Earlier this year it was announced that one of Melbourne’s most recognisable icons, Flinders Street Station, would be getting a makeover.
Listed on the Victorian Heritage Register, Flinders Street Station was completed in 1909 and it’s estimated around 200,000 Victorians pass through its arched entrance per day (not to mention all the rogue pigeons). High time for an upgrade, wouldn’t you say?
The City of Melbourne announced a paint restoration as part of a $100 million station repair job which included upgrades for station platforms, entrances, toilets and information displays. This major refurbishment would maintain the building’s heritage design, with works done to repair the façade and roof, make the building more structurally sound and watertight and restore the heritage clock tower. The biggest takeaway? It seems they’ll be returning the building back to its 1910 colour scheme.
Look closely on your way home tonight and you can see the scaffolding is starting to come down revealing the new old face of this Melbourne icon. pic.twitter.com/N3c5UMqmz1
— City of Melbourne (@cityofmelbourne) November 9, 2017
The station's signature mustard yellow hue is set to become a lighter stone colour, and the greens and reds will be toned down to more neutral shades. This colour change will be the building’s fifth colour change in 70 years. The last repainting happened in 1980 when the big-haired, shoulder-padded city officials of Melbourne must've decided that a flashy shade of Dijon yellow was a righteous choice for a heritage building.
So how’s the upgrade going? Well if you’ve travelled in the CBD in the past couple of months you would have already seen that the refurb is well on its way. Scaffolding currently cloaks the heritage-listed building with a huge white garb mesh coverall in place that we assume is disappointing a huge number of tourists daily.
According to Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, the scaffolding should be coming down any day now. Time Out was lucky enough to score some pictures of the work in progress, which includes works done to the much heard about, but little seen Flinders Street ballroom.
Photograph: HiVis Pictures
Photograph: HiVis Pictures
Photograph: HiVis Pictures
Photograph: HiVis Pictures
Photograph: HiVis Pictures
Keep your eye on Time Out for more updates on the upgrade.