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For a building that began life as the headquarters of a pharmaceutical company, the Nicholas Building has evolved over the decades into one of the most fascinating buildings in Melbourne. There’s the facade itself: imposing and chalky-white, sitting at 37 Swanston Street, above Cathedral Arcade. But it’s the building’s rich interior life that make it such an important Melbourne institution.
Over the years it housed everyone from doctors to button-sellers, from designers in the Flinders Lane rag trade to artists and artisans. The rents have traditionally been low enough to support generations of creative types who need time and space to make their art.
The Nicholas was also known for being the last building in Australia to have lift attendants. Immortalised in the Courtney Barnett song Elevator Operator, Joan McQueen and Dimitri Badas decorated their lifts with photos and art and knew everything and everyone in the building.
Change is a constant there too. The mix of tenants have shifted over the years depending on larger economic trends. The lift operators were retired in 2012 and Covid stay-at-home orders have temporarily quietened the building.
But perhaps the biggest change facing the Nicholas is the sale of the building. It was put on the market in June and is priced at around $80m. While it is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register largely due to its intact 1920s interior architectural features, its creative community is in a much more volatile position. Current tenants and those who have a history with the building are pleading with potential buyers to keep the use of space for artists. Guardian Australia spoke to some of them.
Sophie Paterson (née Nicholas)
I’ve always had a passion for heritage buildings. Alfred Nicholas was my great-grandfather. He and his brother founded pharmaceutical company Aspro, and Aspro and Aspro Clear became a global success.
The Nicholas Building was erected in 1926 to cope with an overflow from their original premises in City Road. Harry Norris, who designed it, was the architect of the time. He did a number of the family buildings all around the city, including Curtin House and the Majorca building.
The design incorporates lots of small offices that could be used by smaller businesses or sole traders. Coles took the first two floors, and above were doctors’ surgeries, architects, and professional services.
The family sold the building in the mid-1960s. Over time, it’s really changed to become a creative hub of the city. It’s such a unique place. There are very limited spaces for creative places that are affordable. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the only place like it in the world.
Beverley Kannegiesser, Austral Salon of Music
Austral Salon of Music was located on the second floor of the Nicholas Building from the late 1930s until 1957. It was set up in 1890 by a group of women journalists so that they could talk about things to do with the arts, literature, science. There were clubs like it cropping up all over the world at the time. They had meetings twice a month and a lecture once a month on a set topic. They had music and dramatic items, but they always had a strong philanthropic arm. They did fundraising for the war, they made donations to the new arts centre.
Stephen McLaughlan, gallery owner
Tenancy: 1994 – current
I first visited the Nicholas Building in 1956 when my parents walked me through the arcade on the way to viewing the Olympic decorations. In 1967, my first year at RMIT, I often had waffles and passionfruit malteds in the Coles basement where their luncheonette was still in operation.
When the Nicholas Building opened in 1926, none of the south facing rooms had windows – there was a building right next door. In 1939 that building was demolished, creating a permanent light well and enabling windows to be punched into the south elevation. A stunning view was created, looking straight down St Kilda Road towards the Shrine. While that view is technically temporary, as a 10-storey building is soon expected behind Young & Jacksons, it is still there as we speak.
In February 1994, there were lots of empty rooms and studios available all over Melbourne but none of them had the stunning view of the level eight commercial room at the Nicholas. A week’s rent for a shop got you a month in the Nicholas and the room was four times as big. I took it and opened a gallery. It’s 2021 and I’m still there.
Christie Petsinis, architect
Tenancy: 2002 – 2019
It’s like a vertical village, with its 2m wide corridors like the streets. Behind every single door is something completely different and wonderfully diverse. People are proud and happy to be there – and everyone has a story about the building. It’s the hub of Melbourne’s creative scene. If you look at the building’s original register, there was a caretaker that lived on level eight or nine; there was a ballroom; there were doctors and psychologists and milliners. It’s always had incredibly diverse occupants.
The lift operators were all their own characters. Their lifts were full of postcards, pictures of people’s animals. It was a noticeboard about things for sale or studios up for rent. The lifts were carpeted and the operators had a stool. The lifts were really important for all the small enterprises in the building – being able to connect guests with businesses. And they were really important to us as residents. They were security, they kept us informed, and they delivered the mail.
Ben Eltham, writer
Tenancy: 2007 – 2010
If the Nicholas Building is a vertical city, then its public transport systems are the lifts. Lift operators Joan [McQueen] and Dimi [Dimitri Bradas] were the building’s last link to former glory. The lifts were 100% analogue. There was a crankshaft that Joan and Dimi operated – they would sit in a little corner on a stool and drive it.
Dimiti’s lift was like a studio or set. His walls were completely covered with madcap costumery, art, painting, photographs. He used to like wearing plus-fours, he used to have a pince nez and a bushy moustache and boiler suits. His look was a little bit steampunk.
I spent most of my time in the Chantilly Bridal studio on the 9th floor. It was the classic studio set up: you just got a desk and you paid $410 a month and you’d come in every day and write. I think I covered the first term of the Rudd/Gillard government from Chantilly Bridal.
There was a whole scene in the Nicholas at night. You’d do a building crawl – go to a gallery opening on one floor, then studio drinks in other people’s rooms and move from floor to floor. People had parties in their studios. The whole scene was very high Melbourne – late, high Melbourne.
Dimitri ‘Dimi’ Bradas
Lift operator: 2006 – 2013
I was introduced to the Nicholas building through artist Vali Myers. I met Vali when she first arrived back in Australia after being away for 45-odd years, in the Coles supermarket at Richmond Plaza. She had just come off a plane and she was looking for coffee and did I know a good brand? I didn’t know who she was. I said, “I don’t know. I drink Turkish coffee because I’m Greek.” She said, “Oh love, I love Greek coffee.” And then she said, “Do you want to come and have a coffee with me?” So we went and had a coffee.
When Vali moved into the building in 1993, there were only a few other artists in there. Once Vali got there, she changed the whole thing. She told me the very first day I met her that we would be good friends, and we were – for the next 10–11 years until she died.
I returned to the building a long time after she passed away, and that’s when the lift operator Joan said to me, “Love, you still want a job here?”
I used to sculpt and draw. While being a lift attendant I’d be working on my own drawings in the lift, in the corner. I was in my own fantasy land. I would just sit and draw. I would draw in the mornings when it was quiet. Then I’d pack it up when it got busy and later in the afternoons I would draw again. And eventually I had a studio there in the building.
I made good, lasting friendships from the building.
Carolyn Fraser, letterpress print maker, conservator
Tenancy: 2006 – 2011
It’s remarkable that the building has been available this long for artists considering the rise of inner-city conversions to apartments. A lot of cities talk about the creative life of a city being important – but if anything, the pandemic has shown how little artists are really valued. Mountains have been moved to make sure the AFL goes ahead but the support for artists has been negligible.
A key for supporting artists is space and real estate. Historically people have always been pushed out with real estate and market forces changing the environment. It gets harder and harder. If spaces become less accessible, and a certain sort of art stops being made.
Andrew Milward-Bason, architect
Tenancy: 2014 – current
There is a diverse range of creative industries in the building – visual arts and contemporary arts, illustrators and painters, six or seven galleries, fashion, gaming, literature, singing and eSports. While it’s known for its artistic community, it’s also cutting-edge for tech based artists. The influence of the building has reached far beyond the walls of the building itself.
All the people in the building have been impacted by Covid. We formed a residents’ association in 2017 to support and nurture tenants. And when Covid hit we negotiated a rent-waiving structure. If we are looking to breathe life back into the cities, it’s buildings like this that can do that.
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