ABPL20030 GRAPHIC BUILDING ANALYSIS ・ MITCHELL SU ・ 660192 ・ CLAIRE MILLER ・ TUTORIAL 18
FLINDERS STREET STATION
Proposed in 1899 by James Fawcett and finally started in 1901, then completed in 1910, Flinders Street Station is one of the five main metropolitan stations in the Melbourne CBD area. Before the advent of the city loop system in 1985, it served as the central station for all of the area. The building is composed of a main structure bordering Flinders Street with the main entrance being at the corner of Swanston and Flinders Street, the concourse along Swanston Street which was added largely later on and the platforms below that sit against the Yarra River.
Culture Victoria, 2010
The phrase ‘under the clocks’ has become synonymous with the steps of the main entrance of Flinders Street, a phrase everyone who lives in Melbourne comes to recognize. This colloquialism stems from the iconic feature of the main dome of Flinders Street Station - the clock faces that sit under the grand arch and give an at a glance view of the train timetable. Flinders Street Station serves as the centerpiece of a metropolitan rail system with the grandeur of the structure displaying its significance. Not only is the structure itself of significance, but also the location - the corner of Swanston and Flinders Street, one of the most heavily trafficked intersections of the Melbourne CBD, positioning it as a gateway for the public into the CBD (Left). At the inception of the building’s creation, a secondary intention for the building as part of the public realm was for it to be a space for locals to use, not just a train station where one roams
definitively in and out of. Spaces beneath the main dome and around it provided by the then Victorian Railways Institute include a ballroom, gymnasium, a former library with accompanying reading rooms, a smoking room, a billiard room and a concert space as well. However, all of these spaces have fallen into disrepair and disuse as time progressed and the Victorian Railways moved out of the administrative building.
Planning for the Flinders Street Station began when it was realized that the railways construction boom of the 1880’s in Melbourne left Melbourne without a ‘centerpiece’ or landmark station within the network. The current situation left the Melbourne CBD with a makeshift sort of station that had structures progressively annexed to it to accommodate growth (Above). To address this, a design competition was held in 1899 to determine the outcome of what would be Flinders Street Station resulting in 17 submissions. After much debate, James Fawcett who was in partnership with railway engineer HPC Ashworth won the competition in 1900. However, construction did not begin until 1901 and not without a number of alterations to the design as construction progressed. This included the addition of a basement level below train platforms and a fourth level to the administrative building. The addition of a fourth level resulted in the diminishment of the facade’s dominating effect on the street level by compacting visual elements to a smaller scale to compensate.