Starting in North Melbourne (west of downtown), this is 50 Errol Street.


Across from there, these buildings are on the west side of the street. The white building featured in the last 3 photos is that of R. L. Young, dating to at latest 1888.


Why is Melbourne's town hall in North Melbourne? Why does a city have a town hall? The suburb of North Melbourne used to be the town of Hotham when this building was constructed in 1876 at the corner of Queensberry and Errol Streets.


Architectural details around the building, ending with the clock tower/dome.


I don't know the name of this building at Queensberry and Chetwynd Streets, but the date of 1874 is printed on it.


The 1860 Melbourne City Baths are in the crook of Victoria and Franklin Streets. They still are used as baths (or a pool) today.


The 8 hour movement was, of course, the labour movement that won us the 40-hour (or less) work week the world now enjoys. Victoria was the birthplace of the Australian agitation, so it gets these three gilded 8s at the corner of Russell Street.. I guess because three 8s makes a day.


The biggest reach on this page, the Russell Street Police Headquarters is a solid block-plus south of Victoria Street, but in my defence, I had nowhere else to show it. It was used by police from its construction in 1943 until 1995.


The Victorian-era Odd Fellows building (I.O.O.F.) is at the southeast corner of Russell Street. The club was founded in 1846, which is earlier than this architectural style, but interestingly no source seems to talk about this as their meeting place.


Let's not pass entirely over the Victorial Trades Hall on the north side of the street here, built in 1859 and upgraded from 1874-1929 for the Trades Hall Council. It stakes a claim to being the oldest trade union building in the world, and certainly Australia.


Moving east to the Frosterley Building, built in 1891 for a Doctor Snowball at #2 Drummond Street. Yeah, that name sounds plausible. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology bought it in 1908 and used it as their first headquarters until 1974.


Two buildings on the south side of Victoria Street across from Carlton Gardens (see big link below): the 1859 Royal Society of Victoria building, and the 1935 surgical college building. The Royal Society, dedicated to science and, historically, philosophy as well, were the organisers of the ill-fated Burke & Wills expedition in 1860. They're still around, so I guess it was judged not to be their fault.


A couple of old buildings on the east side of Nicholson Street. The café building dates to 1850, such is the age of this neighbourhood.


The 1886 Nicholson Street Cable Tram Engine House is on the southeast corner of Gertrude Street. It was responsible for 3 of the cables in what was at one point the world's largest cable tram system (take that, San Francisco), and was also the last station in operation on the system in 1940.


Two more buildings along Nicholson Street complete this page. Royal Terrace (terrace houses) dates to 1854, and the Fontaine Building is even older at 1850. It is engraved with three of the Isles of Hebrides: Iona, Uist, and Staffa, suggesting a strong Scottish link to this district. (Melbourne is, after all, the home of the Robert Burns statue.)

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Carlton Gardens
State Route 46
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