3 September 2016 :
Griffiths Tea Warehouse, 1900, #WardAndCarlton. By the 50s or so was occupied by the Herald, then it was Lindrums Billiards 1973-88. Then restored, paint cleaned off, to become the Lindrum Hotel in 1999 – now to be more or less facaded for another apartment and hotel tower. They’ll keep most of the side walls and 7m of a big central dividing wall too.
2021 update : the hotel is still open (but presumably largely empty).
14 January 2025
Just got some new pics while it’s sitting there awaiting redevelopment, and without the tree that was in front.
Here’s the background : Griffiths Tea Warehouse, Flinders Street, built 1900, #WardAndCarlton, an early example of the red brick Romanesque that got popular just then. For a long time part of the Herald site, then Lindrums Billiards 1973-88, run by Dolly Lindrum neice of billiards champ Walter Lindrum.
Then restored, paint cleaned off, to become the Lindrum Hotel in 1999, closed in 2022, now to be more or less facaded for an office tower by @fjcstudio. It was going to be hotel and apartments. They will retain most of the sides walls and the original plan also kept 7m depth of the central dividing wall too, not sure if still the case. No demolition yet, it’ll be hard to manage with the tower currently going up next door. Good to see the tower is set back more than the standard 5m. Last pic is Walter’s grave at Melbourne General- very literal !
3 September 2025
The Lord Mayor @nickreecemelbourne recently spruiked the redevelopment of the Lindrum Hotel in Flinders Street ‘one of Melbourne’s most iconic heritage sites’ with a photo that clearly shows only external walls and not much internal preserved !
But then I found some other pics and they’ve actually gone to some lengths to preserve the internal structure – though not the whole brick wall as dirt permitted – and the roof trusses too, which is more than usual. No idea if they’ll put back original floor and roof materials, or even if they were maybe replaced anyway in the 1999 creation of the hotel.
And by the way it’s not going to be a hotel any more, but strata floor offices, ‘aimed at Melbourne’s richest families’, which sounds unlikely but apparently it’s working. In 2016 it was going to be hotel and apartments but changed in 2023, the same thing happened next door, that one’s nearly done.
Architects for the new tower are @fjcstudio and the guff includes this : “The proposed redevelopment has been carefully considered to celebrate the rich fabric of the heritage building, and respectfully add a contemporary commercial addition to sit above. The plans will ensure the existing façade is retained, delivering a heritage-grade future building that references the site’s historical significance while breathing new life into the address.” I think there’s bricks at the lower levels but ‘heritage-grade’ ?
Storey of Melbourne 