Flinders Street railway station

Early terminus

Flinders Street Station, 1895

The Swanston Street Extension frontage of the pre-1910 station

The first railway station to occupy the Flinders Street site was called Melbourne Terminus, and was a collection of weatherboard train sheds. It was opened on 12 September 1854 by the Lieutenant-Governor, Charles Hotham.^[4] The terminus was the first city railway station in Australia, and the opening day saw the first steam train trip in the country. It travelled to Sandridge (now Port Melbourne), over the now redeveloped Sandridge Bridge, travelling along the now light rail Port Melbourne line.

The first terminus had a single platform 30 metres long, and was located beside the Fish Market building on the south-west corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets.^[5] An additional platform was provided in 1877, along with two overhead bridges to provide passenger access, followed by additional timber and corrugated iron buildings and a telegraph station in 1879.^[4] The first signal boxes were opened at the station in 1883, one at each end of the platforms. By the 1890s a third island platform had been constructed.^[6]

Melbourne's two other early central-city stations, Spencer Street and Princes Bridge, opened in 1859. Spencer Street served the lines to the west of the city, and was isolated from the eastern side of the network until a ground level railway was built connecting it to Flinders Street in 1879,^[7] this track being replaced by the Flinders Street Viaduct in 1889.^[8]

Princes Bridge was originally separated from Flinders Street, even though it was only on the opposite side of Swanston Street. Once the railway line was extended under the street in 1865 to join the two, Princes Bridge was closed.^[9] It was not reopened until April 1879, and from 1909 slowly became amalgamated into Flinders Street.^[10] Federation Square now occupies its site. Up until the 1880s a number of designs for a new station had been prepared, but none ever went any further.^[11]

Current building

Flinders Street Station and the intersection of Flinders & Swanston Streets in 1927

Track 6 at Flinders Street Station

In 1882, the government decided to build a new central passenger station to replace the existing ad-hoc station buildings. A design competition was finally held in 1899, and 17 entries were received. The competition was essentially for the detailed design of the station building, because the location of the concourse and entrances, the track and platform layout, the type of platform roofing, and even the room layout to some extent, were already decided.^[11]

In 1899, the £500 first prize was awarded to railway employees James Fawcett and H.P.C. Ashworth, of Fawcett and Ashworth, whose design, named Green Light, was of French Renaissance style. It included a large dome over the main entrance, and tall clock tower over the Elizabeth Street entrance. A train shed over the platforms was intended to have many arched roofs running north-south, but only an alternative plan survives, depicting an impressive three-arched roof (running east-west) over the concourse.

Work began in 1900 on the rearrangement of the station tracks, while the final design of the station building was still being worked on. Work on the central pedestrian subway started in 1901, with the foundations of the main building completed by 1903.

In 1904, in mid construction, the plans were extensively modified by the Railways Commissioners. The proposed train shed was replaced by individual platform roofs, and it was decided not to include a concourse roof. To increase office space, a fourth storey was added to the main building, which resulted in the arches above each entrance on Flinders Street being lowered, decreasing their dominance.^[12]

By 1907, the station had eleven platforms but, in 1909, the decision was made to construct platforms 12 and 13 east of Swanston Street. In the same year, platform 1 was extended eastwards to cater for country passenger traffic.^[12] One of the original platform verandas from the old station was dismantled and re-erected at Hawthorn station, in the inner-eastern suburbs.

In 1905, work began on the station building itself, starting at the west end and progressing towards the main dome. Ballarat builder Peter Rodger was awarded the £93,000 contract. The building was originally to have been faced in stone, but that was considered too costly, so red brick, with cement render details, was used for the main building instead. Grey granite from Harcourt was used for many details at ground level on the Flinders street side, "in view of the importance of this great public work".^[12] The southern facade of the main building consisted of a lightweight timber frame clad with zinc sheets, which were scored into blocks and painted red in order to look like large bricks. That was done to created corridors instead of what were to be open-access balconies inside the train shed.

Flinders Street Station in 1908 during construction of the current station building

Flinders Street Station illuminated for the 1954 Royal Visit

Work on the dome started in 1906. The structure required heavy foundations as it extended over railway tracks. In May 1908, work was progressing more slowly than planned, with the expected completion date of April 1909 increasingly unlikely to be met. Rodger's contract was terminated in August 1908.^[13] A Royal Commission was appointed in May 1910, finding that Rodger could be held accountable for the slow progress in 1908, but he should be compensated for the difficulties before then. The Way and Works Branch of the Victorian Railways took over the project, and the station was essentially finished by mid-1909. The verandah along Flinders Street, and the concourse roof and verandah along Swanston Street, were not completed until after the official opening in 1910.^[13]

The building has three levels at the concourse, or Swanston Street, end, and four at the lower Elizabeth Street, or platform, end. Numerous shops and lettable spaces were provided, some on the concourse, but especially along the Flinders Street frontage, many at lower than street level, accessed by stairs, which created a fifth / basement level. The top three levels of the main building contain a large number of rooms, particularly along the Flinders Street frontage, mostly intended for railway use, but also many as lettable spaces. Numerous ticket windows were located at each entry, with services, such as a restaurant, country booking office, lost luggage office and visitors help booth, at the concourse or platform level. Much of the top floor was purpose-built for the then new Victorian Railway Institute, including a library, gym and a lecture hall, later used as a ballroom. Those rooms have been largely abandoned and decaying since the 1980s. For a number of years in the 1930s and 1940s, the building featured a creche next to the main dome on the top floor,^[14] with an open-air playground on an adjoining roof. Since 1910, the basement store beside the main entrance has been occupied by a hat store, known as 'City Hatters' since 1933.

The first electric train service operated from Flinders Street to Essendon in 1919,^[8] and by 1926 it was the world's busiest passenger station.^[15] To cater for the increasing numbers of passengers, the Degraves Street subway from the station was extended to the north side of Flinders Street in 1954.^[8] In March 1966, Platform One was extended to 2,322 feet (708 m) long.^[16]

Redevelopment plans

View from Flinders Street

Plans arose at various times from the 1960s to the 1970s for the demolition or redevelopment of the station, as well as the adjacent Jolimont Yard area. The station had fallen into disrepair, having not been cleaned in decades, and covered with advertising hoardings and light up signs.^[17]

In 1962 the Minister for Transport and HKJ Pty Ltd signed an agreement for a £30 million redevelopment of the station that would have resulted in the demolition of the clock tower and replacement with an office building up to 60 stories high. Work was to begin in 1964, but instead the Gas & Fuel Building was constructed over the Princes Bridge station.^[18] In 1967 a company purchased the option to lease the space above Flinders Street Station, planning to build a shopping plaza and two office towers, the dome and clock tower being kept as part of the design, but strong opposition saw this project lapse.^[18]

In 1972 Victorian Premier Henry Bolte unveiled another redevelopment plan, to cover 27 acres (110,000 m²) of space above the Flinders Street Station and Jolimont Yard for a complex of shops, offices, theatres and other community facilities. A newspaper report of 1974 said that planning was still underway for the $250 million proposal, but by 1975 public perceptions had begun to turn towards retention of the station.^[18]

Close-up view of the ornate façade

In 1989 under the John Cain Government an agreement to construct the "Festival Marketplace" was signed. Designed by Daryl Jackson architects, it was to be built over the existing platforms in a style sympathetic to the existing station, and be completed by 1992. Planned to feature shops, restaurants and cafes, the project was abandoned in 1991 after the inability of the financiers to come up with the $205 million required due to the early 1990s recession.^[19]

In November 2011, the Victorian Government launched a $1 million international design competition to rejuvenate and restore the station. In October 2012, after receiving 118 submissions, six finalists were selected.^[20] The public could vote and the jury's choice and people's choice winner were announced on 8 August 2013. The competition winner was Hassell + Herzog & de Meuron, while the people's choice winner were University of Melbourne students Eduardo Velasquez, Manuel Pineda and Santiago Medina.^[20][21][22]

Refurbishment

View of the station from the west

Main concourse

The station at night

The Swanston Street concourse has undergone the most change of any part of the station, and is now three times the depth of the original structure, and only the canopy and roofed area on Swanston Street remains of the original. After the first round of works in 1985 a City of Melbourne councillor, Trevor Huggard, described the renovation as "vandalism of historically important sections of the station", and in 1997 the National Trust of Australia described the additions to the concourse as unsympathetic and detrimental to the station, having "the character of a modern shopping centre".^[23]

In 1982 a $7 million refurbishment was announced by the Ministry of Transport, divided into four phases. Completed by 1984, the first escalators at the station provided to platforms 2 and 3 replacing the former ramps, and the current public toilets were provided, replacing those over the platforms.^[24] New ramps were also provided to platforms which were less steep than those previous, and overhead skylights added to provide better lighting. The television displays used to display next train information had been added to each platform in July 1980.^[25] The main station concourse was tiled and extended westward over the tracks, 16 new shops opened on the concourse, and a restaurant was opened on the southern side along the river.^[26] The restaurant opened in October 1985 but closed soon after, the site becoming the "Clocks on Flinders" poker machine venue in 1994.^[27] The main steps were embedded with electrical circuits to keep them dry in June 1985.

In 1993 the Elizabeth Street pedestrian subway opened at the Southbank end.^[27] Conservation work was also carried out to the main building, with the external facade painted in the original colours, exterior feature lighting installed, and the stained glass feature windows above each entry restored.^[28] Further changes were made though the late 1990s with the opening of access from the main Swanston Street concourse to platform 1, platform resurfacing with tactile tiles, and the replacement of the remainder of the main platform access ramps with escalators and elevators.^[29][30]

The tracks to the east of the station were rebuilt in 1997/98 to clear the way for the Federation Square project.^[31] Jolimont Yard was eliminated, with $40 million spent to reduce 53 operating lines between Flinders Street and Richmond Station to just 12. The number of points was also reduced, from 164 to 48.^[32] These changes also saw a reallocation of platform usage at the station, country trains being shifted from platform 1 to platform 10, and Clifton Hill group trains being shifted from Princes Bridge Station to platform 1. The platforms at the station had been renumbered in conjunction with the formal merger of Princes Bridge with Flinders Street on 29 June 1980.^[16]

The final round of changes were completed by 2007. It included refurbishment of the building roof and concourse foundations, an upgrade of platform 10 with escalators and a lift replacing the ramp, the relocation of all ticket booking offices to the main entrance under the main dome and new LCD Passenger Information Displays installed on the platforms, subways and concourse.^[33] In March 2009 an escalator replaced the lift to platform 12 and 13, with platform 13 also extended westwards into daylight along the alignment of the former platform 11.^[34]

In 2008 the retail pavilions on the concourse were rebuilt, increasing their area. An investigation of the potential of the abandoned spaces in the station, overseen by a taskforce comprising representatives from Connex, the Committee for Melbourne, Melbourne City Council, Heritage Victoria, was completed the same year, but the conclusions have not been made public.^[35] In January 2010, one of the first announcements by the new Minister for Public Transport was that the government was investigating the refurbishment of the abandoned spaces for "cultural uses".^[36]

In mid-February 2015 Premier Daniel Andrews and Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan announced that $100 million would be spent for urgent refurbishment works to upgrade station platforms, entrances, toilets and information displays.^[37] By July 2017, the station had been almost completely repainted in the original 1910 colours.^[38] The Premier announced that works were likely to continue for another 18 months.^[39]

As painting continued in January 2018, a further round of works was announced including the renewal of the Elizabeth Street pedestrian subway and rebuilding of the subway's south entrance to include direct access to platform 10.^[40]