Original post 3 November 2017:

The 1881 Union Bank at 351 Collins Street was designed by English architect Macvicar Anderson, and demolished 1966. Various ideas were floated for saving the whole or parts of the stone facade, but all that was kept were the two statues, and 5 broken capitals, transferred to the new Architecture School building at Melbourne University, on the initiative of Dean Brian Lewis.

The statues from the niches were known as Ada and Elsie, but were really Victoria and Britannia; the latter with a lion helmet, Victoria with a castle crown and horn of plenty. As the Argus put it on 20 May 1880, they are “….handsome colossal statues …..of Portland cement….executed by a London firm in such a manner as to render them very creditable specimens of the sculptor’s art.” They were in the foyer of the old building, now rather less prominent in the basement lobby of the new, though if you come down the side entrance, they’re the first thing you see. They would look better with spears back in their hands.

The column capital bits were placed in the south garden of the building, where they served for 40 years as planter bed edges; they’re now in the same spot but properly on display.

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