5 September 2023
This rather mad eclectic combo of Queen Anne gables, cast iron verandahs and spiky mansarded towers was built in 1885 as the Homeopathic Hospital in St Kilda Road (later Prince Henry’s). It was designed by Crouch & Wilson, who had done both the blind and deaf institutions down the road. It’s hard to accept that people believed (and some still do) that treating diseases with substances that mimicked them would actually work. The south wing was added maybe by 1890, and an operating theatre attached to the front in 1904. I guess by the 1930s homeopathy wasn’t so popular, and it became a standard hospital i think in 1934, and renamed Prince Henry’s. Then it was enlarged and rebuilt in stages (again) to a design by Leighton Irwin, with the tall central section completed 1940. Later extra floors on the side wings rather spoiled the design, not highly regarded enough to save it from demolition (by explosion!) in 1994. I remember seeing it on the news and wondering why I didn’t know it was happening. The site is now the fancy Melburnian apartments. All images the internet.
Storey of Melbourne 