Australia's oldest, most beautiful Royal Arcade: Melbourne

I was not only the first grandchild for my grandparents; I was also a girl followed by my brothers and male first cousins. One of my fondest memories of the mid-late 1950s was going with my grandmother to a tea-shop in the City. Naturally both of us wore hats and gloves :)

The land on which the Royal Arcade was built was prime land when Melb­ourne was first settled. It was the first land pur­chase by Mr Joseph Moore in 1837 for the princely sum of £20. In 1855 it was purchased for £650 by Simon Staughton.

Beautiful shops

in the Royal Arcade

In 1868, a Design Competition was held for the design of the Royal Arcade. The winning entry was by Charles Webb, a C19th architect from Suffolk. His success­ful design was in the Italianate style, drawing somewhat on influential Fr­ench and English models. Const­r­uc­t­ion of the Royal Arcade began in June 1869 and finished in May 1870, off­ic­ially opened by the Lord Mayor. The Royal Arcade was proud­ly the first arcade in Melbourne and is the longest-standing arcade in Australia. Melbourne also has other special Charles Webb’s buildings inc­l­uding Melbourne Grammar School, South Melbourne Town Hall, Banks & Co. Warehouse, Windsor Hotel and Tasma Terrace.

All the shop fronts were made into bow fronted win­dows in 1890-1894 and central kiosks were added. In 1902 an annex was added, to link the arcade to Elizabeth St, al­l­owing more businesses to open. The main alter­ation was in 1934 when the wooden floor was replaced by the black & white tiles which still remain. From then the arcade stayed in the Spenseley and Staughton families until 1955, when the arcade was auctioned and sold to a company formed by its ten­ants. In 1958 the Royal Arcade set a record for the highest price ever paid for CBD real estate when it was sold at auc­tion for £541,000.

Gog & Magog

The ar­cade’s most memorable feature is the magnificent Gaunt’s Cl­ock, flanked either side by two giant statues of the my­th­ical Gog & Magog fig­ures. Since 1892, the statues have struck chimes at every hour, and are still heard today gonging throughout the arcade.

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Gog and Magog, and Gaunt's Clock

High above the arcade shops

Melbourne

Several myths surround Gog and Magog, incl­uding one where they were guards of the underworld and gods of dark spirits. Many visitors come to the Royal arcade to see the big statues of Gog and Magog, which have graced the southern end of the arcade since 1892. Gog and Magog are 7’ tall statues which were installed by clock and instrument maker Thomas Gaunt (1829–90) around an enormous clock.

Gog and Magog briefly featured in the Hebrew Bible and the Christ­ian New Testament, as invaders. And later references assumed an import­ant place in apocalyptic literature and medieval legend. In London The Guildhall statues of Gog and Magog probably repres­ented two giants who were taken to London to serve as porters at the gate of the royal palace after their race was destroyed by Bru­tus the Trojan, the “founder” of London/New Troy. The Guild­hall had been built in Saxon times, the place to pay taxes.

The two 9’ wooden Gog and Magog figures existed in London from Hen­ry V’s rule (early C15th). The first figures were destroyed in Great Fire (1666) and were rep­laced in 1708. That second pair was dest­roy­ed in a German air raid in 1940 and not replaced until 1953. The current Guild­hall, completed 1440, is still used for officials now.

In Melbourne, Thomas Gaunt had the two statues in the Royal Arcade carved in pine by Mortimer Godfrey, modelled on London’s Guildhall figures. Gaunt may have done this because he had his work-shop at the south end of the Arcade; the large clock had T. Gaunt & Co written across its face. Clearly it was very good ad­vertising for his business and a good demon­str­ation of his ins­trument-making!

Scientific instruments produced by the Gaunt Co. included inst­ru­m­ents to both measure and record temperature and humidity, merc­ury-in-glass barom­et­ers and thermometers, ten of the Caulfield race Cups, and gold/silver religious jewellery and ornaments, no­t­ably for St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne.

Gaunt had many clock­makers work­ing for him, some for decades. It was German-born Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Ziegeler who made the clock in the Royal Arcade for Thomas Gaunt. His meticulous clock­ making skills ensured that Gog and Magog still per­form their ritual every hour, just as they have since 1892. Every hour Gog and Magog strike the bells with their arms and people gather in the Royal Arcade to see this spectacle.

Front entrance

Modern Melbourne

In 2002-4 the Royal Arcade was refurbished and restored to its for­m­er glory, with heaps of work on skylights and storefronts. The high glass roof allows daylight to come streaming into the original Victorian-era glass shopfronts. The beauty of the Royal Arcade is it remains largely unchanged today; its Ren­aissance Revival style has high arches and gold trimming. The Royal Arcade, connecting Bourke St Mall to Little Collins St with a side opening to Elizab­eth St, is full of boutiques, tearooms and chocolatiers. Due to its historical and architectural import­ance, the Arcade is listed on the Victorian Her­itage Reg­ister and the National Trust Australia.