Starting in the late 1870s, this block of Collins Street was home to the city's most fashionable stores, such as milliners, glove-importers, portrait painters, photographers and hairdressers. Businesses such as George's Emporium, Allan's and Glen's music and Mullens' Bookshop and Lending Library drew the cream of Melbourne society. The act of promenading here became a social pastime, known as ‘doing the block’, and the street became known simply as "The Block", a title taken up by the Block Arcade, built 1890-93.[2] Gunstler's Cafe (at about 280 Collins Street) was established in 1879 and was amongst the most fashionable restaurants in the city. In 1890 it was renamed the Vienna Café, which in 1908 was purchased by Greek Australian restaurateur Antony J. Lucas.[3] During World War I the name of the cafe became controversial, and Lucas responded by expanding and completely rebuilding the interior in 1916, and it reopened as the Cafe Australia, the finest tea-room in the city.[4] Designed by US trained architect Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, it was their first completed major work in their adopted country, and featured fountains, sculpture, planting, indirect lighting, and their distinctive intricate geometric detailing. In the late 1930s, the Cafe was demolished and replaced by the Hotel Australia, completed in mid 1939. Designed by Leslie M. Perrott, it was a 12-storey building with 94 rooms, numerous private dining and function rooms, and was the most prestigious hotel in Melbourne in its day.[5] It included an arched-roofed ballroom which was a simplified version of the main Cafe Australia space. The hotel included two small cinemas,[6] a restaurant and bar in the basement, and a through-block shopping arcade on the ground floor which was touted as the largest in Australia, known as the Australia Arcade.[3]
In 1989, the Hotel Australia was demolished to make way for a new development, completed in 1992, the Australia on Collins shopping arcade and four star hotel.[5] The building's architecture, designed by Buchan Laid & Bawden (now the Buchan Group) was variously described as postmodern and imitating art deco style,[7] and the shopping levels were ramped up and down from the street entrances in order to maximise the number of shops, and which resulted in a confusing layout. In later years, Australia on Collins was criticised as "a poor man's temple to the great god of commercialism" and included in a list of Melbourne's worst buildings by The Age newspaper.[8] The shopping centre in this period included approximately 100 shops and a food court with space for 750 diners.[9]
In April 2014, then owners LaSalle Investment Management (LIM) announced that the "dysfunctional" centre would be closed for a redevelopment costing$30 million. Architects Ashton Raggat McDougall were engaged to improve the building's "sight lines" and to prevent customers from feeling "trapped", which resulted in the shopping levels being reduced from five levels to four, without the ramping. LIM stated that the redeveloped centre would be made up of larger stores with a focus on international brands.[9]
The redeveloped St. Collins Lane opened on 16 May 2016 and was immediately placed on the market by its owners, along with the Melbourne Novotel hotel.[10] The centre had an approximately 70% tenancy rate at opening and was hoped by its owners to rival the recently opened Emporium Melbourne on Lonsdale Street.[11]
St. Collins Lane was purchased in November 2016 by JPMorgan Asset Management for a reported price of $247 million.[12] In March 2020, JPMorgan was trying to offload the struggling mall for $150 million [13]
UK department store Debenhams opened as an anchor tenant in October 2017[16] but closed in January 2020. In November 2018, Melbourne’s first Leica store and gallery opened offering an art gallery, studio and Akademie workshops.[17]
In November 2018, it was announced that British watchmaker Bremont and Paris fashion house Claudie Pierlot had signed on as new tenants. Bremont is set to open in December 2018 while Claudie Pierlot will open for trading in the first half of 2019.[18]
Four new restaurants, Shujinko, Poke and Sushi Boto, Meat the Challenge and Saint Dreux are set to open in the summer of 2018/19.[18]
The centre has 9,000 square metres (97,000 sq ft) of lettable floor space spread across 55 retail stores and 12 restaurants. As of November 2018[update], approximately 34 retailers were open, and 4 restaurants were operating on the top-floor "dining precinct".[15]
^Hopkins, Philip (3 August 2011). "Retail's confidence builder". The Age. Retrieved 23 August 2017. The overall aim is to improve the connection between Melbourne Central and Flinders Street railway stations through more north-south links such as Degraves Street, Australia on Collins, and the Causeway Arcade.
^ abSpicer, Chrystopher J. "Australia Hotel". www.emelbourne.net.au. School of Historical Studies, Department of History, The University of Melbourne. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
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