Melbourne General Post Office

Construction started: 1861

Completed: 1907

The old General Post Office is located on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Bourke Street Mall and is an icon of inner-city Melbourne. The building began construction in 1859 and spent the next five decades being constructed and remodelled. The iconic clock tower was added around 1887, during this final stage of construction. American architect Walter Burley Griffin redesigned the sorting hall into a public hall around 1919, only for it to be altered again by John Smith Murdoch. The space functioned as a post office for most of the 20th century until 1993 when Australia Post decided it wanted to move its post office functions into smaller shopfronts.

Many commercial schemes were proposed, though none came into fruition until 2001, when it was leased to developers with the goal of turning it into a shopping centre. A fire broke out in the GPO in September 2001, destroying the interior of the building, and it was only in 2004 was the GPO reopened as a high-end retail precinct. Since 2014, the GPO has been home to Melbourne’s first H&M store. Even if you’re not there for the clothes and accessories, you can still have a peek inside at the building’s impressive 19th-century grandeur.