Underground History: The Degraves Street Subway

The Degraves Street Subway is a thirty metre underpass, connecting Flinders Street to Flinders Street Station, with a long and surprising history.

When it was built in 1854, Flinders Street Station was not only Melbourne’s first train station, but Australia’s.

The station was originally modest: a single, thirty metre platform, alongside a weatherboard shed. It grew as the city grew, and was redeveloped into its present form during the economic boom of the 1880s (you can read more about the origin and history of the station, here).

By the 1920’s, an average of 250 000 passengers used the station each day, making it one of the busiest railway stations in the world.

In 1927, Melbourne City Council began a review of the station, and traffic flow along Flinders Street.

As the station had become busier, congestion had begun to cause problems. Lengthy queues were common during busy periods, causing delays to services. Flinders Street had also become a notorious traffic hotspot, with a high number of accidents occurring near the station.

To alleviate these problems, the council considered several plans, including a pedestrian bridge over Flinders Street.

Finally they settled on an underpass; Degraves Street, a busy lane that opened onto Flinders Street, would be connected to the station by an underground tunnel. The new underpass would come replete with shops, the revenue from renting these spaces intended to offset some of the cost.

But almost immediately, the council ran into difficulties.

Reaching agreement between everyone involved – the State Rail corporation, the State Government, and the private owners of the land on Degrave Street- proved difficult.

One issue was cost. An underpass was a comparatively expensive option, there was disagreement over who should provide the funds. Planning work continued sporadically through the 1920s, although little progress was made.

Meanwhile, the installation of automated traffic signals on Flinders Street, the city’s first, helped to reduce some of the problems that the subway was meant to solve.

Finally, the Great Depression, and then World War II, ensured focus was on other issues.

After the war, the Council returned to the plan. This was part of a wider program designed to modernise Melbourne ahead of the 1956 Olympics, championed by the head of the Public Works department, Robert Burns Campbell.

Campbell was a Collins Street dentist who had been elected to the City Council in 1944. He then devoted an increasing amount of his time to public office, eventually leaving his practice altogether to run the Public Works department.

From this position he helped drive an aggressive agenda that would transform the city. Campbell’s program was controversial: the changes were significant, sometimes rushed, and largely ignored heritage considerations; many iconic old buildings were demolished during his tenure (you can read more about this, here).

One of the projects championed by Campbell was the Degraves Street Subway.

While the issues facing the project were much the same as before, Campbell’s forceful personality now ensured progress.

Construction on the subway started in 1952, and was completed early in 1954. Campbell himself only just lived to see its completion, as he died suddenly in June 1954, aged 65.

The new subway was named in his honour: The Campbell Arcade.

Finally completed after decades of delay, the subway initially received a positive response.

The interior featured a highly stylised, art deco design: black granite columns and soft pink, mosaic tiles. The shops that lined the subway were striking, with curved windows and handmade, wooden fixtures. They were also highly sought after; Melbourne City Council received more than a thousand applications for the six available spaces.

At the base of the stairway down from Degraves Street, was an underground entrance to The Mutual Store, then one of Melbourne’s largest department stores. The idea seemed foolproof: funnel the store’s customers directly into the subway, guaranteeing customers for the shops there.

But there was a problem: the underpass was not as heavily utilised as expected.

During its planning, the Council had estimated that 20 000 pedestrians would use the subway each day.

This was based on measured commuter usage of Flinders Street Station, and studies that had been conducted of foot traffic along Flinders and Degraves Streets. This expected high volume was what finally allowed all of the planning issues to be overcome, and also explained business enthusiasm for the commercial spaces.

But nothing like these numbers materialised.

Analysis conducted during the Olympic year of 1956, when usage was expected to be highest, showed a tenth of the expected traffic; only 2 000 people per day were using the subway. A further study conducted by the council revealed that 2 out of 3 people were unaware that the subway even existed.

Businesses that had signed up for the shops, and who had paid a hefty premium for their lease, suddenly found themselves in an awkward position. Without the high volume of passers-by that had been expected, the shops were unprofitable.

One proprietor, selling women’s clothing, even tried holding a fashion parade in the subway to drum up some publicity. The state rail authorities forced him to stop, citing disruption to pedestrian traffic.

While lower rents were eventually negotiated, most businesses found the subway too difficult a location. Adding to the gloomy outlook, The Mutual Store closed in 1965 and the nifty underground entrance was bricked up.

Another difficulty was that the subway was prone to flooding.

Before significant work was undertaken to address the problem, the Yarra River used to regularly overflow in heavy rain. Flinders Street, and all of the city alongside the river, would regularly flood.

Serious floods like the one in 1972 (read more about this, here) saw the subway completely underwater. But even heavy rain would cause water to accumulate on the floor.

At times, rail workers were even enlisted to help shuttle pedestrians shuttle back and forth, using wooden hand carts.

Many of the shops in the subway soon stood vacant. Pedestrian numbers never increased.

Through the 1970’s and 80’s, the Degraves Street Subway became a neglected white elephant. Homeless people camped in front of the abandoned stores, blokes used the corners as an ad-hoc urinal.

It was not until the 1990’s that the City Council decided to take an interest again, and funds were allocated for a clean up.

Taking advantage of decreased rents and other financial incentives, new tenants were found for the retail spaces. These reflected the changing nature of the city.

Instead of milk bars and mainstream fashion, the underpass now saw second hand clothing stores, deluxe coffee and hand made ‘zines, from shops with names like Corky St Clair, The Sticky Institute and The Cat’s Meow.

The Platform Artists Group, with funding from both the council and the State Government, took over the old display cases that lined one wall. Previously used by the retailers, they were now employed as a small gallery space, showcasing a rotating array of modern art.

The new shops and art displays gained in popularity, and the subway found a second life. Melbourne, a restless city, is forever reinventing itself.

In February 2015, the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the government would begin work on the Metro Tunnel rail project.

First proposed in 2008, this ambitious plan required an overhaul of the inner city’s rail network, and would create new subway lines and stations. Parts of the CBD would be closed, as extensive underground tunnelling and construction would be required.

A new station is to be built near Town Hall on Swanston Street, a new pedestrian underpass connecting this to Flinders Street Station will be built. The Degraves Street Subway was scheduled to be overhauled, as part of the project; exactly what this entails will be interesting to see.

The Metro Tunnel is set to open in 2025.

More MUSEUM OF LOST