Princess Theatre, Melbourne
Spring Street, Melbourne, Australia
Expertise heritage management planning • conservation works • building presentation
Client Marriner Theatres
Client Marriner Theatres
Melbourne’s oldest extant theatre, after years of neglect, underwent a major transformation in 1989 to accommodate the big new musicals coming out of London and Broadway. Our role was to investigate, document and guide internal and external restoration. Since then, we have undertaken further conservation, restoration and refurbishment works to various parts of the building. In 2018 we completed major exterior conservation and restoration works to the theatre’s glorious Second Empire facade.
The 1989 project commenced with a conservation management plan. This established that the theatre had been largely internally rebuilt and extensively redecorated in the early 1920s. The decoration is of particular interest in that it displays the then-new fashion for glazed and metallic leaf finishes. Painstaking investigation revealed many of these under layers of later paint, enabling their accurate reconstruction. Long-lost techniques had to be investigated and revived and specialist tradesmen found.
The decoration continues on the exterior, with its elaborate gold leaf highlights and sculptures to which gold has been applied in solid form. A beautifully patterned slate roof was revealed and the elaborate ironwork on the mansard roofed pavilions restored. The theatre has been returned to Melbourne as the jewel it once was.
In 2016, Lovell Chen returned to the Princess’ Theatre to restore the Stalls Foyer that dates from the 1922 remodelling. In 2017, we commenced investigations for the further facade conservation works, which are now complete.
Australian Council of National Trusts Award 1990 : Australian Heritage Award : Architecture category
Dulux Colour Award 1990 : commendation for exterior
The Illuminating Engineering Society of Australia (Victoria) 1990 : Environmental Interior Lighting : high commendation
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Heritage data
constructed 1886
original architect William Pitt
victorian heritage register H 0093
exterior photo : Lovell Chen
interior photos : Peter Glenane
SELECTED REPORTS HELD
full list : see REPORTS INDEX
Princess Theatre: photographic record prior to 1989 refurbishment works
Allom Lovell & Associates / AUGUST 1989 : REPORT
Restoration and refurbishment of the Princess Theatre
Axia / MAY 1989 : REPORT
Princess Theatre: an appraisal of the conservation contraints
Allom Lovell & Associates / DECEMBER 1988 : CONSERVATION ANALYSIS
