Prahran Town Hall
Encyclopedia
Prahran Town Hall is a civic building located on the corner of Chapel Street
Chapel Street, Melbourne
Chapel Street is a shopping, dining and entertainment precinct in Melbourne, Australia. It has a myriad shops ranging from exclusive upmarket fashion designers at the South Yarra end to old fashion pawnbrokers towards Windsor.-Geography:...

 and Greville Street in Prahran
Prahran, Victoria
Prahran , also known colloquially as "Pran", is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Stonnington. At the 2006 Census, Prahran had a population of 10,651. It is a part of Melbourne with...

, a suburb of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

After the amalgamation of the City of Prahran
City of Prahran
The City of Prahran was a Local Government Area located about southeast of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1855 until 1994.-History:...

 with the City of Malvern
City of Malvern
The City of Malvern was a Local Government Area located about southeast of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1856 until 1994.-History:...

 in 1994 to form the City of Stonnington
City of Stonnington
The City of Stonnington is a Local Government Area located within the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It comprises the inner south-eastern suburbs, between 3 and 13 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD...

, the Town Hall now functions as secondary offices for the new City.

Architecture

The original Town Hall was built in 1861 to the design of local architects Crouch and Wilson
Crouch and Wilson
Crouch and Wilson was an architectural practice based in Melbourne, Australia in the late nineneenth century. The partnership, between Tasmanian-born Thomas Crouch and recently-arrived Londoner Ralph Wilson, commenced in 1857 in Elizabeth Street....

 in the Italianate
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...

 style of Victorian architecture
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 popular in Melbourne at the time, including Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance interior design
Italian Renaissance interior design refers to interior decorations, furnishing and the decorative arts in Italy during the Renaissance period Italian Renaissance interior design refers to interior decorations, furnishing and the decorative arts in Italy during the Renaissance period Italian...

 inspired interior spaces. The building was extended in 1888 to include a City Hall in a similar style.

The clock tower
Clock tower
A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...

 was designed by Charles D'Ebro
Charles D'Ebro
Charles Abraham D'Ebro was a London-born architect who designed many important buildings in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia during the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods...

 and built in 1890 above the municipal offices and council chambers for the former City of Prahran. In the 1960s, the decorative tower was truncated.

See also

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