18 November 2023
The now beautifully restored Prahran Arcade is one of the most extravagant products of the 1880s boom, both in its scale and purpose, opening with great fanfare in July 1890. It was a huge risk, since the arcade only led to a Turkish baths at the rear, and Chapel Street was just a fairly ordinary shopping strip at the time. There was also a hotel upstairs, with rooms along the south side looking into the arcade, and a large dining room first floor front. Be great to know what the developer, Mrs Elizabeth Delaney, a rare female property developer, was thinking; can’t find out much about her. Her architect, George McMullen, is also a bit of a mystery; he arrived from South Australia in 1887, did some shops and houses in Prahran, then was dragged into court over a wall that collapsed during construction of the Arcade.
Both he and Mrs Delaney were early victims of the 1890s crash, which soon left much of the arcade untennanted – he was declared insolvent by Dec 1890, and decamped for WA where he revived his career in the 1900s, and she lost the arcade to the bank within 12 months.
The arcade lived on, occupied more by businesses than shops, then revamped as ‘the Centreway’ in the 1920s with new shopfronts. In 1952, Dan Murphy started out in the basement, then took over the whole place in 1968, and repainted the facade in beige and brown. The bistro, pizza bar etc he put in soon gave way to stacks and stacks of booze, which is what people really wanted. In 1978 he leased the former hotel dining room upstairs to Howard Arkley, the same space then occupied by David Bromley from about 2010. Dan left in about 2000 and JB Hifi took over the space, with a specialist Dan Murphy wine outlet returning to the basement in 2016.
In about 2005 Kon Starzynski bought the building and has funded the recent restoration of the facade, which has included restoring the hotel dining room, now housing a function venue, Sophia.
Quite a history ! All gleaned from various sources, along with the images, which show the interior before Dan (I think), then his bistro idea, and final look, then early JB Hifi, then the interior now, and lastly the Sophia interior.
12 November 2023:
The fabulous Prahran Arcade was built in 1890, and looks very splendid after a comprehensive restoration of the facade. After years of neglect grass was growing and bits were falling off. The work was undertaken by @aboderestoration and @rbaarchitects, and completed in March this year. I’ve borrowed some progress shots from them. I’ll do another post on the complete history, from Turkish baths to Dan Murphy’s to David Bromley, but I think we should just congratulate the team, and delight in the details, from the swags on the columns to the giant eagles and the huge acroterion on top of the pediment. It’s just a pity that funds didn’t stretch to rebuilding the mansard roofs – maybe next year !
Storey of Melbourne 