Repost from a visit in May 2019 :
The fantastic #MintonTile floor of the vestibule of #ParliamentHouseMelbourne. It spells out a rather nice sentiment from Proverbs 11:14: ‘Where no counsel is, the people fall; but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety’, even if half the time we don’t think much of our representatives, it’s at least a pretty stable system. This room was completed in 1879 (I think), but I found an article showing that the tiling wasn’t done till 1888.
QueensHall at #ParliamentHouseMelbourne is pretty amazing, I guess the biggest Victorian room in the state (maybe the ballroom at Government House?), anyway, it was added to building in 1879 after #PeterKerr did a new design for the ‘completion of Parliament House’ in 1877, changing it a lot from the 1855 design (which he had done with JG Knight), this hall being the biggest internal difference. There was apparently some hooha when it was restored to white in the late 70s or early 80s, based on descriptions of when it was opened, because it was later painted in typically elaborate high Victorian colours, like the rest of the building. It’s not bad being white, with glossy polished marble mix to the columns. The strip flouro lighting is not nice though. Love the classical details with lady faces, and fantastic #chandeliers too.
Yet more details at #ParliamentHouseMelbourne, the corridor between Queens Hall and the library has a #barrellvault ceiling and a domed crossing and it’s all lovely delicate pastels (and I saw my local member #MartinFoley there – should have asked for a $bill or two for public housing…) Update : we got $5.4bill, for 9300 new social housing units !
The #ParliamentHouseMelbourne library was completed in 1860, the second stage of the incredibly ambitious Parliament House design of 1855, designed by #PeterKerr – who would keep designing parts up to 1892.
The library is a double height space complete with dome (rather dim light though), all in clear classical language, but richly detailed, all in pastel colours; fluted #TuscanColumns below, flattened #IonicCapitals above, with all the Greco Roman bits, #triglyphs, #metopes depicting arts and earning (that’s a guess), #dentils, #cornice, and #egganddart mouldings everywhere, plus #Renaissance balustrades. And there’s semi-circular spaces on either side with steep half-spiral stairs, with very elaborate cast iron (bronze maybe?) balustrade. It’s all a bit overwhelming really.
There’s some original furniture (check out the carved Griffin thing) and cute little fireplaces built into the column bases.
Storey of Melbourne 