The Auditorium was a tall building with a red brick facade, designed by Nahum Barnet and constructed by Clements Langford Pty. Ltd., one of Melbourne's leading builders, in 1912. Their client was the Melbourne Presbyterian Church, owners of the land, on which St Enoch's Church had once stood. The church had their offices at the Assembly Hall on the other side of Collins Street. [1]
The Auditorium was designed primarily for concerts, and was developed by theatre impresarios J. & N. Tait, [1] and was located behind the eight-storey office building, with a separate entry from the street, an arrangement similar to its namesake, the Auditorium Building in Chicago. The sparely finished concert hall seated 2000 in the stalls, a 'grand tier', and a balcony. [2] [3] It opened on 17 May 1913, with a performance by the renowned soprano Clara Butt. The Auditorium was not a great success; and as early as 1915 it was showing motion pictures. [4]
The concert hall was remodelled as the Metro Theatre for MGM, being fully gutted in February 1934, rebuilt in sumptuous style, and opened on 27 April 1934, having taken ten weeks to complete. [1] The manager for MGM was Bert Cowen, who had been manager at The Auditorium when it screened the MGM film The White Sister in 1925. [1]
It was renamed Mayfair Theatre in 1975 when taken over by Greater Union, and finally closed in 1982. [5]
In 1985, the interior was completely remodelled around a central dome housing numerous high end boutiques and named "Figgins Diorama". The venture was not successful, closing after 19 months. [6] The space then reopened briefly as the ‘Shop of Shops’ before closing again. The corner theatre space remained unused, while the office block remained as low rental spaces.[ citation needed ]
Finally, in 2010, everything but the facade was demolished, and a 17-level premium-grade office building was built, with BHP as the major tenant, completed in 2013. [7] [8] The facade was restored, and remains listed by Heritage Victoria. [9]
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.
Collins Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in the first survey of Melbourne, the original 1837 Hoddle Grid, and soon became the most desired address in the city. Collins Street was named after Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania David Collins who led a group of settlers in establishing a short-lived settlement at Sorrento in 1803.
William Pitt was an Australian architect and politician. Pitt is best known as one of the outstanding architects of the "boom" era of the 1880s in Melbourne, designing some of the city's most elaborate High Victorian commercial buildings. He worked in a range of styles including Gothic Revival, Italianate, French Second Empire, and his own inventive eclectic compositions. He had a notable second career after the crash of the 1890s, becoming a specialist in theatres and industrial buildings.
Nahum Barnet was an architect working in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia during the Victorian and Edwardian periods, best known for his extensive legacy of commercial buildings in Melbourne's CBD, as well as his last design, the Melbourne Synagogue.
The City Square was a public plaza located in the Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The site was bounded by Swanston Street, Collins Street, Flinders Lane and the Westin Hotel. The historic landmarks of Melbourne Town Hall and St Paul’s Cathedral were across the streets to the north and south respectively.
The Forum Theatre is a historic theatre and former cinema now used as a live music and event venue located on the corner of Flinders Street and Russell Street in Melbourne, Australia.
The Athenaeum or Melbourne Athenaeum at 188 Collins Street is an art and cultural hub in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1839, it is the city's oldest cultural institution.
The Victoria Theatre is a heritage-listed former theatre at 8–10 Perkins Street, Newcastle, City of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It was opened in 1876 and rebuilt during 1890–1891, and is the oldest theatre still standing in New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 27 August 1999.
The Princess Theatre, originally Princess's Theatre, is a 1452-seat theatre in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1854 and rebuilt in 1886 to a design by noted Melbourne architect William Pitt, it is the oldest surviving entertainment site on mainland Australia. Built in an elaborate Second Empire style, it reflects the opulence of the "Marvellous Melbourne" boom period, and had a number of innovative features, including state of the art electric stage lighting and the world's first sliding ceiling, which was rolled back on warm nights to give the effect of an open-air theatre.
The Palais Theatre, formerly known as Palais Pictures, is a historic picture palace located in St Kilda, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. With a capacity of nearly 3,000 people, it is the largest seated theatre in Australia.
Australian non-residential architectural styles are a set of Australian architectural styles that apply to buildings used for purposes other than residence and have been around only since the first colonial government buildings of early European settlement of Australia in 1788.
Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) is a venue and organisation for live music in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The organisation programs and presents more than 500 concerts and events a year across diverse range of musical genres including classical and chamber music, contemporary, pop, folk, rock, electronica, indie, jazz, cabaret and world music. Opened in 2009, the centre is Melbourne's second largest auditorium for classical music.
The Palace Theatre was an entertainment venue located in Melbourne, Australia. First built for live theatre in 1912, it was also used as a cinema and for live music. It was demolished except for its facade in 2020 after much community opposition, to be replaced by a hotel.
RMIT Building 8 is an educational building, part of RMIT University's City campus in Melbourne, Victoria. It is located at 383 Swanston Street, on the northern edge of Melbourne's central business district.
The General Post Office, situated on the corner of Elizabeth and Bourke streets in Melbourne, is the former General Post Office for Victoria, Australia.
The Mayfair Theatre, also known as the Auditorium Theatre and Auditorium Music Hall, is a historic theatre site in Baltimore, United States. Originally opened in 1880 as a bathing house, the site was later demolished and rebuilt in 1904 as a theatre, which was closed in 1986.
Henry Eli White, also known as Harry White, was a New Zealand-born architect best known for the many theatres and cinemas he designed in New Zealand and Australia in the 1910s and 1920s. Many of the major surviving historic venues in the two countries are White designs, including the St. James Theatre, Wellington, St. James Theatre, Auckland, the Capitol Theatre and State Theatre in Sydney, and the Palais Theatre and the interiors of the Princess Theatre and Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne. He also designed the City Hall and the attached Civic Theatre in Newcastle, New South Wales.
Queen's Hall was a little theatre in Collins Street, Melbourne, situated between Russell and Swanston streets. It operated from 1920 to 1937, when its building was demolished.
Central Hall was a meeting room and theatrical hall, and later a cinema known as the Grosvenor Theatre, located at 201 Little Collins Street, in Melbourne, Australia, that operated from 1928 to 1968.