434 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



Swanston Street was a gloomy-looking police court and lock-up. From the barred but 

 open windows of the latter there would frequently float out upon the air the incoherent 

 ravings of an inmate or two suffering from delirium tremcns, or the songs and shouts 

 of culprits arrested on a charge of being drunk and disorderly. The whole of these 

 buildings were levelled to the ground in 1867-8, and the first stone of the present 

 Town Hall was laid by H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh on the 2Qth of April, 1867; 

 the capital of the first of the pilasters upon the tower was placed by him on the 3rd 

 of March, 1869. The style of architecture adopted is a free treatment of the Classic, 

 the modifications introduced having been suggested by the Renaissance. There are four 

 storeys, comprising a rustic basement, an attic, in lieu of a parapet, which is relieved by 

 circular-headed windows, with rounded gables over each, and two intermediate piani, with 

 Corinthian columns and pilasters flanking the recessed windows of both. The main front 

 to Swanston Street is composed of five architectural divisions, embracing a centre termi- 

 nating in a mansard roof and two pavilions. On one of these is superimposed the clock- 

 tower, one hundred and forty feet in height. A portico is about to be added to the 

 principal entrance, which is approached by a double flight of steps. The Collins Street 

 front, which is not so long as the other, has the same architectural divisions as the 

 latter ; but the slope on the hill on this side interferes somewhat with the architectural 

 lines, and it is now apparent that a loftier elevation might have been advantageously 

 given to the whole structure, which will presently be overtopped by the opposite 

 buildings ; and, indeed, is so already in one case. By the internal division of the 

 building, the basement has been assigned to the out-of-door officers of the Corporation, 

 and fire-proof rooms have also been provided in it for the city muniments. On the first 

 floor are the offices of the Town Clerk and the City Treasurer, together with numerous 

 committee and retiring rooms, as also the entrance to the great hall. This is one hun- 

 dred and seventy-four feet long, seventy-four feet wide and sixty-three feet high, with an 

 orchestra at the north end, and a large organ constructed at a cost of seven thousand pounds. 

 Galleries encompass the other three sides of the building, which is used for civic banquets, 

 balls, concerts and important public meetings ; also occasionally as a place of worship. 



On the second floor is a handsomely fitted council chamber, hung round with full- 

 length portraits of former Mayors of the city ; the library, committee rooms and apart- 

 ments reserved for the use of the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors. The supper-room, 

 kitchen and housekeeper's apartments occupy the attic storey. The three upper stages 

 of the tower are devoted to a clock-room and belfry. About one hundred thousand 

 pounds have, been expended on the building, furniture and fittings, including the purchase 

 of some land, the possession of which was essential to the execution of the architect's 

 plans. The organ has four manuals, with a compass of sixty-one notes in each, seventy- 

 nine stops, and four thousand three hundred and seventy-three pipes, the largest of 

 which is thirty-two feet ; while the dimensions of the instrument are these height, forty- 

 six feet ; breadth, fifty-two feet six inches ; depth, twenty-four feet. It occupies an 

 arched recess at the north end of the hall. 



Returning to Collins Street East the stranger finds that part of it which is locally 

 known as 'The Block"- that is to say, the north side between Swanston and Elizabeth 

 Streets thronged from three to five or six o'clock on a fine afternoon with promenaders. 



