A wall of an old hotel being demolished in North Melbourne has collapsed onto the footpath.

The wall collapsed at the Royal Park Hotel building site on the corner of Howard and Queensberry streets at about 9:00am.

Worksafe officials on the site of a wall collapse in North Melbourne. ( ABC News: James Hancock )

Bricks and dust could be seen on the footpath, which was cordoned off.

No-one was injured and WorkSafe is investigating.

The intersection has been closed while authorities are on the scene, VicRoads said.

CFMEU state secretary John Setka said a woman pushing a pram passed by the wall 30 seconds before it collapsed.

"Can you imagine how tragic that could have been?" he said.

"You've got kids walking past, this is close to the heart of Melbourne.

Bricks could be seen on the footpath at the site of a wall collapse in North Melbourne. ( ABC News: James Hancock )

Site shut down over safety concerns

Mr Setka said the union shut down the site yesterday because of safety concerns, including over documentation to identify asbestos on the site.

"500 metres up the road three people died not that long ago because of a wall collapse," he said, referring to a wall collapse on Swanston Street in 2013.

"We were told that authorities were going to clamp down on this sort of behaviour and this sort of work and here we are again, same situation just luckily this time, no-one was killed."

WorkSafe said inspectors were called to the site on Tuesday over the safety concerns and put a ban on work on the wall until safety issues were addressed.

City of Melbourne inspectors were also at the site yesterday and issued emergency orders requiring the company to take "immediate action", WorkSafe said.

Former pub owner Peter Milesi said the structure was built in the late 1880s. He said he sold it to a developer in 2013.

Mr Milesi said Melbourne City Council called him six months after the sale, in the wake of the Swanston Street collapse, to follow up on safety concerns.

"We knew the northern wall in the late 80s had bowed a bit, but it had been propped up properly with reinforcement rods," he said.

"So when we bought it we had an engineer look over it for us and said it was structurally fine.

"We noticed there was some movement on the corner after we left and I got a phone call from the council six months after we sold concerning the corner ... they wanted scaffolding put on this one and we told them then that we'd sold it."