Cathedral Arcade, Melbourne
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Cathedral Arcade in Melbourne is one of the Victorian capital’s hidden gems. It runs through the ground floor of the 1926 Nicholas Building, famous today for its vintage lift and for its arty studios in the offices upstairs.
The arcade is in an L-shape with entrances on Swanston Street and Flinders Lane. The highlight is surely the magical glass domed ceiling at the turning point of that L. But the glass ceiling that runs the full length of this arcade does not look up to the sky because we are here on the ground floor level of a tower block. But this stained glass decorated ceiling is so captivating, I could just sit and stare as I sipped my (excellent) coffee from the appropriately named Cathedral Coffee.
There are not many tenants these days in the arcade itself. A vintage clothes shop takes up more than one unit on the ground floor. And upstairs there is a whole second level with shops still bearing their original frontages – sadly nearly all are empty now.
Back downstairs, there is an original letter box built into the arcade wall opposite the coffee shop, the floor tiling is stunning, and there are iron numbers above some of the shop entrances.
There’s also a potted history of the arcade, telling the story of the Nicholas brothers who had the whole building put up (they made their fortune in aspirin of all things), and the tradition of the upstairs units hosting creative businesses like dressmakers, milliners or shoemakers; there is still a milliner upstairs today.
My favourite shop today
This has to be Cathedral Coffee. Excellent coffee, great pastries and what a view to look up to when you sit in the arcade and look at that ceiling.
My pick of the arcade’s past
The first shops in Cathedral Arcade in 1926 were: Smythe’s women’s drapers under the central dome, a guinea shoe store, a beauty parlor with all the latest waving and beauty appliances…and a men’s hairdressers, with “all the latest devices and novelties”. There was also a plant, seed and flower merchants to give advice on home gardening. And an All Australian Frocks shop, ‘in Jacobean style’…In 1929 the Housewives Association opened a Frock Shop in the Cathedral Arcade – inside you could join the Association for the princely sum of 2/- (about 20c in today’s money).
An armed robbery took place just outside the arcade in 1931, a policeman was shot (though thankfully survived) as the robbers made their getaway with the day’s takings from a supermarket in the arcade basement. Three men were eventually convicted and sentenced to 20 years in jail plus 15 lashes of the cat-o’-nine-tails. Witnesses said there was a fourth man involved, and one of those found guilty was later released after a retrial found him not guilty, so two men probably got away with their crime. It was the talk of Melbourne in 1931-2.
This arcade in films or books
Amazingly I have yet to find any film or book set in Cathedral Arcade, Melbourne, and yet if I was a film-maker I’d get my cameras down here pronto. In fact, the whole story of the 1931 robbery is worthy of a TV series itself if anyone ever delves into the whole story…
What memories do you have of visits in years gone by?
Have you got any good stories to add on the past of this arcade?
Have you seen Cathedral Arcade in any film or book?
What’s your favourite shop in the arcade today?
Is there a website for this arcade?
There is no web page or social media account for the arcade itself, but the artists in the whole Nicholas Building have come together and formed an Association, which does have its own website. Click the link here to see their activities.
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