Historic Swanston Street in glorious black & white, from southern end to northern end.

The early years.

King Edward VII Arch, one of many to celebrate the Australian Federation.Most of what you see in the photograph below was lost to make way for the City Square.If the above shot took you south down to Flinders Lane, you would have had the Cathedral Hotel first , then moving north (right in pic), a five storey structure known as Green’s Buildings, then a very exotic oyster and fish shop known for many years as Wise’s Café. A feature of the next building north was an attractive little arcade known as Queen’s Walk with one entrance from Swanston Street and the other from Collins Street. At the angle to this arcade, about 1926, a new business opened. It was known then as the “Victorian Travel Agency and Motor Tourist Bureau” and the address was 15 Queen’s Walk. Years later the name was changed to the “Government Tourist Bureau”. At the south-east corner of Swanston and Collins Streets was the Victoria Building of four storeys.Swanston Street in the 1890s, notice the MCC water wagon spraying water in the middle of street to keep the dust down on the unsealed surface.The next two down are of the Chinese Arch.