Collingwood Town Hall is a civic building located on Hoddle Street in Abbotsford, a suburb of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

, Australia. The hall was built between 1885 and 1887 to the competition-winning design of local architect

George R. Johnson George R. Johnson (October 19, 1929 – September 28, 1973) was an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the Delaware County district from 1967 to 1968 and the 166th district fro ...

in the Second Empire style, rich in detail with domed mansard roofs and a soaring

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another build ...

. It is widely considered one of the finest town halls in Australia, and, along with the Sydney Town Hall and South Melbourne Town Hall, one of the best example of the Second Empire style in Australia. The Collingwood Town Hall building incorporated many functions in the one project, with a grand hall, a supper room, municipal offices and council chamber, post office, police station and court house, and a mechanics' institute (comprising separate ladies' and gentlemen's library rooms). The opening was held on the 29 March 1887. The clocks in the tower were installed later and were the subject of some debate in September 1887. They are reputed to have been the clocks once at the

Melbourne General Post Office The General Post Office, situated on the corner of Elizabeth and Bourke streets in Melbourne, is the former General Post Office for Victoria, Australia. Still owned by the Federal Government, the building appears on all major heritage lists: ...

which was extended in 1888, but they were in fact ordered from Gaunt & Co, clockmakers, and were to be similar to the clocks at the GPO. Finally ordered in April 1888, and reportedly was on display at the 1888

Melbourne Centennial Exhibition The Melbourne Centennial Exhibition was organised to celebrate a century of European settlement in Australia. The Exhibition Building, constructed in 1880 for the Melbourne International Exhibition, was extended and reused. The Centennial Exhibi ...

, and the clock bell was cast by Mears and Stainbank at the Whitechapel Foundry, London, in 1890. It is considered an important example of the work of George R Johnson, possibly the most prolific designer of town halls in late 19th century Victoria (he designed or redesigned at least 6), as well as numerous theatres in Melbourne and other Australian cities. In 1938 the lobby and hall was significantly remodelled at the time in an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

style, designed by AC Leith & Associates. The library space, upstairs on the north side, that was to be a mechanic's institute, became by the 1890s the Collingwood Municipal Library, open to the public until 10pm. In 1950 it moved downstairs to the former supper room, and then in 1978 into a former church across Stanton Street on the south side of the Town Hall. All the former rooms became office space. After the amalgamation of the

City of Collingwood A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

with the Cities of Fitzroy and Richmond in 1994 to form the

City of Yarra The City of Yarra is a local government area (LGA) in Victoria, Australia in the inner eastern and northern suburbs of Melbourne. It is the second smallest LGA in the state with an area of , and in June 2018 it had a population of 98,521, ...

, the Town Hall now functions as secondary offices and service centre for the Collingwood area for the City of Yarra. The Collingwood Police Station still operates from the rear on Eddy Court. The hall itself is used for special functions and as an exhibition space. In 2014 the hall was extensively renovated, and brought up to modern standards.

References

{{Town halls of Melbourne Town halls in Melbourne Victorian architecture in Victoria (Australia) Second Empire architecture in Australia 1890 establishments in Australia Heritage-listed buildings in Melbourne Buildings and structures in the City of Yarra Clock towers in Australia

See also

References