Historic Queen Street in Black & White

Queen Street from north end to south end

http://www.thecollectormm.com/gallery/postcards/Edwardian/slides/Queen2.jpg

http://www.thecollectormm.com/gallery/postcards/Edwardian/slides/Queen3.jpg

http://www.thecollectormm.com/gallery/postcards/1920s-1980s/slides/Queen6.jpg

http://www.thecollectormm.com/private/QueenLookSouth1.jpg

http://www.thecollectormm.com/private/QueenCentral1.jpg

http://www.thecollectormm.com/private/OrientalBank.jpg

http://www.thecollectormm.com/private/QueenLookNorth1.jpg

i love Queen st. back in its hey day it had some of the tallest in the city. the APA later L&G was oz tallest from 1929 to 1939 at 76m/250ft.

some more>

first skyscraper in melb with lifts (its still here too)
Lombard Building
1887
http://statelibrary.vic.gov.au/jcollins/0/1/9/im/jc019563.jpg

http://pictures.slv.vic.gov.au/cgi-bin/scandoc.cgi?app=4&folder=7260&doc=1



http://statelibrary.vic.gov.au/miscpics/0/0/0/im/mp000024.jpg

L&G before tower addition
(original prell bldg of 1889
http://www.statelibrary.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/0/3/im/a03035.jpg

1937
http://www.statelibrary.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/1/7/im/a17985.jpg

1907
http://statelibrary.vic.gov.au/sjones/0/0/0/im/sj000702.jpg

old queens threatre 1917 with fire tower
http://australianprints.gov.au/Images/LRG/92434.jpg

Anzac day 1945
http://cas.awm.gov.au/pls/PRD/ump.retrieve_uma?surl=1720692338ZZZBFNCSBCFK&parm1=UMO_ID&parm2=375064&parm1=DISPLAY_TYPE&parm2=RAW&parm1=DISPLAY_WHAT&parm2=MASTER&parm1=LOGIN_TYPE&parm2=PROFILEG&parm1=AID&parm2=

Was there anything in the actual tower of the APA building?
And what was it replaced by?

^ the original bldg of 9 storeys was a 1889 boom slab scraper. in 1929 the 35m tower was built on top.,maybe it looked crap by 1960,s it was replaced with new offices in 1969>

tragic
http://www.statelibrary.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/5/2/im/a52809.jpg

i guess that was ultra modern back then.
Crap, It was really cool with the tower and stuff.

http://www.thecollectormm.com/private/QueenLookSouth2.jpg
The photograph above taken in 1903 shows us Goode House (finished in 1903) in the foreground on Collins Street (still standing) and on the left, the majestic Prell’s building, now demolished and a little further down Queen Street its twin on the Flinders Lane and Queen Street corner sadly now demolished also.

http://www.thecollectormm.com/private/RecordsOffice1.jpg

Text from Walking Melbourne, The National Trust Guide to The Historic and Architectural Landmarks of Central Melbourne.

Former Records Office
287 – 295 Queen Street

Designed by SE Bindley of the Public Works Department, and completed in 1904, this is a wonderfully flamboyant example of the French Second Empire style, with tall stepped bays topped by ornate mansard roofs. The main stair hall is an impressive space, while the simple rectangular structure to the rear housed important records in fireproof strong rooms. Following sensitive alterations including a snappy ‘concertina’ walled addition to the strong rooms by Peter Elliot in 2003, it now houses the Law School of the Victoria University of Technology.

Every building in this picture is now demolished:
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictures/0/0/3/im/pi003454.jpg

One of the Prell triplets, all built in 1887/1888:
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/4/3/im/a43421.jpg

This is demolished X3 :-(
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictures/0/0/0/im/pi000286.jpg

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/jcollins/0/1/9/im/jc019557.jpg

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/jcollins/0/1/9/im/jc019558.jpg

actually the first of the Prell slabs was no 34 Queen st/cnr flinders lane (southeast cnr) later called Shevill & co) was completed in July 1889.
The next Prell slab was cnr Collins/Queen completed Nov89.(the one that had a tower added in 1929).
The 3rd Prell (31 Queen st) was also completed late 89.
The Prells parapets had Minerva & Mercury heads and largest weighed 2 1/2 tonnes. Amazing details.

What a great building:

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/miscpics/0/1/2/im/mp012489.jpg

Titles office:
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/jcollins/0/1/9/im/jc019562.jpg

^ sydney has one similar still standing in pitt st.
national bldg-250 pitt
1924
large cornice

http://www.emporis.com/en/il/im/?id=172941

Queen Street is one of the streets in the Melbourne CBD that is very much overlooked. Like William St, it has magnificent buildings, but I hate the parked cars down the middle of the street. I wish the MCC woudl just remove all the parked cars down the middle of all our CBD streets including Russell, Exhibition, Lonsdale, Queen and Market Sts.

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/miscpics/0/1/2/im/mp012490.jpg

You can see all three Prell buildings in this shot:
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/sjones/0/0/0/im/sj000140.jpg

very unusual addition. Years ago when i come across the APA, later L&G, doing research, ive always wondered if the tower had any office space? It was only 7m x 7m. square.it looks like there are 3 usable floors? "boutique" offices maybe?lol
i just cant believe after being a boom scrper from 1880's and then becoming tallest bldg in Australia with its addition, it was still demolished.such a grand looking structure.

Occupied levels above 40 metres were prohibted at the time so the tower was there purely for looks. It might have been used as an observation tower???

Two more old postcards.

http://www.thecollectormm.com/gallery/postcards/1920s-1980s/slides/Queen5.jpg

http://www.thecollectormm.com/gallery/postcards/1920s-1980s/slides/Queen7.jpg

Market end of Queen Street ~1900s.

http://www.thecollectormm.com/private/VicMarket3.jpg

imagine - just imagine for a moment that all of these marvelous buildings remained and the 'newer cbd' was built where docklands is going up now. of course it's just a pipe dream and far too late obviously but imagine if we had had the forsight to keep these buildings untouched and just modernised the utiliies. Of course things don't generally evolve that way in most cities but it's nice to imagine. These threads depress me a tad when i see what we have lost - don't get me wrong, I like 'em tall, glassy and funky but...oh well too late - nevermind.