City Square, Melbourne

The City Square is a pedestrian plaza and former civic centre located in the Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne, Australia. The square is currently bounded by Swanston Street, Collins Street, Flinders Lane and the Westin Hotel. Melbourne Town Hall (1870) and St Paul’s Cathedral (1891) are prominent landmarks to the north and south respectively. The square has been redeveloped several times and associated with a number of controversies over the years.

Melbourne was originally planned with a number of large parks around the periphery of its central business district, but lacked a major civic open space in the heart of the city. Convinced that public squares "only encouraged democracy" the colonial government of the time demanded that no towns laid out at that time should have them included within their boundaries.

Sir Bernard Evans, architect, city councillor and later Lord Mayor of Melbourne, first raised the idea of a city square in 1961, an idea that was not adopted by Melbourne City Council until he raised it again in 1966. Following this, Council began the process of acquiring properties along Swanston Street between the Town Hall and St Paul’s Cathedral. A vacant half-acre site formerly occupied by the Queen Victoria Buildings and the City Club Hotel on the corner of Collins and Swanston Streets was acquired in 1966, and from that time onward additional properties were acquired and buildings demolished between the Town Hall and St Pauls Cathedral. These included Cathedral Hotel, Cathedral House, Guy's Buildings (demolished 1969), Green's Building and the Town Hall Chambers (demolished 1971) as well as Wentworth House and Regency House on Flinders Lane. The Regent Theatre was also intended to be demolished, but was saved by a union ban. However, the restriction of the site area and the presence of a long blank façade limited any grand visions for the space.

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