Melbourne Town Hall

Melbourne Town Hall
Melbourne Town Hall, October 2023
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Town hall
Architectural style	Second Empire
Location	90-130 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria
Country	Australia
Coordinates	37°48′55″S144°58′00″E / 37.815145°S 144.966777°E / -37.815145; 144.966777
Construction started	1867
Completed	1887
Owner	Council of the City of Melbourne
Victorian Heritage Register
Official name	Melbourne Town Hall and Administration Building
Type	State Registered Place
Designated	9 October 1974
Reference no.	H0001 [1]
Heritage Overlay number	HO746 [1]

Melbourne Town Hall, often referred to as simply Town Hall, is the administrative seat of the local municipality of the City of Melbourne and the primary offices of the Lord Mayor and city councillors of Melbourne. Located on the northeast corner of Swanston and Collins street in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, the building was completed in 1887 and heritage listed on the Victorian Heritage Register in 1974. The building is frequently used for art and cultural events such as concerts, festivals, theatrical plays and exhibitions. ^{[2] [3] [4]}

History

Melbourne Town Hall, 1910

Melbourne was officially incorporated as a town on 13 December 1842, with Henry Condell as its first Mayor. However, it was not until 1854 that its first Town Hall was completed. Begun in 1851, the work ground to a halt with the beginning of the Victorian gold rush. The foundation stone of a new, grander Town Hall was laid on 29 November 1867 by the visiting Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, after the demolition of the first. ^{[5] [6]} The current town hall officially opened on 11 August 1870 with a lavish ball, which was personally funded by the Lord Mayor Samuel Amess. ^{[7] [8] [9]}

The foundation stone of the additional front portico was laid in 1887, and Sir Henry Weedon laid the foundation of the administrative annex building on 27 August 1908. ^[10]

During the Melbourne International Comedy Festival the Melbourne Town Hall acts as venue to a large number of the performances.

An early cinema event Soldiers of the Cross premiered at the Melbourne Town Hall on 13 September 1900 to an audience of about four thousand people. ^[11]

In 1913, the city hired a hall keeper in his 30s named James "Jimmy" Dewar, a Scottish immigrant and Black Watch veteran from Dundee. He continued to work there loyally for 30 years. ^[12] James lived with his wife and family in the Hall's penthouse, raising their children there, and retired in 1943. During their upbringing in the Town Hall, their only playing space was a small asphalt yard where the children went "pigeon-nesting" on the roof. ^[13]

In his obituary in 1946, The Argus reported that James was a familiar face at the Hall in this era. In his duties, he greeted various visitors from locals to royals, including the French General Paul Pau, the Princes of Wales Edward VIII, and Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester. James was described as a "friend, guide, and philosopher" to many Lord Mayors of Melbourne. ^[14] When opera singer Dame Nellie Melba performed at the Hall in 1928, she wanted to give an encore, but her piano had been packed up and there was no music. James lent her his piano from his upstairs penthouse so she could perform. ^[15]

On 1 February 1925, a fire destroyed a large part of the town hall, including the main auditorium and pipe organ valued then at £15,000. ^[16] It was rebuilt and enlarged, extending east over the site previously occupied by the Victoria Coffee Palace, an early temperance hotel frequented by Melbourne's power brokers. The rebuilt section lost some of Reed's original flourishes including the elaborate mansard roof.

In 1964, The Beatles attended a civic reception at the Melbourne Town Hall. "Outside 20,000 teenagers had gathered to obtain a glimpse of the pop idols. Again, frenzied and hysterical cheering and uncontrollable screaming erupted when the Beatles emerged." ^[17]

Architecture

Further information: Architecture of Melbourne

A Napier Waller mural in the Melbourne Town Hall Auditorium beside the proscenium arch

The Town Hall was designed by the famous local architect Joseph Reed and Barnes, in the Second Empire style. Reed's designs also included the State Library of Victoria, the Royal Exhibition Building, and Melbourne Trades Hall.

The building is topped by Prince Alfred's Tower, named after the Duke. The tower includes a 2.44 m diameter clock, which was started on 31 August 1874, after being presented to the council by the Mayor's son, Vallange Condell. It was built by Smith and Sons of London. The longest of its copper hands measures 1.19 m long, and weighs 8.85 kg.

The building and the portico, excluding the interiors, were first classified on the basis of its Venetian Renaissance facade architecture by the National Trust in 1964 and reclassified in 1971. ^[18] The organ and the 1927 murals by Napier Waller ^[19] commissioned for £1,700 ^[20] (a 2021 value of A$138,340.00) ^[21] are also classified as historically significant at the State level. They were painted directly in line onto the newly installed asbestos Celotex acoustic tiles in a redecoration of the Auditorium after a fire in 1925. ^[16] Waller, who had been given a free hand in devising the artworks explained that the figures were not intended to be allegorical, but to create rhythm, and that line-work was used because a skin of paint would interfere with the panels' sound-absorbing quality. The actual painting on the series of 7 metre high by 4m wide wall sections from Waller's half-scale cartoons produced in his Darebin studio was undertaken by H. Oliver and Sons under the artist's supervision. ^[22]

Organ

The Main Auditorium includes a magnificent concert organ, now comprising 147 ranks and 9,568 pipes. The organ can be played by a fixed console located directly beneath the front pipes or by a secondary mobile console which is placed in close view of the audience for recitals. This organ is of great significance as it is the largest and most comprehensive pipe organ in Australia (measuring by number of voices/stops, the Sydney Opera House organ has more pipes thanks to its entirely "straight" design; there is no borrowing or duplexing at all whereas the Melbourne Town Hall organ makes extensive use of borrowing in the pedal division). The organ is best suited for romantic and symphonic works but is capable of playing just about anything thanks to its vast tonal resources.

History of the organ

The Grand Organ, Melbourne Town Hall 1872, Charles Nettleton State Library Victoria H96.160/2732

Melbourne Town Hall organ

The organ was originally built by Hill & son (of England) in 1872 before a fire destroyed it in 1925. ^[16] A new organ constructed by Hill Norman & Beard was installed in 1929 and has since then been rebuilt and enlarged by Schantz Organ Company of the United States of America from 1995 to 2001 at a cost of $4.5 million. ^[23] The rebuild included 2 new floating divisions (Fanfare & Bombarde), many new voices and a secondary moveable console

Console of the Melbourne Town Hall Organ in 2019

Specification

The stop list is as follows:

I. Choir		II. Great		III. Swell		Pedal		IV. Solo		Bombarde
Contra Salicional	16	Double Open Diapason	16	Contra Violone	32	Gravissima	64	Quintaton	16	Grand Diapason	8
Horn Diapason	8	Tibia Profunda	16	Bourdon	16	Double Open Diapason	32	Harmonic Claribel	8	Principal	4
Corno Flute	8	Contra Geigen	16	Violine	16	Tibia Profunda	32	Flute Celeste	8	Grave Mixture	V-VI
Flute Celeste	II	Open Diapason I	8	Diapason Phonon	8	Contra Bourdon Acoustic	32	Violoncello	8	Fourniture	IV-V
Lieblich Gedeckt	8	Open Diapason II	8	Geigen Principal	8	Contra Violone	32	Cello Celeste	8	Grand Chorus	VI-VIII
Salicional	8	Diapason Phonon	8	Flauto Traverso	8	Open Diapason	16	Salicional	8	Contra Posaune	16
Voix Céleste	8	Tibia Plena	8	Cor de Nuit	8	Tibia Profunda	16	Concert Flute Harmonic	4	Posaune	8
Lieblich Flöte	4	Harmonic Flute	8	Bourdon	8	Great Bass	16	Nazard Harmonique	2 2/3	Clarion	4
Gemshorn	4	Hohl Flöte	8	Gamba	8	Bourdon	16	Harmonic Piccolo	2
Echo Viola	4	Rohr Flöte	8	Gamba Celeste	8	Lieblich Bourdon	16	Tierce	1 3/5
Harmonic Piccolo	2	Gamba Major	8	Aeoline	8	Contra Bass	16	Schalmei	16
Dulciana Cornet	III	Octave Diapason	4	Vox Angelica	8	Violone	16	Tuba	8
Tuba Sonora	8	Octave Phonon	4	Principal	4	Geigen	16	French Horn	8
Cor Anglais	8	Principal	4	Harmonic Flute	4	Contra Salicional	16	Corno di Bassetto	8
Closed Horn	8	Tibia Octave	4	Rohr Flute	4	String Bass	16	Clarinet	8
Cremona	8	Wald Flöte	4	Octave Gamba	4	Quint	10 2/3	Orchestral Oboe	8
		Octave Quint	2 2/3	Harmonic Quint	2 2/3	Prestant	8	Fanfare		Orchestral
		Stopped Quint	2 2/3	Piccolo	2	Principal	8	Tuba	16	Contra Viola	16
		Super Octave	2	Salicetina	2	Geigen Principal	8	Sub Trumpet	16	Tibia Clausa	8
		Fifteenth	2	Tierce	1 3/5	Flute Major	8	Tuba Sonora	8	Viol d'Orchestre	II
		Tierce	1 3/5	Chorus Mixture	V	Bass Flute	8	Tuba	8	Orchestral Strings	II
		Grand Fourniture	VI-VII	Grave Mixture	III	Stopped Flute	8	Trumpet Victoria	8	String Celeste	II
		Chorus Mixture	V	Sharp Mixture	III	Lieblich Bourdon	8	Octave Sonora	4	Octave Viola	4
		Mixture	IV	Double Trumpet	16	Violoncello	8	Tuba	4	Orchestral Strings
		Contra Trombone	32	Bassoon	16	Super Octave	4
		Trombone	16	Cornopean	8	Fifteenth	4
		Fagotto	16	Trumpet Victoria	8	Open Flute	4
		Trumpet Victoria	8	Orchestral Trumpet	8	Grand Fourniture	VI
		Tromba	8	Horn	8	Fourniture	IV
		Harmonic Trumpet	8	Oboe	8	Diaphone	32
		Clarion	4	Vox Humana	8	Double Ophicleide	32
				Clairon	4	Contra Fagotto	32
						Tuba	16
						Octave Diaphone	16
						Ophicleide	16
						Posaune	16
						Trombone	16
						Bassoon	16
						Schalmei	16
						Tuba	8
						Trumpet Victoria	8
						Trumpet	8
						Bassoon	8
						Clarion	4

See also

• Victoria portal

• List of Town Halls in Melbourne
• List of Mayors and Lord Mayors of Melbourne
• Architecture of Melbourne
• List of heritage-listed buildings in Melbourne
• Victorian architecture

References

1. "Melbourne Town Hall and Administration Building". Victorian Heritage Database . Government of Victoria . Retrieved 22 August 2023.
2. "Melbourne Town Hall | Melbourne, Victoria | Attractions". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
3. "Melbourne Town Hall". Melbourne Writers Festival. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
4. "Melbourne Town Hall | Venue Hire | Functions | VenueNow". venuenow.com. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
5. "VISIT OF THE DUKE OF EDINURGH". Hamilton Spectator & Grange District Advertiser. No. 605. Victoria, Australia. 30 November 1867. p. 2. Retrieved 16 February 2017– via National Library of Australia.
6. "THE MELBOURNE TOWN-HALL: PAST AND PRESENT". The Australasian . Vol. LXXXIX, no. 2, 315. Victoria, Australia. 13 August 1910. p. 36. Retrieved 16 February 2017– via National Library of Australia., PHOTOGRAPH: THE TOWN-HALL, BUILT 1850–53, PULLED DOWN 1868.
7. "THE GRAND FANCY DRESS BALL GIVEN BY THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL SAMUEL AMESS MAYOR OF MELBOURNE, ON THE OPENING OF THE NEW TOWN HALL, 11th AUGUST, 1870". Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers . No. 162. Victoria, Australia. 10 September 1870. p. 161. Retrieved 16 February 2017– via National Library of Australia.
8. "DEATH OF ALDERMAN AMESS". The Argus (Melbourne) . No. 16, 224. Victoria, Australia. 4 July 1898. p. 6. Retrieved 16 February 2017– via National Library of Australia.
9. "NEW COUNCIL CHAMBER". The Australasian . Vol. LXXXIX, no. 2, 315. Victoria, Australia. 13 August 1910. p. 36. Retrieved 16 February 2017– via National Library of Australia.
10. "Happy birthday to our Town Hall admin building #melbourne", City of Melbourne on Instagram
11. Bertrand, Ina (1988). Perry, Joseph Henry (1863–1943). Vol. 11. Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
12. "OBITUARY". Argus. 25 February 1946. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
13. "WOMEN'S NEWS". Herald. 20 January 1943. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
14. "Brilliant Civic Ceremony". Herald. 6 June 1935. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
15. "Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne, Vic. : 1922 - 1954; 1956), Monday 30 April 1928, page 35". trove.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
16. "Melbourne Town Hall On Fire: Concert Hall Demolished: City Organ Destroyed: Victoria Coffee Palace In Danger: An Early Morning Outbreak". The Age. 2 February 1925. p. 9. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
17. The Beatles in Melbourne, OnlyMelbourne
18. "Melbourne Town Hall - Organ & Napier Waller Murals". Heritage Victoria National Database. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
19. Moore, William (1 October 1932). "Art and Artists". Brisbane Courier. p. 18. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
20. Moore, William (1 September 1927). "At Home and Abroad". Art in Australia. Third series (21): 10.
21. Hutchinson, Diane; Ploeckl, Florian (2023). "Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of Australian Amounts, 1828 to the Present". Measuring Worth. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
22. "Mural Beauty: Artist Explains Work on Town Hall Panels". The Herald. 11 August 1927. p. 14. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
23. "Town Hall Grand Organ". City Collection. 8 October 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2019.

External links

• Town Hall History on the City of Melbourne official website
• Town Hall in Melbourne
• Melbourne Town Hall Organ details
• Grand Organ Specifications (2001)