Nicholas Building

It’s location smack-​bang on Swanston and Flinders Lane means you have probably walked past this building a million times. Maybe even loitered through the foyer.
Jump aboard the lift (attended by a lovely chap with cute family pics adoring his ‘office’) to explore the other levels and you will uncover all kinds of creative and kooky stores and galleries.
I took my Mum here to hunt down a fabric store and she was in seventh heaven. She ended up raiding more than one unique fabric store and walking out shaking her head at the unexpected damage to her credit card.
The building is a tad creepy, with many vacant or blocked off rooms that give you the distinct feeling that you’re trespassing. All part of the charm really!

The Nicholas Building on the corner of Swanston Walk and Flinders Lane is a living cultural center. I’m often going there to see exhibitions at Pigment Gallery, Blindside or Stephen McLaughlan Gallery. Many artists, fashion designers and jewelers have their studios and exhibition spaces in the rooms of the Nicholas Building. The late, eccentric and artist Vali Meyers once had her studio on the 8^th floor of the building. It is also the home of Collected Works bookstore, the best bookshop for quality literature in Melbourne and many other interesting shops.
It is a wonderful old building, even in it’s partially decaying state that is well worth a visit itself. Entering Cathedral Arcade with its set of boutique shops and the wonderful lead light ceiling. I have the choice of taking the stairs or one of two old lifts. One of the lifts has a lift attendant and the lift attendant has decorated the small lift with postcards and pictures. The other lift is also manually operated and you have to open and close the doors yourself. Walking down the stairs I notice the defunct mail chute in the stairwell and the antique elevators speak of another era of city office life. Many of the tiles are falling off, some of the stair rail has gone in places, but the building still has great character.

It’s all well and good admiring the Chicago-​style architecture of the Nicholas Building from the street, but for a unique city adventure away from the crowds, you have to go inside.
I mean all the way inside, up the building’s endless flights of marble stairs, stopping to take a sneak peek inside the open door of an artist studio or out the creaky windows down onto the street below, or simply to use the old-​school-​like bathrooms. And no visit is complete without a ride in the rickety cage-​door elevator.
On Level 7, along the corridor, is the not-​for-​profit Blindside art gallery, and once a year, around August, all the artist studios open their doors to the public, so you don’t need to sneak around.