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The Man and I were in Melbourne CBD over the weekend. That is a major trip for us, we have friends who travel overseas more often than we go to the city. It is only 70km away but may as well be on another planet!

Whenever we go there I always vow to go more often, I love the buildings and the history. Once we get home though, I remember why we moved out here, no crowds and we can park the car somewhere we actually want to go….

Flinders Street Station, in the rain, 2012.

Anyway, todays post is about the building I love to look at the most in Melbourne, Flinders Street Station.

The original station was opened in 1854 but the building we all know today only began construction in the early 1900’s.

By 1926 it was the worlds busiest passenger station. Yep, little old Melbourne…. Even now over 100,000 people pass through there daily, apparently it is the busiest station in the southern hemisphere.

The station, and the row of clocks inside the arch above the main steps, are an icon of Melbourne. The saying “see you under the clocks” became part of the local lingo, and is still used today.

I think that the reason I love Flinders Street Station so much is because it is so unusual. In a city mostly made up of natural stone (and corrugated iron back in the day) Flinders Street Station stands out proudly, all red brick and cream stucco, capped with a series of copper domes and a huge clock tower at the far end.

I have fond memories of catching the train there as a child. The ramps to the freezingly windy platforms, the tiles and the Do Not Spit signs along the subway pedestrian tunnel wall (that even as a child I knew would only incite the spitting!)

I love this photo of the holiday traffic at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets, taken from the front yard of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1916. It looks like quite a free-for-all doesn’t it, and that was 10 years before it became the busiest in the world!