Defeated Myer and determined David Jones tear out Melbourne’s historic retail heart
Following my earlier post about the swift demolition of buildings by Myer and David Jones, the 1888 Robertson & Moffat store which includes the once picture postcard skybridge across Little Bourke Street and historic Myer signage is currently under demolition by Myer.
Robertson & Moffat buildings (1888) under demolition
The building on the corner of Staughton Place is the last piece of pre-war architecture on this side of this once important streetscape with David Jones completing the demolition of its former Little Bourke Street fronts. 315 Little Bourke, a richly detailed stone Victorian framing Angelo Lane and the GPO has already been demolished and its neighbour is an elegant interwar warehouse with decorative giant order columns.
The streetscape was one of the few in Melboure’s retail heart which featured a mix of height limited six storey pre-war buildings. Despite their laneway frontage, many of them featured detailed facades with pediments which gave depth and detail to the streetscape. Like Flinders Lane, they once represented a little piece of SoHo in Melbourne.
The rear of the David Jones building, currently
Rear of David Jones Buildings under demolition
scaffolded, reveals many previously hidden finely decorated plaster ceilings and walls.
One would have thought that the facades of these buildings which like any old building, had become gritty, could have be painted or washed and incorporated in the new development to preserve the significant pre-war streetscape. I mean if they wanted extra light, which not simply unpaint the windows that have been boarded up and painted over since the 1950s ?
Whether its shiny glass new look will stand the test of time remains to be seen. Personally I think it is one last vain attempt for these two department store giants to remain relevant to 21st century shoppers.
One of the historic 1888 buildings already demolished as part of the Myer redevelopment
Nevertheless there is certainly plenty of competition in the new and shiny department with the completion of the Waterfront City retail complex in nearby Docklands as well as the QV precinct, which has drawn retailers further north of the former retail heart. One would think that Docklands represented the perfect opportunity for Myer and David Jones to start afresh.
Meanwhile, the plight of architecturally significant art deco Lonsdale House, which Myer is determined to demolish, is still very much in the balance.
Precisely why I’m no longer shopping at either; if I want modern shopping I have lacklustre Chadstone as an option.
Whatever little bit of respect I had left for Myer is long gone, and David Jones have greatly disappointed in their pathetic attempts to keep up with their rival. It’s so sad to have those beautiful parts of the city gone, especially when both department stores would have been far better off making the most of their heritage assets but are just too blind and too stupid to see it. Damn them both.
Its not Myer itself doing any of this demolition / redevelopment – the buildings are all owned by Colonial First State (formerly Colonial Mutual I think – one of those banks that have turned into developers – they are also financing the St Kilda triangle). Myer will be tennants of the reconstructed Bourke Street building only, and the Lonsdale Street block will be – what exactly ? something like the QV, but with facades propped up all around.
I can’t fathom how Melbourne City Council could let this happen. I haven’t seen urban vandalism of this scale in our city since the 1950s. I used to love this part of the city and now it is wrecked forever.
[...] you want to save this building you must act quickly as like the rest of the Myer and David Jones blocks it may well be a case of here today gone tomorrow [...]
[...] as well. And, as we have seen in the case of QV and the department store precinct, this has had a truly devastating effect on the heritage and human scale of the city. Whole blocks are being consolidated, swallowing groups of old buildings with them. Often the [...]
This all started with the GPO development. The so called “heritage experts” who added the terrible modern extension to the GPO basically paved the way for the destruction of Little Bourke Street. What a real shame that such a large area of Melbourne’s CBD is being unnecessarily modernised.