place

Collingwood Town Hall

1890 establishments in AustraliaHeritage-listed buildings in MelbourneSecond Empire architecture in AustraliaTown halls in MelbourneUse Australian English from August 2019
Victorian architecture in Victoria (Australia)
Collingwood Town Hall
Collingwood Town Hall

Collingwood Town Hall is a civic building located on Hoddle Street in Abbotsford, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The hall was built between 1885 and 1887 to the competition-winning design of local architect George R. Johnson in the Second Empire style, rich in detail with domed mansard roofs and a soaring clock tower. 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 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, 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 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 with the Cities of Fitzroy and Richmond in 1994 to form the City of Yarra, 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.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Collingwood Town Hall (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Collingwood Town Hall
Hoddle Street, Melbourne Abbotsford

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address External links Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Collingwood Town HallContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N -37.803939 ° E 144.992484 °
placeShow on map

Address

Collingwood Town Hall

Hoddle Street 140
3067 Melbourne, Abbotsford
Victoria, Australia
mapOpen on Google Maps

linkWikiData (Q5147323)
linkOpenStreetMap (32334479)

Collingwood Town Hall
Collingwood Town Hall
Share experience

Nearby Places

The Tote Hotel
The Tote Hotel

The Tote is a hotel, pub, bar, and live music venue located in Collingwood, Melbourne, Australia. The venue hosts many independent local, Australian and international acts, and carries a reputation for showcasing new and emerging independent musical acts of a variety of stylistic origins, having done so since the 1980s. The venue operates 5 days a week with performances across 3 settings, the "main stage", the "cobra bar" and the "front bar". It is located at 67-71 Johnston Street. The hotel is thought to have been built in 1870 as Healey's, becoming the Ivanhoe Hotel in 1876, and held by the Healey family until 1940, when it was renovated. The name changed to "The Tote" in 1980 when the venue began hosting local and Australian punk, post-punk, heavy metal and hardcore bands. On 15 January 2010, due to high financial costs surrounding disputed liquor licensing laws, it was announced that the venue would be closing that same weekend. A groundswell of community support for the venue and opposition to aspects of liquor licensing laws, quickly mobilised. Several groups on social networking sites quickly sprung up, one such group attracting over 20,000 people. On Sunday the 17th, an estimated crowd of around 2,000 rallied outside the Tote. The events surrounding the closure, the rally and various petitions, sparked public and political debate about liquor licensing laws and live music in Melbourne and Victoria. On 23 February, a much larger rally of at least 10,000, the 2010 Melbourne live music rally, was later held in central Melbourne, that same day amendments to liquor licensing laws were announced. The Tote was eventually reopened and continues to serve the community to the present day.