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Federal Coffee Palace

1888 establishments in Australia1973 disestablishments in AustraliaAustralian architectural historyBuildings and structures demolished in 1973Coffeehouses and cafés in Australia
Demolished buildings and structures in MelbourneDemolished hotels in AustraliaHotel buildings completed in 1888Hotels in MelbourneTemperance movementTemperance movement in Australia
A tram car passes the Federal Coffee Palace in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
A tram car passes the Federal Coffee Palace in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The Federal Coffee Palace was a large, elaborate French Second Empire-style 560-room temperance hotel in the city centre of Melbourne, built between 1886 and 1888 at the height of the city's land boom, and demolished c. 1972–73. Located on the corner of Collins and King streets, near Spencer Street station (the address is now 555 Collins Street), it is prominent in lists of the buildings Melburnians most regret having lost. The Federal Coffee Palace was by far the largest and grandest product of the late 19th century temperance movement in the Southern Hemisphere. The Age wrote that the £150,000 hotel was one of "Australia's most splendid" buildings; in fact, it was "one of the largest and most opulent hotels in the world". With seven main floors and two more in the corner tower, it was the most massive of the rash of large tall buildings built in the central city in the 1880s boom. The height to the top of the corner dome was 165 ft (50 m), its height to roof of 48m exceeded the 43m Fink's Building completed the previous year making it briefly Melbourne and Australia's tallest building until completion of the Australian Building in mid 1890, which measured 53m to the top of its corner spire.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Federal Coffee Palace (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Federal Coffee Palace
King Street, Melbourne Melbourne

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Wikipedia: Federal Coffee PalaceContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N -37.8183 ° E 144.9567 °
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Address

King Street (Princes Highway)

King Street
3000 Melbourne, Melbourne
Victoria, Australia
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A tram car passes the Federal Coffee Palace in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
A tram car passes the Federal Coffee Palace in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Nearby Places

140 William Street
140 William Street

140 William Street (formerly BHP House) is a 41-storey steel, concrete and glass building located in the eastern side of the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Constructed between 1969 and 1972, BHP House was designed by the architectural practice Yuncken Freeman alongside engineers Irwinconsult, with heavy influence of contemporary skyscrapers in Chicago, Illinois. The local architects sought technical advice from Bangladeshi-American structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan, of renowned American architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, spending ten weeks at its Chicago office in 1968. At the time, BHP House was known to be the tallest steel-framed building and the first office building in Australia to use a “total energy concept” – the generation of its own electricity using BHP natural gas. The name BHP House came from the building being the national headquarters of BHP. BHP House has been included in the Victorian Heritage Register (Number H1699) for significance to the State of Victoria for following three reasons: Architectural – 140 William Street is one of the most noteworthy building designs by the Melbourne firm Yuncken Freeman. Technological – Its innovative structural application of steel and concrete, leading to open floor plates that are now a standard feature of high rise office buildings. Historical – The building signifies changes in Melbourne's CBD as it transformed into a major corporate centre.