Flinders Street Station Refurbishment to be Unveiled

The 200,000 Melburnians passing through Flinders Street every day can’t help but notice the refurbishment works on the iconic train station.

The main concourse and the Elizabeth Street Subway toilets have received a facelift; and the next part of the renovations is due to be unveiled.

Scaffolding that has been cloaking the outer walls of Flinders Street Station will come down, revealing part of the $100M station repair job in time for Christmas.

The iconic façade has undergone its fifth re-paint since the station’s opening in 1910. The previous mustard colour has been switched out for a lighter shade of sandstone, with Lovell Chen, the architects in charge of the refurbishment, employing Melbourne University’s Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation to identify its original colour. They achieved this by analysing old paint samples from the building with a type of x-ray that identifies pigment, finally giving colour to the iconic 1900s photos of the station.

For the first time in a century, the glass clock faces are also undergoing restoration works, with a steel frame being added to the interior of the clock tower to strengthen the 117-year-old structure and protect it for the future.

The repainting process is expected to be completed by the end of the year; and the upgrade works are anticipated to be completed by the middle of 2018.