25 May 2023
The St Kilda ‘RSL’ is rather grand and quite unique amongst WW1 memorials. It wasn’t actually built by the RSL, but by the St Kilda Army and Navy Club, who decided to build a complex that would provide services and fund itself, with shops, a hall for dances etc behind, club rooms / bar on the first floor, and 12 flats on the top two floors for retired servicemen, or their widows. Most other RSLs are just a hall or old house used as a bar. Funds to build this one came from the St Kilda community, and the design was won in competition in 1922 by Hudson & Wardrop, who also won the competition for their most famous work, the Shrine of Remembrance, a year later, just as construction on this started, completed in 1924. The hall soon became a cinema, known as ‘the Memo’, then a live music venue, then a tv studio, then live music again in the late 90s (not sure exactly when). The club became a pokies venue, with the bar upstairs also available for events, but that was given a luxe refurb in 2020. The building is run by a Trust, and the flats are still occupied by ex service families. Found an old pic of the front (without the damn tree), and one of the hall, which I’ve never been in, didn’t know it was so big!
Storey of Melbourne 