The facade of the Olderfleet building features a distinctive pattern of red brick and cream-colored Oamaru limestone imported from New Zealand. Completed in eighteen eighty-nine, it served as the headquarters for the shipping firm Service…
Gothic Melbourne Walk
This walk traces the dramatic bluestone churches and grand Venetian Gothic commercial buildings that rose during Melbourne's 19th-century gold rush. You will see how gold wealth fueled the spiritual and architectural ambition of a rapidly growing colony.
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1. Work Club Olderfleet
2. The Gothic Bank
The Gothic Bank on Collins Street features a facade of elaborate, honey-colored limestone covered in pointed arches and ornate carvings of Australian flora. When the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank commissioned it in eighteen…
3. Manchester Unity Building
The Manchester Unity Building features a stepped, gothic-inspired tower clad in terracotta tiles, rising distinctly above the corner of Swanston and Collins streets. Completed in nineteen thirty-two during the depths of the Great…
4. Assembly Hall
The Assembly Hall on Collins Street carries a sharp, jagged silhouette of terracotta tiles and gothic arches that breaks the horizontal flow of the street. Built in nineteen twenty-four by the Presbyterian Church, the hall functioned as a…
5. Scots’ Church Melbourne
The Scots' Church stands out for its needle-like bluestone spire that rises two hundred and eleven feet above the corner of Collins and Russell streets. It serves as the mother church of Presbyterianism in Victoria. When the original…
6. St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne
St Paul's Cathedral sits at the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets, identified by its trio of sandstone spires and the honey-colored limestone facade. William Butterfield designed the church in the Gothic Transitional style, bringing…