photograph courtesy State Library of Victoria from The Argus 12 November, 1929 5. Treasury Building The old Treasury Building in Spring Street, at the head of Collins Street, was constructed in 1858-1862 to house the State gold vaults. After Federation the building housed the Federal Treasury. The statue opposite the old Treasury building is of British General Charles George Gordon, also known as ‘Chinese Gordon’ following his intervention in the Taiping Rebellion, and ‘Gordon Pasha’ during his battle against the Mahdi’s forces in the Sudan, which culminated in his death at the Battle of Khartoum in 1885. Photograph: courtesy State Library of South Australia ‘On guard at the Treasury’. A bluejacket from the cruiser ‘Adelaide’, in full marching kit with bayonet fixed, stood on guard at the Federal Treasury to prevent looting during the Police Strike of 1923. Photograph: courtesy National Library of Australia, from The Argus, 6 November, 1923 6. Anzac Square proposed site For a time during the 1920s, it was proposed to purchase land in the blocks opposite Parliament House on the corners with Bourke Street to carve out an ‘Anzac Park.’ Photograph: State Library of Victoria 7. Melbourne Club, 36 Collins Street The Melbourne Club building was constructed in 1858, with its current dining room added in 1884. In May 1920 the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) visited the building to play a game of racquets at the racquets court at the rear of the building. Similar to squash, racquets is played with a white ball against a dark court. The building that housed the racquets court still stands. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 8. Police Headquarters The old Victorian police headquarters at the corner of Russell and McKenzie Street was a centre of operations during the Police Strike crisis in 1923. It is located across Russell Street from the old Melbourne Gaol, where Ned Kelly was hung and buried in 1880. Decades later notorious criminal ‘Squizzy’ Taylor (a resident of Barkly St, St Kilda) reportedly loitered in front of police headquarters to establish an alibi while his gang perpetrated a crime. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria In 1940-43 a new headquarters was constructed next door in Russell Street in an art deco style. In 1986 a bomb exploded outside the new headquarters, killing 21 year old Constable Angela Taylor, who was the first Australian policewoman killed in the line of duty. After being vacated by the police force the new building has been converted into apartments. 9. Victorian Trades Hall The Victorian Trades Hall building on the corner of Victoria Parade and Lygon Street has been a centre of the Victorian and Australian socialist movement since 1852 (as extended between 1874 and 1925). The monument commemorating the achievement of an 8 hour day in the building trades in Melbourne in 1856 stands diagonally opposite the building, and the red flag (representing the ‘blood of the worker’) still flies from the flagpole. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 10. Hoyts Theatre Photograph: State Library of Victoria from The Argus, 25 July 1925 This photo shows some of the 3,000 US navy sailors marching past the Hoyts Picture Theatre in Bourke Street in 1925, where the balcony collapsed under the weight of too many people who had stood on it hoping for a bird’s eye view. Fortunately, no one was killed. Note the ‘Welcome’ sign visible between the window arches on the Hoyts building. 11. Tivoly Theatre Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 12. Melbourne Town Hall The palatial dimensions of the Melbourne Town Hall, located on the corner of Swanston Street and Collins Street, demonstrates the confidence of the long-term boom in the gold rush of the 1850s. Photograph: courtesy of Picture Victoria (Melbourne Library Service) Photograph: courtesy State Library of Victoria from The Argus, 22 4 1927 In October 1919, thousands of people blocked the intersection of Collins and Swanston streets as the Lord Mayor of Melbourne welcomed Captain Albert Jacka VC. This picture shows a similar welcome that was provided to the Duke and Duchess of York in April, 1927. Photograph: courtesy State Library of Victoria from The Age, 5 November, 1923 In 1923 loyal police and volunteers barricaded themselves into the Town Hall as rioters laid waste to the city and tens of thousands looked on. On the first night of the riots a group of over 200 played ‘two-up’ at the intersection of Collins and Swanston streets. Photograph: courtesy National Library of Australia, from The Argus, 6 November, 1923 13. Georges store Georges was an up-market department store situated at the eastern end of Collins Street between the Baptist church and Scots church, and almost directly across the road from Anzac House. Photograph: courtesy of National Library of Australia In the Georges store interior photograph shown below, note the upside-down umbrella lamp shades. Photograph: courtesy of National Library of Australia 14. Anzac House, 151 Collins Street During the 1920s and 1930s Anzac House was located at 151 Collins Street, opposite the Scots Church Hall and next door to the T&G Building (built in 1928). In 1936 the building was sold to the T&G, and the new Anzac House was constructed at its present site at 4 Collins Street. The T&G then demolished the old Anzac House building and used the site to double the size of its own building’s frontage in Collins Street. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria Photograph: courtesy National Archives of Australia On 19 January, 1932, Albert Jacka’s coffin lay in state in the hall of Anzac House, and over several hours more than 6,000 mourners filed past to pay their last respects. The photograph below shows the scene outside Anzac House just after the coffin had been placed on the gun carriage. Standing next to the carriage are the VC pallbearers, who marched from there to the St Kilda cemetery. Photograph: courtesy of State Library from The Herald, 19 January, 1932 Photograph: courtesy of State Library from The Australasian, 30 January, 1932 15. Flinders Street Station The current Flinders Street Railway station building was completed (later than planned) in 1910. During the early part of the 20th century a number of saveloy vendors used to park their horses and carts under the clocks that sit over the main entrance to the station. The building contained a ballroom and offices. Photograph courtesy of State Library of South Australia 16. Victoria Barracks At various times the Victoria Barracks was the Military headquarters for Victoria and Australia. On the first page of his 1916 book ‘Australia Under Arms’, Philip Schuler, described the intense activity at the Barracks in the following words: In 1919 a rioting soldier was shot dead outside the barracks, and the returned troops were later addressed by Brigadier-General Charles Brand in the Domain, where he described the rioters as ‘Bolsheviks’. In 1923 Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Chauvel was in command of operations at the Victoria Barracks when the Victorian Police went on strike and looters attempted to gain control of the city. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 17. ‘The Block’ the Block Arcade and Hotel Australia The Block Arcade was completed in 1893 along the lines of the Galleria Vittoria in Milan. It is an ‘L shaped’ shopping mall that extends from Collins Street through to Elizabeth Street, where its entrance lies across the road from the site of Albert Jacka’s domestic appliance store in 1929-1930. More broadly, the entire block bounded by Collins Street, Swanston Street, Bourke Street and Elizabeth Street was known as ‘The Block’. In the Collins Street segment shown in the photograph below stood the Hotel Australia, where Albert Jacka’s wife Vera obtained employment during 1931. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria Photograph: courtesy National Library of Australia The Hotel Australia had its origins in the Vienna Café Hotel (1890-1915). The lease was purchased in 1908 by Anthony Lucas (a Greek formerly known as Antonius Lekatsas). In 1916 Lucas commissioned Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Griffin to undertake a refit. It was re-opened as the Café Australia Hotel featuring a ballroom with a magnificent Burley-Griffin designed ceiling. This remarkable building, which was described as ‘the start of modern Australian architecture’ was largely demolished, and rebuilt in 1939. Parts of Griffin’s ceiling were incorporated into the ballroom of the new hotel, which became the premier up-market hotel of Melbourne and was a favourite with US soldiers during World War II, the Packer family, who maintained a suite there for 25 years, and Sir Robert Menzies. In 1989 the rebuilt Hotel Australia was demolished to make way for a new hotel and the ‘Australia on Collins’ shopping precinct, leaving no trace of Burley Griffin’s architecture. 18. General Post Office Myer Store and London Stores This photograph of the intersection of Bourke and Elizabeth streets shows the ‘old Post Office’ on the left, and the London Stores building on the right. Further back in Bourke Street we see the white painted Myer store (and clock) on the left, and two Coles stores on the right. The columns of Parliament House are barely visible at the very end of Bourke Street. The ‘old Post Office’ has recently been converted into a complex of boutique fashion stores and cafes. Today the Bourke Street Mall occupies the section beyond Elizabeth Street. Photograph: courtesy National Library of Australia 19. Jacka, Edmonds & Co. 101-103 Elizabeth St This photograph of Elizabeth Street shows the premises of Jacka, Edmonds & Co. Pty Ltd, a wholesale and retail electrical appliances store located at this address in 1929-30. The site is currently occupied by an Elizabeth Arden sore and a Subway outlet and lies across Elizabeth Street from ‘The Block Arcade’ that winds around to Collins Street. The dark structure at the corner with Collins Street is the Colonial Mutual Life building (now demolished), while the white building next to it was the ‘London Hotel’ (now the ‘Hotel Formule 1’). Photo: courtesy Public Record Office Victoria 20. Colonial Mutual Life Building (Equitable Life building) Between 1893 and 1896 the Equitable Life Insurance company of the US constructed Australia’s most impressive business building at the corner of Collins Street and Elizabeth Street. Its seven high ceiling floors occupied the same space as a modern 14 storey building. In 1923 the US firm pulled out of Australia, sold the building at a loss, and it became the building of the Colonial Mutual Life Co. The building’s main Collins Street façade was framed by a massive archway that contained a 3 meter high group of statues comprising the ‘Angle of Mercy’ protecting a fatherless family. In 1960 the building was demolished by Whelan the Wrecker to make room for a non-descript steel and glass structure. The statue was removed to a position of little prominence outside the Baillieu Library at the University of Melbourne. In 1929-30 the firm of Jacka, Edmonds & Co. Pty Ltd was located three doors down Elizabeth Street from the Colonial Mutual Life building. Photograph: courtesy of National Library of Australia The statue of the Angel of Mercy outside the Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne 21. Commercial Travellers’ Association Club, 328 Flinders Street Commercial travellers were known as the ‘Knights of the Road’ and ‘bearers of civilization’ during the 19th century. By 1914, when its grand new clubhouse was built in Flinders Street, the Commercial Travellers’ Association was a powerful organisation with more than 4,000 members in Victoria. The new club boasted one of the city’s first revolving front doors, and was graced with an impressive vestibule comprising eight white columns that soared two floors over an intricately laid tessellated tile floor. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria In May, 1920 Captain Albert Jacka, VC stood in the vestibule at the head of a Guard of Honour comprising 100 commercial traveller diggers to greet the Prince of Wales. The club building is now the Rendezvous Hotel, and the vestibule is largely as it was. The vestibule Photograph courtesy Commercial Travellers’ Association The billiards hall Photograph courtesy Rendezvous Hotel The ‘Modern Bar’ This photo is from the late 1920s, when the bar was moved to the rear of the building with new furniture and large polished timber bar. It featured leadlight windows, oak paneling, and Windsor style chairs, and was designed on the lines of an old English Tavern. Photograph courtesy Rendezvous Hotel ‘The Spacious Dining-room’ The Commercial Travellers’ Association grand dining room occupied most of the second floor of the building. Members dined in the conservative elegance of a vast hall handsomely ornamented with blackwood timber paneling and Ionic style columns, under a ceiling of deeply recessed, decorative plaster panels. Large round-headed windows interspersed with paintings by Australian Masters followed the perimeter of the room. Convivial round tables and ‘Vienna’ chairs indented with the ‘CTA’ monogram could seat 250 diners. Although on special occasions they accommodated many more. About 400 members and invited guests attended a Patriotic Smoke night on 22 August 1914 to farewell colleagues leaving for the First World War. Banquets honouring the nation’s officials and annual Australia Day luncheons were among other memorable occasions. Members could depend on meals being available between 5.30 and 8.00pm. They were prepared in the basement and delivered by a special lift. The room was given ‘an elegant new look’ in the 1960s. In 1998 the dining room was divided to form rooms for the new hotel. Photograph courtesy Rendezvous Hotel 22. Jacka, Edmonds & Co, 397 Little Collins St (Briscoe Lane) and Collins Gate, 377-378 Little Collins St Between 1925 and 1929 Jacka, Edmonds & Co was located at the intersection of Little Collins Street (shown here) and Briscoe Lane. Collins Gate (located third building from the right) was designed by US architect Walter Burley Griffin, and still stands. The tall building next to it housed Albert Jacka’s business, and has been demolished to make room for a plaza that stands at the rear of Westpac’s Collins Street building. During 1929 Albert Jacka distributed copies of Newton Wanliss’s ‘History of the 14th Battalion’ from this address. Photograph: courtesy of National Library of Australia 23. Browning, Bladen & Dare, Stalbridge Chambers, 443 Little Collins St In 1924 Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Dare (the third CO of the 14th Battalion) became a partner in the architectural firm of Browning, Bladen and Dare. All three partners were former officers of the AIF. The firm was located in the Stalbridge Chambers at 443 Little Collins Street, and still stands. 24. Scott’s Hotel Scott’s Hotel was a prestigious city hotel that stood in Collins Street at the intersection with Market Lane. In April, 1925 Captain Albert Jacka chaired a meeting of businessmen at Scott’s Hotel to thank Frank J. Boileau for his efforts in preventing a rise in taxes being levied by the State Government. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 25. Jacka, Edmonds & Co, 50 William St For a period between 1924 and 1925 the firm of Jacka Edmonds & Co was located at 50 William Street. This was the Western Markets building, which was subsequently demolished. The section fronting Collins Street was transformed into a plaza that now displays the statues of Melbourne’s founding fathers, John Pascoe Fawkner and John Batman. The site also contains a glass and steel building that once housed AXA, and is currently occupied by Suncorp Limited. Photograph: courtesy of National Library of Australia 26. Australian Club, 110 William Street The Australian Club in William Street was founded in 1878. According to one story it was due to the fact that Elizabeth Street was prone to flooding in bad weather and members of the Melbourne Club who worked in the western end of the city could not reach it for lunch. Frederick Falkiner Knight was due to attend a Calcutta Dinner at the club on Derby Day in 1923, but instead found himself battling mobs of rioters through the streets of Melbourne due to the Police Strike that unleashed widespread looting. Photograph: courtesy of National Library of Australia 27. Olderfleet Building, Roxburgh, Jacka & Co. Pty Ltd, 475 Collins Street In 1920 the second floor of the Olderfleet Building at 475 Collins Street was occupied by Thomas Roxburgh & Co, a shipping and brokerage firm owned by the father of one of Albert Jacka’s business partners, Lieutenant Reginald Owen Roxburgh. It was here that the firm of Roxburgh, Jacka and Co. Pty Ltd opened for business in 1920 as a wholesale importing and exporting agency for domestic appliances. It was in the lift of this building that Albert Jacka is said to have first met his future wife, Vera Carey. Currently, the ground floor of the building is occupied by an elegant café called ‘Negrinos’. Photograph: courtesy of National Library of Australia The Olderfleet Building is on the left in this photograph. Further down Collins Street the tower of the Coffee Palace is visible. 28. Federal Coffee Palace The Federal Coffee Palace was a grand Temperance Hotel of 500 rooms situated on the corner of Collins Street and King Street, and was not far from Albert Jacka’s business at the Olderfleet Building (along Collins Street to the left). The darker building shown on the left of King Street is the current site of the Rialto Towers buildings. The building was designed by William Pitt (who also designed the St Kilda Town Hall), and was built in 1888-1890. Sadly, it was demolished in 1973. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 29. Spencer Street station Spencer Street Station (part of which is visible in the photograph) lies in Melbourne’s west end. The photograph looks out to the area on the north-west edge of the city where John Wren’s ‘Stadium’ was located. Opposite the station on the right stands the edifice of the ‘Melbourne Mail Exchange. Now the celebrated wavy roofed Southern Cross Station and DFO stores are on the left, while the Mail Exchange building at right is being refurbished. Photograph: courtesy of the State Library of South Australia 30. The Stadium John Wren’s West Melbourne Stadium (‘The Stadium’) located at 300 Dudley Street, West Melbourne, was the venue for many famous boxing matches since he purchased it in 1915. It was destroyed by fire in 1955 but rebuilt as Festival Hall in time for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. In 1964 it hosted the Beatles during their Australian tour. In 1975, Gough Whitlam launched the Labor Party election campaign at Festival Hall. 31. St Paul’s Cathedral and the Metropolitan Gas Company headquarters Consecrated in 1891, St Paul’s Cathedral is the major Anglican church situated in a prime position on the corner of Flinders Street and Swanston Street opposite the main railway station, and the river. Next door to the cathedral stands the impressively presented (cathedral like) headquarters of the privately owned and stock market listed Metropolitan Gas Company Limited. This was the private enterprise forerunner of the Gas and Fuel Corporation, which was nationalised in 1950 and broken up and re-privatised in 1998. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 32. Princes’ Bridge In 1888, when still in his early 20s, John Monash’s first job as a professional engineer was to draw up plans and supervise the quarrying of the stones for the Prince's Bridge over the Yarra River. Based on a Roman design of three 100 foot spans, it is the city’s main bridge connecting the city centre to the St Kilda Road boulevard. Photograph: courtesy National Library of Australia 33. St Kilda Rd Boulevard The St Kilda Road boulevard dates back to the 1850s, when it first linked the outer seaside suburb of St Kilda with the growing city of Melbourne. During the 1920s and 1930s only trams and commercial traffic used the central lanes of the boulevard, with cars and carriages restricted to the outer lanes. A large section of the road borders the Domain park, which contains Government House and since 1934, the Shrine of Remembrance. In 1919 the boulevard was lined with impressive mansions and public buildings, many of which were torn down in the 1950s and 1960s to make way for commercial office buildings, which in recent years have given way to multi-storey apartment buildings. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 34. Shrine of Remembrance, Domain A movement to build a monument to honour Victorians killed during the Great War was begun in the early 1920s. An international design competition was won by the Melbourne firm of Hudson and Wardrop, who envisaged a Shrine of Remembrance based on the Parthenon in Athens and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. An alternative ‘Anzac Square’ project, and issues over the position of the Shrine were not put to rest until 1927. During the drive to raise public funds for the Shrine, Albert Jacka was at the forefront, contributing time and effort to the cause. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria This photograph showing work in progress on the Shrine was taken a week prior to Albert Jacka’s death in 1932. This was the state of the works as his funeral procession marched past on the way to the St Kilda cemetery. Photograph: courtesy Picture Victoria The Shrine of Remembrance was opened in 1934, and through planning restrictions has remained the dominant feature of the St Kilda Road boulevard. 35. Government House Victoria’s palatial Government House was built between 1871 and 1876, from a design by noted English architect William Wardell (who also designed Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral and Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral). Its design was based on the palazzi style of the Italian Renaissance. It has been the residence of the Governor of Victoria, but during the first three decades of the 20th century served as the Federal Government House. During his 1920 visit to Melbourne, Edward, Prince of Wales stayed there, as did the Duke and Duchess of York in 1927. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 36. Public Library Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 37. Melbourne Hospital Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 39. Leviathan store and Melba Theatre This photograph shows Bourke Street looking west from the intersection with Swanston Street. The Leviathan store (left), which stood on the corner of Bourke and Swanston streets, is where the first looting took place during the Police Strike of 1923. Next to it is the Melba Theatre, whose performances continued while the carnage took place outside. Both these buildings have since been demolished. The London Stores building further down the street is on the corner of Elizabeth Street, and has survived to sell pizzas. The whole area in the foreground of the photograph is now the Bourke Street Mall. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 40. Collins Street ‘Banks on every corner…’ This photograph shows the heart of the financial precinct of Collins Street, which was built on the mineral wealth emanating from the Gold Rush and later discoveries. In Collins Street virtually every corner was occupied by a bank or other financial institution. Three of the four buildings closest to the photographer are still in existence. The first two floors of the old Australasian Bank building (far left) were built in 1875, and another two floors were added in 1930. It is now an apartment building, while the banking chamber is occupied by ‘The Treasury’ restaurant. Across Queen Street on the left lies the Gothic-style English, Scottish and Australian Bank chamber (designed by William Wardell, who also designed St Patrick’s cathedral), which has been fully refurbished and serves as a magnificent branch office of the ANZ Banking Group. The building across Collins Street to the right has been demolished. The building on the extreme right-hand corner housed the National Mutual Life Association, and was built between 1891 and 1903 from a design by Adelaide architects Wright, Reed and Beaver. It now accommodates the Bank of New Zealand. Further down Collins Street, past the Elizabeth Street intersection, stood the head office of the National Bank of Australasia, which was John Wren’s relationship bank, and therefore the financier of Jacka, Edmonds & Co. Pty Ltd. Photograph: courtesy Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria 41. Jacka, Edmonds & Co, 488 Collins St When Roxburgh pulled out of the business, Albert Jacka’s wholesale domestic appliances business was briefly located on the 8th floor of McCullouch’s Building at 488 Collins Street (directly opposite the Olderfleet Building), but was burnt out when fire gutted the building on the evening of 28 December, 1923.   Copyright © 2010 Michael Lawriwsky