October 2026
The Prahran Town Hall is the most squeezy of the big 19thC town halls in the inner suburbs, but also in part the earliest. The first stage was the symmetrical front to Chapel Street built 1860-63, with a nice inset loggia, and a tower located for some reason down the side, rather than in front. It has a great rubble bluestone wall down a lane.
It was designed by Crouch & Wilson, who also did the extension of the corner part in 1878-9. In 1888 Charles D’Ebro was a competition to design the next extension including a hall along Greville Street, and extending the tower, which lost the top cupola in 1955. The hall was rebuilt after a fire I 1914, and by then it had offices, council chamber, library and hall.
In recent years I think the building was struggling for a purpose, but seems just recently it’s all been refurbish as arts and community spaces, with the library back here from Prahran Square.
Pics go from now backwards in time.
