Myer Emporium, windows, and entrance with.'awning', Bourke Street, C.1955
When Myer committed £200,000 to freshening the appearance of its Bourke Street store in 1955, it envisaged a complete refurbishment of its street entrance that would be topped by an expansive cantilevered awning. After the demolition of the store’s arcade showcases, the area that they occupied would be reclaimed as retail space and a new frontage containing seven large ‘stage’ windows and a pair of frameless armour-plated glass entry doors constructed. However, Myer’s plans for its upgrade were delayed when the City Council failed to approve its proposals. The sticking point… its expansive awning.
One year prior in 1954, the Melbourne City Council passed a regulation that the many colonial verandahs gracing the city’s streets were to be demolished. Constructed from corrugated iron canopies and cast iron pillars, Council argued that the aging structures formed a safety hazard to pedestrians should a vehicle hit a pillar and the verandah collapse. Many older councilors recalled the collapse of Hoyts’ large verandah during a parade in 1925. Over 100 spectators had been injured and this incident influenced their decision to remove the structures 29 years later. Despite considerable community outrage, Council stood firm and by July 1954, the city’s pillared verandahs disappeared from its streets.
Despite the Council’s new building regulation allowing the installation of cantilevered verandahs, Myer continued to experience delays to its building proposals. This made little sense to anyone except those councilors who remembered the 1925 incident: rather than a pillared structure, the Hoyts verandah had been cantilevered! Given its size, Myer’s awning must have seemed like a certain death trap to this group of men.
Several month passed and then Buckley’s and Nunn entered the fray. They too announced the erection of a cantilevered awning over their store. Two of Bourke Street’s retail giants were now applying pressure to build the regulation-approved verandahs across their Bourke Street frontages. The dissenting councilors were finally over ruled when their chairman determined no legal basis existed to stop Myer building its awning. In April 1955, the store finally began boarding up its entrance arcade in preparation for its refurbishment… and it’s awning still stands nearly seventy years later!