Former Mail Exchange building
The former Mail Exchange building was built in 1917 and has been meticulously restored. Located at the corner of Bourke & Spencer Streets, Melbourne, it now houses the Whitehouse Institute of Design on the top floors and a pub/bistro on the lower ground floor.
Detailed history and background:
The site was acquired from the decedents of Robert Hoddle at the turn of the last Century and construction on the Mail Exchange Building began in 1913. It was completed four years later in 1917.
Designed by Commonwealth Home Affairs architect John Smith Murdoch (1862 - 1945). Murdoch was Australia’s first Commonwealth Government architect and went on to design the Old Parliament House, completed in 1927.
Originally built to relieve the congestion at the nearby Melbourne GPO on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Bourke Street, it was a conscience effort to modernise the postal system in the early 20th Century.
Over the years, the building has been known as the Chief Parcels Office, the Parcels Post Building, the Postal Workshops, even for a period (1917 - 1964), as the General Post Office.
Subsequently it became the Melbourne Mail Centre and more recently, the Mail Exchange, the signage of which, is still clearly identifiable on both facades.
The building was administered by the Post Master General’s Department until 1975, when the Department was separated into Telecom (now Telstra) and Australia Post.
When Australia Post vacated the building, it was subsequently acquired in the mid 1980’s as the headquarters for the Figgins Shoe empire.
With the eventual relocation of the Figgins Group in 2006, restoration became possible and the building underwent a progressive and significant, internal and external upgrade completed in 2010..
Information source: www.mailexchangehotel.com.au/html/s31/History-T4.aspx
Former Mail Exchange building
The former Mail Exchange building was built in 1917 and has been meticulously restored. Located at the corner of Bourke & Spencer Streets, Melbourne, it now houses the Whitehouse Institute of Design on the top floors and a pub/bistro on the lower ground floor.
Detailed history and background:
The site was acquired from the decedents of Robert Hoddle at the turn of the last Century and construction on the Mail Exchange Building began in 1913. It was completed four years later in 1917.
Designed by Commonwealth Home Affairs architect John Smith Murdoch (1862 - 1945). Murdoch was Australia’s first Commonwealth Government architect and went on to design the Old Parliament House, completed in 1927.
Originally built to relieve the congestion at the nearby Melbourne GPO on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Bourke Street, it was a conscience effort to modernise the postal system in the early 20th Century.
Over the years, the building has been known as the Chief Parcels Office, the Parcels Post Building, the Postal Workshops, even for a period (1917 - 1964), as the General Post Office.
Subsequently it became the Melbourne Mail Centre and more recently, the Mail Exchange, the signage of which, is still clearly identifiable on both facades.
The building was administered by the Post Master General’s Department until 1975, when the Department was separated into Telecom (now Telstra) and Australia Post.
When Australia Post vacated the building, it was subsequently acquired in the mid 1980’s as the headquarters for the Figgins Shoe empire.
With the eventual relocation of the Figgins Group in 2006, restoration became possible and the building underwent a progressive and significant, internal and external upgrade completed in 2010..
Information source: www.mailexchangehotel.com.au/html/s31/History-T4.aspx