Comments on: Never built ‘Parliament Square’ at the top of Bourke Street

By: Marcus Wong

Marcus Wong — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 02:15:11 +0000

In reply to rohan storey.

Good point – the entire ‘Little Lon’ area used to be quite different.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Lon_district

By: Marcus Wong

Marcus Wong — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 02:13:28 +0000

In reply to andrew.

The disparate collection of extensions along the northern facade is visible here.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victorian_Parliament_viewed_from_above.JPG

By: Marcus Wong

Marcus Wong — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 02:11:44 +0000

In reply to andrew.

And it took until 1980 for Melbourne to finally get a “City Square”.

https://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00353b.htm

By: rohan storey

rohan storey — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 06:31:09 +0000

i dont think either the commonwealth offices or the state govt offices were part of this plan per se – the comm already owned the former ‘slums’, and were perhaps already planning their offices, and the state ones came much later. the 54 plan was however very much the sort of this that actually did happen in some US cities, especially the freeway part.

By: andrew

andrew — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 01:22:24 +0000

The square would have been a great place for protests – perhaps that’s why it was never built.

But the problem with both proposals is that the Victorian parliament house only looks good from the front. The other three sides are a hotchpotch of unplanned or uncompleted extensions.