1 July 2025

I’ve always thought the Richmond Town Hall was a rather clunky design, blocky volumes and with great huge legs on the street. It must have been a case of wanting the opposite of what you had, because it’s actually a do-over of the original 1870 town hall, a design by Charles Vickers in delicate polychrome brick Italianate, though the tower is sort of spindly. Later a post office was built to the east and a matching police station to the west in a style similar to the hall (the PO later replaced). The new work was commissioned in 1934, done in bits as Councillors gradually accepted the cost, completed in early 1936. (If you look round the sides you can still see the 1870 bricks, plus a low bit on the west end). The architect was Ray Johnson, who mainly did flats in the St Kilda area; he was the grandson of George Johnson who had done some town halls in the 1880s, maybe that’s how he got the gig. Or maybe connections.

The hall inside got an Art Deco makeover too, then in the 90s when this became the admin centre for the new City of Yarra, it was chopped up, but now you get up close to the details.

My photos 2014.

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