Flinders Street Station

The building is three levels at the concourse, or Swanston Street, end and four at the lower Elizabeth Street, or platform, end. Numerous shops and lettable spaces were provided, some on the concourse, but especially along the Flinders Street frontage, many at lower than street level, accessed by stairs, creating a fifth / basement level. The top three levels of the main building contain a large number of rooms, particularly along the Flinders Street frontage, mostly intended for railway use, but also many as lettable spaces. Numerous ticket windows were located at each entry, with services such as a restaurant, country booking office, lost luggage and visitors help booth at concourse or platform level. Much of the top floor was purpose built for the then new Victorian Railway Institute, including a library, gym and a lecture hall, later used as a ballroom; these rooms have been abandoned and decaying for many years. In the 1930s and 1940s the building featured a creche next to the main dome on the top floor for a number of years,[12] with an open-air playground on an adjoining roof. The basement store beside the main entrance has been occupied by a hat store since 1910. Known as 'City Hatters' since 1933.