The Palace Theatre (also known as The Palace) was an entertainment venue located in Melbourne, Australia. First built for live theatre in 1912, it was also used as a cinema and for live music. It was demolished except for its facade in 2020 after much community opposition, to be replaced by a hotel.
History
The Palace site had a rich history of entertainment uses through many many different incarnations over the decades 1912-2010s. Although altered many times, its superabundance of contributions to Melbourne's theatrical heritage made it worthy of preservation, arguments which unfortunately did not prevent its destruction.
Excelsior Hotel
The plot of land on 20-30 Bourke Street was occupied from the late 1850s Excelsior Hotel. The association between hotels and theatres at the time was close, and the hotel incorporated a hall (known as the Queen's Hall) used for vaudeville performances and other entertainment including boxing and wrestling. The hotel later became known as Stutt's Hotel circa 1875, and then the Hotel Douglas in 1900. The last listing for the Hotel Douglas in the Sands Directory was in 1911, after this the hotel burned to the ground. The land was sold for £32,000.
Theatre
In 1911 the Queensland based architects Eaton & Bates, in association with the Melbourne architect Nahum Barnet, were commissioned to design a new theatre for the site for James Brennan. The design had seating on three levels and a large proscenium with curtains of gold. The front section included some rooms on the upper floors known as the Pastoral Hotel. It opened in April 1912 as Brennans Amphitheater.
In 1916 the Sydney architect Henry Eli White designed alterations, which involved a complete refitting of the auditorium and lobby with the addition of ornate plaster decoration in a Louis Seize style, and it was renamed the Palace Theatre. Between 1919 and c. 1922 a front room on the upper level was let for use as a studio to the prominent artists Arthur Streeton and Max Meldrum. "Palace Chambers", which was similarly located and perhaps the same space, was used by the Institute of Arts and Literature between 1921 and 1927.
In 1923 the auditorium was extensively remodelled, though retaining the Louis Seize style, overlaid with Adamesque decoration, and it was re-opened as The New Palace.
Cinema
In 1934 further alterations were carried out and from then on it was known as the Apollo Theatre. The life of the Apollo was short lived, as 6 years later in 1940 the building was renamed the St James. In 1951 it was purchased by MGM, was renamed the 'St James Theatre & Metro', featuring films exclusively from its owners. The facade was substantially remodelled in an Art Deco style designed by H Vivian Taylor, the only part which still remains today. Internally the proscenium was replaced and the side boxes and the balcony ends were removed to allow installation of a CinemaScope screen. The last film to be shown at the MGM cinema was Kelly's Heroes, starring Clint Eastwood in October 1970. After this it was sold.
Theatre
The cinema was reopened as a theatre in 1971. It featured a 39-week season of the musical Hair from 1971 to 1972. The life of the theatre was short-lived, as in 1974 it was converted back into a cinema and renamed the Palace Theatre for the first time since 1916.
Church
In 1980 the cinema was sold to the Melbourne Revival Centre, a Pentecostal church headquartered in Melbourne. It became a major venue for their services, which involved theatre productions.
Night Club
The next sale resulted in a major refurbishment by the Melbourne architectural firm Biltmoderne. In 1987 the building was transformed into the Metro Nightclub. The Metro was described in 2006 as having a "classy, intimate VIP lounge in Gods Bar along with the funky Fish Bowl on the mezzanine level providing electrifying views of the Main Room below, all available for your partying pleasure."
Music venue
In 2007 the Metro nightclub was sold. The new owners, who operated the former Palace, St Kilda, lost an acrimonious 2-year battle with the State Government over the lease of the old building and moved their business to the Metro. They undertook works to convert the Metro into a live music venue, and changed its name to The Palace. The old Palace in St Kilda mysteriously burned down only a few months later under suspicious circumstances.
Over the next 7 years it became a very well established venue, hosting acts such as George Clinton, The Black Keys, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys and The Killers, to name a few. It had a capacity of 1850.