Melbourne General Post Office, Neoclassical post office at Elizabeth and Bourke Streets, Melbourne, Australia
The Melbourne General Post Office is a neoclassical building located at the corner of Elizabeth and Bourke Street featuring classical columns arranged across three floors. The structure combines Tuscan, Ionic, and Corinthian architectural orders in each successive level.
A post office was first established in Melbourne on 13 April 1837, and a permanent building was erected on the present site in 1841. A design competition in 1858 led to construction starting in 1861, with Arthur Ebden Johnson's design built in bluestone from Brunswick quarries and Tasmanian sandstone. In 1887 a third level and a taller clock tower were added, using sandstone from the Grampians.
The steps and clock tower have hosted meetings, protests, Armistice Day and New Year's Day celebrations; a tradition existed of marking New Year on the steps as the clock struck midnight. The clock, made in Williamstown with parts from Glasgow, plays 28 tunes, and in early years played one every 15 minutes, day and night. The site remains the reference point for measuring distances from central Melbourne.
The building sits on the north-eastern corner of Elizabeth and Bourke streets, with entrances from both. Postal functions moved to a smaller building on Little Bourke Street, and the former hall became a shopping centre after a 2001 lease, with contemporary extensions at the unfinished north end. The steps and clock tower remain city landmarks.
The clock, made in Williamstown with parts from Glasgow, plays 28 tunes; in its early years it played one every 15 minutes, day and night. The tower's Mansard roofs, added in 1887, gave the building its French Second Empire character.
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