This is the Flinders Street Station we nearly got ! Which isn’t so different from what was actually built, makes you wonder what the competition was for.
In early 1899, the Railway Commissioners released this design, and Parliament agreed to pay for it, but changed their minds- then held a completion later that year, which was won by a design by JW Fawcett and HPC Ashworth, who both worked for the Railways. They might have worked on the rejected design, so had an inside running – but the competition must have pretty much asked for a long thin building, a dome on the corner, and a clocktower on Elizabeth Street in any event, so maybe the competition was mostly about the external look – and I think the winning design was a distinct improvement (neither the rules of the competition or the losing designs appear to have been published). Then the design changed again in 1905, to what we’ve got now, which even better again – or maybe it’s just so familiar it just looks right. So I’ve shown the 3 designs, in order – closeups turn the full elevation.
Storey of Melbourne 