Melbourne & Australian Architecture Topics

The hospital itself was established in 1870 and in 1878 a government grant of land on Eastern Hill provided a site for the eventual construction - in 1883 - of the hospital. The demolition shown in the following photographs (which took place in 1978) was of the earliest section of the hospital. The Aubrey Bowen wing, which was built in 1896, is now under heritage protection.

Here's a series of shots taken of various stages of the demolition. I'm not sure if the presence of onlookers indicates that there was opposition to the demolition or whether they were just locals attending as a matter of interest.

Before the storm:









This looks ominous:




Here it goes:









Oh dear:





A different angle:



Audience:



Nicely framed:



Hungry monsters:

Thankyou for posting this.

When I saw the post title, I thought that they were going to get rid of that red brick eyesore that is there at the moment.

I had no idea the original building fronted Victoria Parade or that it covered such a large block

Here is the replacement:


Wasn't this one of the demolitions which Barry Humphries was so upset about ? I think he called the new hospital the ugliest building ever erected in Melbourne.

Here is a Google Map link to the site:
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&q= ... 04828&z=18
and a street view:
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&q= ... 6807416034

It is interesting to see such a crowd develop for the demolition of an old building in the 1970s. That was probably about the time when people actually started to care.

It is a shame that Victoria Parade was so ruined around that time with inappropriate office buildings.

I guess that is the unfortunate thing about hospitals. They all start off with amazing buildings that just can't fulfil their intended function in the future. And being a hospital they lack the capital and the space to integrate a new building with the old. The cash has to be spent on the public's health, rather than the aesthetics of the bulding they occupy (the Alfred is a perfect example). I would imaginge that red-brick monstrosity functions far better as a hospital than the victorian era buildings ever could.

With every one of those pictures I said OUCH.

God I hate that red brick hospital.

The Dirty S*%#s if i had a grenade i would have chucked it at the excavator man that building looked to good to bullzoze. it would have looked good in its glory days what a shame!

Just bought the book A City Lost and Found, Whelan the Wrecker's Melbourne for my geek child and, dipping into it found a comment that Whelan demolished this without any kind of a permit which could explain the crowd of disgruntled spectators.