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The White Hat Guide to the Manchester Unity Building

This article was first published in the White Hat Melbourne Newsletter No.271 of 17th July 2008

Melbourne has numbers of wonderful buildings and there are plenty of good publications and websites which will tell you about their architectural details. But if you want to flesh that information out into three dimensions you need to be prepared to look closely – and to listen.

The best place to view the Manchester Unity Building is at the base of the Burke & Wills statue. From there you can see the see the integrated design with its modernist upward vertical thrust. Over your head, Robert O’Hara Burke doesn’t seem to have noticed the building – he is too busy gazing due west looking for the Gulf of Carpentaria. Shoppers bustle about chatting about the affairs of the day but if you listen closely you might hear some voices from the 1920s.

“Have you heard? They’re going to knock down Dawsons.”
“Never!”
“True, mate. The Manchester Unity coves have bought it and are going to put up a dirty great building.”
“They can’t do that mate – that’s where we meet the girls. ‘Meet us on Dawson’s corner’ we say. But who’s going to want to meet a couple of likely lads waiting on Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellow’s corner?”

Cross over the road to Wales corner next to the Wales building. This is another good position for viewing the Manchester Unity Building because it is the only corner where you can’t see the Wales Building. Note the crests at fifth floor level reflecting the values of the Manchester Unity. This isn’t some bland corporate headquarters ready to change the badging overnight after the next takeover. And if you listen closely you might hear some of the building workers.

“It’s tough going on these midnight shifts mate but its putting food on the table for the family and heaven knows where else I could earn a quid at the moment.”

The depression had thrown many thousands out of work. Businessmen like Mac Robertson and Sidney Myer felt it was their civic duty to keep employing as many as possible during the tough times, and the Manchester Unity also intended the building of their new headquarters to provide work for the unemployed. Working in eight hour shifts around the clock the building was completed in a mere 11 months and at one stage it was rising at the rate of one floor per week. All this activity was impossible for the people of Melbourne to ignore and when the scaffolding came down they realised that the extensive tower made this the tallest building in Melbourne. The decorative cantilevered veranda without posts (“we call it a 'street canopy' dear”) was designed to allow views of the large windows on the first floor designed for retail displays. With floor after floor of small businesses and the gothic revival architecture this was truly a modern cathedral of commerce and with its optimistic upward lines could not but help make Melburnians a little more confident about the future.

Cross the road and enter the arcade. In many buildings the best workmanship and materials are reserved for the privileged few in some inner sanctum. Not so with the Manchester Unity Building. The public arcade is resplendent with fine marble, polished brass and copper, bevelled glass windows and has an intricate marquetry floor. If you listen closely you might hear a couple of shoppers.

“I was in town yesterday Mavis but didn’t come to the Manchester Unity Arcade because I didn’t have my hat and gloves and I thought that would be kind of disrespectful, don’t you?”
“I know what you mean. I’m going to the first floor. Are you coming up the moving stairway – it’s called an ecksellator or something like that.”
“No Mavis, I’ll use the stairs until they can show that this new-fangled stuff is safe. This is the first one in Melbourne you know.”

In recent decades the first floor shopping area has been somewhat denatured but nothing that could not be reinstated fairly easily. Sometimes later in the evening when the shoppers have left you might hear another voice on the ground floor.

“Swanston Street’s the right place for it” he says. “I lived on Swanston Street you know and helped make it the major street when I got involved with having Princes Bridge built. I also made sure that land was reserved for a town hall in Swanston Street.”
“You must be . .”
“Greeves, my boy. Augustus Frederick Adolphus Greeves – founder of the Manchester Unity. I always wanted the building to be in Swanston Street. Of course we couldn’t have done anything like this in the 1840s. Still, I didn’t do too badly on the personal side. I was a surgeon – conducted the first operation using chloroform in Melbourne. But you need more income than that and I made my real money by importing whisky and tobacco. Young fellows today want to do business with me. They hand me a business card and I’m supposed to be impressed. I just show them my plaque.”
He led me down the arcade and sure enough there was his name.
”I’m on another plaque across the road at the Town Hall. I was Mayor you know. I just tell them ‘Here’s you business card back sonny. Come back and talk business when you’ve got a plaque.”

The roof is now closed to the general public but if you are given the opportunity of a visit listen carefully. You might just hear the sounds of a small salon orchestra, the clink of a tea service, calls of exotic birds in the aviary, the ripple of a pond and

“Oh Georgie, I do so love dancing under the palm trees. My parents are strict Methodists and would have a fit if they thought I was dancing on a Sunday afternoon but they’ll never see me up here in the tea gardens.”

Take the lift to one of the lower floors. The lifts are wood panelled and the diesel generator that was initially installed to drive them was the largest in Australia at the time. On any floor as in the arcade, you will find plaster friezes depicting wholesome people engaged in worthwhile things. You might be able to spot the Sydney Harbour Bridge in some of these. It was being built at the same time as the Manchester Unity Building. The values of the organisation were built in the fabric of the building from top to bottom. No need for team building courses or retreats to agonise about the mission statement. The building WAS the mission statement.

Up another floor and the atmosphere is suddenly dark and sombre.

“What’s it like outside?”
“Turn off the light and I’ll open the curtain and have a look. There’s still a little bit of light. Would you like me to walk you to the station?”
“Would you? Since they’ve arrested the Brownout Strangler I don’t feel safe near Americans. And you know where they’re holding his trial? In the old Manchester Unity Building – that even makes this new one feel spooky.”

Up a couple more floors where you can experience a strange warp in the space-time continuum. While you sit in the dentist’s chair looking at the surreal sight of the Town Hall clock filling the whole window you can feel the dentist drilling for what you are sure is fifteen minutes while the hands on the Town Hall clock only move two minutes.

Up a bit further and the mood changes again. You become aware of sirens in the distance, flashing lights, distraught workers being ushered out of the building, some still wearing their St Patrick’s Day green ribbons, and the city below is in gridlock. You try to piece together snippets of frightened conversation. It appears there has been a robbery and murder - - no a triple murder - - three jewellers - - face down in their office - - shot in the back of the head - - a tray of uncut diamonds has gone - - police have cordoned off the city - - they’ve even closed the airport. It seems the Chicago-inspired architecture has also been the scene of a Chicago-inspired triple execution. No-one has even been convicted for these murders. Does White Hat know in which office it occurred? Yes we do. However, out of courtesy of those who work there now, we don’t make it generally known.

Towards the top and you might just hear the sounds of cool jazz coming from a domestic sound system and the clink of champagne glasses. When the building was constructed the height limit was 132 feet for reasons we have explained in a previous newsletter. However, decorative towers were allowed provided they were not occupied. Fire fighting technology has changed and the five levels of the tower have now been tastefully converted into a penthouse – surely one of the most elegant locations for inner city living in Melbourne.

However, for White Hat the soul of the building is the boardroom. Having come through the arcade and the foyer on the ground floor you might expect the boardroom to be full of showy marble and gilt mirrors. Instead it is a subdued combination of hand-crafted Art Deco elements created specially for that space. The ceiling moulding displays the large crest of the Manchester Unity. The wood panelling is arranged into beautifully matched symmetrical patterns. The hand made document drawers echo the same wood patterning. The tiled fireplace is far too good to spoil with a fire, and who needs a fire anyway in Melbourne’s first air conditioned building. Specially made deep leather swivel chairs are placed around the perimeter of the board table. The glass in the table was too large to be made in Australia at the time and so was manufactured in France and lowered by a crane through the roof into its current home. The building may have gone up in record time but that does not mean it was a simple box with a façade stuck on the outside as an afterthought.

Back outside to the Burke & Wills Statue for a final look where I become aware of a couple of voices.

“Remember when we used to meet the girls at Dawson’s corner.”
“Too right. Those were the days. I don’t go over there much now though. To tell you the truth, I feel a bit shabby going into that shiny arcade.”
“Some of the girls say the building makes them feel inspired and uplifted, but they don’t uplift their eyes past the first floor windows where all the wedding dresses are.”
“I know what you mean mate. Too many sheilas now want to dress up and be cos-my-politon. I don't really go with all this modern stuff. Come down and have a drink with Chloe, Now there’s a girl who knows how to dress.”

I then hear another voice, somewhat closer.

“The impressive Manchester Unity Building was designed by Marcus Barlow and inspired by the Chicago Tribune Tower. It was finished in December 1932. There will be two minutes for photographs."

Where is the Manchester Unity Building?

Click on the Manchester Unity Building link to the right of the map. Use the controls to zoom in or out on the map or change to satellite view.