Victorian Trades Hall is a Trades Hall building located in the suburb of Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and home to the Victorian Trades Hall Council. It is located on the corner of Lygon Street and Victoria Street, just north of the Melbourne central business district.
The original Trades Hall was opened in May 1859 after being built by workers as an organising place for the labour movement in Melbourne. The workers financed the construction of the building themselves. The hall underwent an upgrade from 1874 to 1925 at the hands of architectural firm Reed & Barnes and it remains one of the most historically important sites in Melbourne today, being classified by the National Trust and included in the Register of Historic Buildings (Victoria).
The hall is located across the road from the eight hour day monument which was erected to honour the Victorian workers who won the first 8 hour working day in the world in 1856. It is the birthplace of organisations like the Victorian Labor Party and Australian Council of Trade Unions. Four flags fly from the roof of the building; the Australian Flag, the Eureka Flag, the Australian Aboriginal flag, and the red flag.
Trades Hall is home to many of the Victorian trade unions and left-wing political parties. It also serves as the headquarters of the National Union of Students. The various rooms of the hall can be hired out for functions, meetings or conferences and it is often used for theatrical productions and to display artwork. The hall has a bar which is patronised by trade union members and political activists and a bookshop which sells political texts.
In recent times, as well as being the centre for union activity, the Trades Hall Council has opened the Trades Hall building to many cultural events, plays, and concerts including the Melbourne Comedy Festival - concentrating on political and 'on the edge' performances.
Famous quotes containing the words victorian, trades and/or hall:
“Apart from letters, it is the vulgar custom of the moment to deride the thinkers of the Victorian and Edwardian eras; yet there has not been, in all history, another age ... when so much sheer mental energy was directed toward creating a fairer social order.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)
“Different trades are like different mountains.”
—Chinese proverb.
“For a hundred and fifty years, in the pasture of dead horses,
roots of pine trees pushed through the pale curves of your ribs,
yellow blossoms flourished above you in autumn, and in winter
frost heaved your bones in the ground—old toilers, soil makers:
O Roger, Mackerel, Riley, Ned, Nellie, Chester, Lady Ghost.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)