Hall for a growing city
GEELONG City Hall for many years consisted of only the southern wing along Little Malop St. It was built in 1855, making it the “oldest municipal office block still active as such in Australia’’.
The northern wing and centre section were added in 1917, but not before there was a push to move the City Hall to the top of Moorabool St where the original grand Geelong Grammar School building had been abandoned in 1913 in favour of a new site at Corio.
The southern wing of the early Geelong Grammar School building remains intact off Maude St.
The move to the Grammar site was defeated largely through the efforts of then future mayor Howard Hitchcock. The new extended City Hall included a Great Hall in its centre section and a dome, topped off by a skylight, which despite its aesthetically pleasing appearance was known for its bad acoustics.
By the 1960s it had also become apparent that the City Hall needed extra space for extra staff.
Demolition and reconstruction work started in 1968 and the result was the West Wing, which was opened in August 1969.
The new wing was said to have been designed “with strict adherence to the classical pattern previously continued by the adjoining Art Gallery’’.
The work also included the open plaza which extends northward into Johnstone Park which required the filling in of part of the basin which formed the original town dam.
A mural was also commissioned for the entrance foyer to the West Wing of Little Malop St which depicted among other things the founding editor of the
founder James Harrison and Geelong’s first elected mayor Dr Alexander Thomson.
The mural, which was painted by acclaimed local artist Robert Ingpen, remains in the entrance foyer to the West Wing.
After 1917 council meetings were held in the north wing of City Hall before moving to the current venue in the West Wing. Contact: peterjohnbegg@gmail.com