Flinders Street Station

MelbourneAustralia

31 May

A regular city icon with its yellow façade, red brick and green copper dome.

It’s on the Victorian Heritage Register and the National Heritage Trust. Residing in Melbourne, this destination is Australia’s oldest and busiest of its kind, at one point in its history beating out its compatriots in London and New York. Today the building stretches two city blocks, but at its conception was nothing more than a typically Australian weatherboard shed.

Before the beginning

If we wander all the way back to the early 1800s and find ourselves on the corner of what is now Flinders and Swanston streets, we would not find the hustle and bustle of Flinders Street Station that you would today. All you would see is a weatherboard shed selling some fish. That’s right, take a deep breath in and revel in the nauseating smells, a fish market is the beginning of our story today.

Melbourne was ahead of its time in 1854, when on 12 September the first train station in Australia was built. Melbourne Terminus (as it was called) was basically a collection of weatherboard sheds spanning 30 metres and for a time sat beside the city’s fish market. Great placement for grabbing some dinner on your way home. So it was from this weatherboard shed and small platform that the first train chugged off to service the first railway line in Victoria. The first train journey in Australia went all the way to Sandridge, which is modern day Port Melbourne, so not really that far.

As demand continued to grow, extra platforms were added in 1877, by now the station was a collection of low timber and brick buildings with simple corrugated iron roofs. The 1880s, brought the Victorian gold rush to Melbourne and there was a boom, which saw the population double in a decade and a fortune worth of buildings was constructed. The suburban rail network also benefitted with a significant expansion.

However, according to Jenny Davies in her book Beyond the Façade the collection of buildings named ‘Melbourne Terminus’ was seen as an ‘eyesore, inefficient and uneconomical’ in this golden era for Melbourne and the proposal for a new station was floated around.

So in 1899, a competition was held for a design of a new station. The competition was won by two Victoria Railways employees, James Fawcett and HPC Ashworth in May 1990. The design was called Green Light and the plans differed slightly from the station that you can see currently. A fourth storey and basement have been added and an Art Nouveau arched iron roof on the Swanston concourse was never built. The design is Edwardian Baroque and influenced by the French Renaissance. This aesthetic was combined with architectural features familiar to Melbourne in the early 1900s, like the red brick and golden cream contrast and the use of banking and the grouping of windows vertically under tall arches.

Growing a railway

The trains had actually been arriving at Flinders Street since 1854, but the construction of the building, built by Peter Rodger, didn’t start until September of 1905. The main portion of the building was completed in 1909 and quickly became a cultural icon of Melbourne. The building was officially opened to the public a year later as well as the Victorian Railways Institute, who found their offices located within the new station.

The Victorian Railways Institute was created for the ‘self-betterment of railway employees and it hoped to increase staff morale and workplace stability’ which was a particular concern after the 1903 rail strikes and the industrial upheaval following the strike. The Institute was actually pretty cool and holistic, they provided lectures ranging from the technical to the philosophical. The station housed the Institute’s clubrooms like debating, fencing, wine appreciation, poetry, cat lovers and rose devotees, because railway workers are people too. It also had amazing facilities like the ballroom, gym, billiards room, lecture theatre, library and childcare nursery. Unfortunately for the railway workers the Institute moved out of its extremely convenient Flinders Street Station offices in 1984 and the function of most of the rooms was lost.

Even though it was reported in the Argus Newspaper on the very significant date the 11th January 1922 that 200 000 passengers passed through the station in one day, it wasn’t until four years later in 1926 that Flinders Street Station became the busiest passenger station in the world, surpassing the likes of Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris, Grand Central Station in New York and Liverpool Station in London, making it a hotspot of train station lovers the world over.

By the time the station officially opened, the railway lines had reached Werribee, Rockbank, Diggers Rest, Craigiburn, South Yan Yean, Elthan, Croydon, Bayswater, Dandenong, Aspendale and Sandringham, which is to say all the significant edges of a continually growing and expanding 20th century city.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s there had been several attempts to demolish the station, however with the state governments penchant for leaving things to the last minute, a major redevelopment took place instead in 1983, but unfortunately this renovation was called a ‘vandalism’ by the City of Melbourne.

The dominant role of the station as the primary stop for the CBD reduced when the city loop opened in 1980, this is a rail line similar to those around the world that circles the key points of the CBD with strategically placed stations along the way. For Melbourne these are all imaginatively named. You’ve got: Flagstaff Station, near Flagstaff Gardens, Melbourne’s oldest park; Parliament Station, found immediately underneath the State Parliament building; Melbourne Central Station, to the centre of the CBD; Southern Cross Station, in the South West corner of the CBD; and Flinders Street Station, which as we all know you can find on Flinders Street.

In the 1990s, the Swanston Street Concourse, the main concourse for the station, was also renovated, but not everyone was overly pleased with the result with the National Trust stating that it had assumed ‘the character of a modern shopping centre’.

Where all the things are

With the station stretching for more than a block there’s a lot of space to use. The station itself sits on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets and services the entire metro rail network. The present building is the most spectacular of the buildings that have stood on the site, boasting grand archways and is the city’s principal landmark. The stalls along the concourse serve hot food and drinks with the upper floors being purpose built for the Victorian Railways Institute. Which, as we already know thought they could do better.

Underneath the station you have the Subway and the Basement with the Street parallel to the platforms.

The idea of a subway had been thrown around since 1929 with the intent to decrease congestion on the main concourse. Campbell Arcade was officially approved in 1950, its entrance opened in November of 1954 and somewhere along the way was renamed as Degraves Street Subway due to its close proximity with the famous hipster café littered Degraves Street. The subway is famous for its Art Deco pink ceramic tiled walls and black marble columns.

The Basement was originally a dining area and was converted to a cafeteria in 1949. In 1969 the cafeteria was closed for renovation, it reopened and was finally closed for good in 1984. However, the Basement Hat Shop, City Hatters opened in 1910 and still trades today. That is pretty impressive.

The first floor was mainly refreshments and a ladies’ waiting room, but it’s the second floor were things really start getting interesting.

Probably the biggest draw card for the second floor was the nursery. In June of 1933, the Railways Department established The Children’s Nursery which featured three cot rooms, two play rooms, a kitchen and a rooftop playground. An article in the Station newspaper, that’s right the station had its own newspaper, said it was a place

“where mothers who travel by train may leave their babies and children in the care of qualified and experienced nursing sister and staff while shopping in the city”,

making it one of only three of its kind in the world, it’s counterparts living in Paris and Chicago. Unfortunately the nursery was closed in 1937 due to a polio outbreak and then permanently closed in 1942 as a war precaution. And in the 1980s renovation, much of the nursery was demolished.

Also on the second floor was the Children’s Welfare Department. The Department of Neglected Children and Reformatory Schools, that really just rolls right off the tongue, was formed in 1887. This is because

“the previous Department for Industrial and Reformatory Schools could not effectively administer both the needs of neglected children and young offenders”.

But following the revolt over the ridiculous length of the name, the Department of Neglected Children and Reformatory Schools became the Children’s Welfare Department in 1924. And this shorter named Department could be found in the same office on the second floor until the late 1950s.

Alongside the drama from the Children’s Welfare Department, the second floor also housed a VRI classroom that was used by workers of the railway and a Uniform shop.

The third floor featured a Dome Room, because why wouldn’t you, and a Reference Library for the Railway Institute which was later used as an open plan office. You could also find a Billiard Room, offices, a gym, and a Lecture and Concert Hall, which is most well known for its use as a Ballroom.

The Ballroom was used to hold dance classes, ballroom competitions and concerts and had a capacity to seat 400. In 1918, dance classes were held with competitions and social nights every Wednesday, with dances being held for Allied servicemen throughout the Second World War. In 1934, it was in use six nights a week, making it one of the most popular dancehalls in Melbourne, continuing well into the 50s and 60s. It is sad to say though, that after a long and fulfilling life, the room’s need for repair caused the ballroom to close. It held its last dance on 10 September 1983. It may be a comfort to those of you who are saddened by this news, that work is being carried out to repair the ballroom so that one day it may again be in use as one of the most popular dancehalls in the city.

Even though the building has had a most fascinating life, it does seem to be the roof that has brought the most unique experience to this city icon.

The Old caretaker’s residence could originally be found as a building on the roof. It had enough room for the caretaker and his family. You may even still be able to see it if you care to look up from one of the platforms. The very first caretaker was appointed in 1910 and was a Mr Abraham J Gallagher, he held the position for nine years when Frank Smith took him over in 1920. No one’s really sure when the employment of an in-house caretaker stopped, but plans do show a caretaker’s office being created on the ground floor in 1920. The role of ‘caretaker’ has been changed and redefined over time to something more closely resembling ‘security’ today. Talk about a demotion. But the original caretaker’s residence is still visible on the roof.

Something that can be very clearly seen is the dome in all its green glory, but it might be the clock tower close to the other end of the station that grabs your attention. And if you looked at it and thought to yourself that it looks quite similar to that of a Ziegler Clock, you my dear friend, would be correct. It was Fritz Ziegler who was awarded the contract for his design of a turret clock for the Elizabeth Street spot on 22 March 1909. The style of the dial is seen in the Ziegler manner, which is to say that single stokes have been used for the hour numerals. This allowed for the maximum illumination to be achieved at night when the white glass was lit from behind.

The whole building, but in particular the clock tower were set to be repainted in anticipation of Princess Elizabeth’s visit to Melbourne in 1953. The clock tower was half done when the Princess became the Queen we all know and love today and was therefore called back to England. Because of this the repainting was suspended. The following year it was announced that the Queen would take a Royal Tour of the Commonwealth Countries and the painters took up where they left off.

The octagonal room at the western end of the station roof was used as the radio transmitter room for decades, probably one of the best spots signal wise.

The rooftop also was unique in featuring a 400-yard running track. It wasn’t uncommon during the occupation of the VRI to see people running on the roof from across the Yarra at Southbank. VRI instructor and holder of Australian weight-lifting, wrestling and diving titles, Les Robertson was known for doing backflips and handstands on precarious spots on the roof. Definitely do not try this at home stuff.

These days

These days Flinders Street Station is one of the busiest suburban railway stations in the southern hemisphere with over 1500 trains and 110 000 commuters passing through each day. Being listed on the Victorian Heritage Register doesn’t mean it has to give up any fancy gagetry though with free WiFi available on the concourse and every platform along with a recent refurbishment and repaint. There are tours available on the history of the building and these I gladly advise.

When looking at the dome end of the building, you will see analogue clocks sitting above the entrance on the station’s façade. These date back to the 1860s and continue to display departure times for the rail lines today. They used to be manually operated by a railway office and would have to be changed over 900 times in a regular eight-hour day, these days everything’s automatic.

The station steps under the famous façade clocks are surprisingly heated. As a popular meeting point for locals, when the station was refurbished in the late 80s, the builders incorporated heating into the steps so that people sitting on them wouldn’t get cold. How thoughtful.

As a hub for Melbourne’s social and cultural activity it would have been disappointing in the 1980s, when the heritage listed building was deemed unsuitable for tenants. The VRI occupied rooms hadn’t been properly maintained and the empty rooms had been left to deteriorate after the war.

When the railways were privatised in the 1990s, rail operators Connex, and then Metro, retained the original station facilities even while the building underwent ongoing maintenance.

In the 2000s, Jenny Davies wrote a book titled Beyond the Façade: Flinders Street, more than just a railway station. The book was meant to apply public pressure to the city and the state government to celebrate the Centenary of the station in 2010. This lead to the Flinders Street Station project, where the government in power at the time supported the project, and a design competition for the development of the station precinct was launched on 29 June 2012. This would be the first time that a vision would be put forward that would include the precinct as a whole. This would include the current building as well as the tracks and other bits and bobs of land associated with the station.

The building underwent an upgrade in recent years to make sure the city landmark is protected for current and future generations. In February 2015, the State Government invested $100 million to repair the exterior of the station as well as improve access and facilities for its more than 200 000 daily commuters and was completed in 2018.

Station facts

As the oldest train station in the country, Flinders Street Station also boasts the fourth longest railway platform in the world. At 708 metres long, Platform 1 stretches two city blocks from Swanston Street to Queen Street and currently services the South Morang and Hurstbridge lines. Originally it was home to the Milk Dock and the Parcels Office until that was moved in 1986. On the other side of the station, on Platform 10 supposedly lives the station’s ghost, George. Commuters have reported seeing a man holding fishing gear, so I guess he’s waiting to get on a train. He’s believed to have been around since the days of Melbourne’s settlement, although there are some that think he’s the spirit of George Mansfield (later properly identified as Ernst Leahy) who was pulled from the Yarra River on the 21st October 1902 after a boating accident. I suppose he’s wondering, what’s this train station doing here on my fishing spot. If you’re interested in more cool stories about the people surrounding Flinders Street Station head on over to Flindersstreetstation (all one word) .com.au to see what they have to offer.

Not only is the station a cultural and city icon of Australia, it’s also had its fair share of time on the big (and small) screens, you may recognise it from classy films such as Squizzy Taylor in 1982 and On The Beach in 1959, but its probably most famous role was when it featured in the background of Steven Spielberg’s TV mini-series The Pacific.

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