Bourke Street, C.1977
This shot looks in an easterly direction up Bourke Street from outside the Myer Emporium entrance, just up from the GPO.
The significance of the photo lies in the fact that it was taken the year before motor traffic was removed from this section of Bourke Street, between Elizabeth Street and Swanston Street, in preparation for its conversion to a pedestrian mall… with trams.
In these days one could still park in Bourke Street, if lucky enough to find a spot. Vehicular traffic was banned from February 13, 1978. The footpath/roadway was then converted, with the pedestrian mall officially opened in 1983.
Coles store (number 12) is on the right.
The facade of the Odeon Theatre can be seen further along on the right. This long, narrow theatre with just 17 seats across, opened as the Melba Theatre in 1911. It was remodeled in 1939 becoming the Liberty. This was destroyed by fire in 1950, with the new Odeon theatre built within the shell, reopening in 1951. A small newsreel theatre named The Times, operated from the basement.
The Odeon closed in 1978.
One of Melbourne’s most historic Department Stores Buckley’s, originally Buckley and Nunn, is ahead on the left.
The business first appeared as a drapery in 1851. It competed successfully with the adjacent Myer at this Bourke Street address for many years, before being acquired in 1982 by David Jones.