1911c Flinders Street intersection with Swanston Street
MI_1086
$18.00
A photo of the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets around 1911-1912.
St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral is on the north-east corner. Construction of the Cathedral commenced in 1880 and the building was consecrated in 1891. The spires were eventually added between 1926 and 1932, and therefore are not in this image.
Further along Flinders Street we see the Metropolitan Gas Company's building, completed in 1892. This business became part of the Gas and Fuel Corporation in 1951, and they subsequently moved from this building to the Gas and Fuel twin towers (now demolished) in 1967.
To the right of the Gas building is the Ball & Welch building. This business was established by Charles Ball and his nephew W. H. Welch in the 1850s. They had a number of stores in country Victoria and established their first Melbourne branch in Carlton in 1874. This particular building was completed in 1899. Ball & Welch were Melbourne's leading drapery, with the company bought out by George's in 1970, and eventually all stores were closed in 1976 due to declining profits.
Just next to Ball & Welch we can see construction underway for the Majestic Theatre, which opened in 1912.
The small two-storey building on the corner of Flinders and Russell is the Duke of Wellington Hotel. Erected in 1850 and licensed in 1853, it is the oldest licensed pub in Melbourne.
Almost at the end of Flinders Street we see the Griffith's Brothers Tea Warehouse. This was built in 1905 to house their new store and sales room for teas, coffees and cocoas. This building was leased to Verona press in the 1940s and became a printing house. The Herald newspaper group purchased the building in the 1960s and used it for offices until 1973. For many years it was occupied by the Lindrum family as a Melbourne billiard and snooker-playing establishment. Eventually Lindrum's Billiard Centre closed in 1988 after the Herald and Weekly Times decided to reuse the building for office space. They eventually sold the building in 1995 and the current owners reopened it as the boutique Lindrum Hotel in 1999.
On the south side of Flinders Street we see Princes Bridge Railway Station building, demolished in 1964 to make way for the horrible Gas and Fuel Corporation twin towers, which were ultimately demolished in 1996 for the Federation Square project.
Further to the right of the photograph we see the complex of railway lines that lead out of the city to the east and south.
The wooded area off in the distance is the area known as Jolimont, named by Lieutenant-Governor LaTrobe's wife in 1839 in honour of her beloved home in Switzerland. Sounds like it might have been a lovely place back then.
All text © HotPress
Photographer unknown.
Notes from the State Library tell us that this image is "Showing south face of St. Paul's Cathedral, the Metropolitan Gas Co's offices, Princes Bridge railway station and the Flinders Street railway yards."
This is a digitally retouched reproduction of the original held by the State Library of Victoria. All prints are reproduced without the HOTPRESS watermarks.
Our team of conservators have worked on a high resolution digital image in order to remove blemishes and artifacts such as stains, mould, scratches and damage caused by the handling of the original. We strive to provide authentic representations of the original work that are suitable for enlargements that retain the tones and character of the original.
