South Melbourne Town Hall restoration

South Melbourne Town Hall is currently closed to the public while we preserve and transform this heritage building for future generations.

Location

208-220 Bank Street, South Melbourne

Cost

This major restoration is co-funded by Council and the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM). ANAM is contributing $54M and Council is providing $60 million.

Milestones

Phase 1: Base-build works
31 Dec 2026
Late 2024 – December 2026: These works will ensure the building is structurally sound, safe and watertight.
Phase 2: ANAM Early works
31 Aug 2026
August 2025 – August 2026: This phase includes works to extend/renovate the building.
Phase 3: ANAM Main Works
31 Dec 2027
January 2027 – December 2027: This phase includes the remaining construction/fit-out of the building.

Why are we doing this?

South Melbourne Town Hall is a building of historic, cultural, and social significance and one of Victoria's grandest Town Halls. Since 1879, the building has shaped the character of Emerald Hill and the wider Port Phillip municipality. Until 2018, it had been a home to the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) for more than two decades.

At present, it is no longer compliant with current building codes and standards and has been unsafe and uninhabitable in recent years. City of Port Phillip along with ANAM are seizing this opportunity to preserve and transform this precious building for future generations. The project will enhance the building’s structural integrity while renewing it to meet current and future needs. This major restoration is expected to be completed in late 2027, and the building will be publicly accessible in 2028.

The project will result in a brand new 150-seat venue that will sit alongside the existing, re-imagined 350-seat main hall. Once complete, both venues will boast 21st-century amenities and technical functionality. Improved front-of-house areas, a new commercial catering kitchen, new meeting rooms, and spaces for hire will service increased visitor numbers.

The South Melbourne Town Hall will become a multi-functional building capable of hosting a wide range of events from performances and weddings to meetings and school speech nights. It will also be a secure, long-term home for ANAM.

The impact

The South Melbourne Town Hall will be closed for the duration of the works, re-opening in early 2028 to the public. The Emerald Hill Library located nearby continues to operate as usual.

All building works will be undertaken during normal working hours for construction. We expect that any impacts to road operations will be minimal. Where disruptions are expected, traffic management will be undertaken by our building contractor. Impacts to parking will be minimised to avoid disrupting residents.

Objectives

The South Melbourne Town Hall restoration has several objectives:

The preliminary base-build works aim to upgrade the structure and services within the South Melbourne Town Hall, ensuring that the building is accessible and compliant for the community and future tenants, including the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM).

Following the base-build, ANAM works will transform the 19th-century building into a welcoming 21st-century destination venue for educational, cultural and community activity.

The historic hall will become a dynamic, creative hub that will nurture the country’s finest young musicians who come to Melbourne to train at ANAM. It will also provide an enhanced visitor experience for the general public, including those attending performances, or events and hiring spaces.

Specifically, the ANAM works will refurbish the existing building with small additions to the eastern wing and north-west corner. This refurbishment will result in:

two state-of-the-art public performance venues (350 and 150 seats respectively) with upgraded back-of-house and front-of-house amenities
new meeting rooms
revitalised rehearsal and studio facilities
a new catering kitchen – for weddings and events – together with a foyer bar and improved front-of-house amenities

These spaces will all be available for hire, with generous discounts for community members.

FAQs

At present, the South Melbourne Town Hall is no longer compliant with current building codes and standards and has been unsafe and uninhabitable in recent years. This is why we are working with long-term tenant, the Australian National Academy of Music, to preserve and transform this precious building for future generations. The project will enhance the building’s structural integrity while renewing it to meet current and future needs.
The South Melbourne Town Hall will be closed for the duration of the works, re-opening in early 2028 to the public. The Emerald Hill Library located nearby continues to operate as usual.
All building works will be undertaken during normal working hours for construction. We expect that any impacts to road operations will be minimal. Where disruptions are expected, traffic management will be undertaken by our building contractor. Impacts to parking will be minimised to avoid disrupting residents.
The former Assistant Librarian’s Apartment was added to the building in the 1930s and is not heritage protected. We are carefully demolishing this part of the building to make room for a new accessible, heritage-approved studio space. This work is needed for the following reasons:
- The former Assistant Librarian's Apartment (North-West corner) sits at a different level to the rest of the building and so is non-compliant from an accessibility and egress perspective.
- The design objective of the work is to bring this part of the building up to the level of the 1st floor of the rest of the building, without altering the existing ground floor façade.
- The external steps to access the apartment are riddled with concrete cancer and need to be removed.
Yes. In 2024, before the preliminary ‘base-build’ work could commence, we discovered that there was asbestos in the building.
Asbestos is a hazardous material that was historically and commonly used in older buildings due to its fireproof and insulating properties. It was identified during a hazardous material survey as part of redevelopment works. The asbestos has since been cleared to allow works to continue.
To ensure that a safe and revitalised building is available as soon as possible, we have brought the Australian National Academy of Music’s early works forward to be completed in parallel with Council’s ‘base-build’ works (works to ensure structural integrity and safety).