Catching the train to Princes Bridge

Posted on Monday, 4th January 2021 by Janine Rizzetti

from our Facebook page December 11, 2020

Between 1888 and 1901, if you had wanted to go from Heidelberg into the city, you would have had to travel to Victoria Park (then named Collingwood). The train would come to a stop, the locomotive would change ends and then you would need to travel back to Clifton Hill onto the inner circle line, through Fitzroy, around through North Melbourne terminating at Spencer Street.

In 1901 the direct route to the city was opened, terminating at Princes Bridge railway station, seen here. The original Princes Bridge building was demolished in 1964 to make way for the Princes Gate Towers (opened in 1967), later known as the Gas and Fuel Building.

The building beside the spire-less St Paul’s Cathedral was the Metropolitan Gas Company building, completed in 1892 and designed to harmonize with the Cathedral. In 1967 the Gas and Fuel Corporation moved across the road to the Princes Gate building, and remained there until the demolition of the two towers in 1996-7 to make way for Federation Square.

Original image: State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/295611