Royal Exhibition Building - Melbourne Wedding Photo Locations

At Vogue Ballrom there are two things we really love; iconic Melbourne architecture and beautiful classic buildings, the Royal Exhibition Building is both, and a fantastic location for wedding photography. The Royal Exhibition Building is in Carlton Gardens which is surrounded by some of Melbourne’s best gardens, and some more great photography locations.

Best Photo Locations in Melbourne for Wedding Photos

The Royal Exhibition Building is one Melbourne’s most prominent buildings. In 2004 UNESCO added the Royal Exhibition Building to the World Heritage List. There’s more to the Royal Exhibition Buildings and the Carlton gardens than beautiful architecture and design, the area is also a landmark of Victorian history. A quote from the Department of Planning and Community Development’s website describe the Carlton Gardens and the Royal Exhibition building as “a tangible expression of the country’s pride in its technological and cultural achievements in the latter part of the 19^th century.” If that isn’t the most touching endorsement of an Australian landmark, we don’t know what is.

History of The Royal Exhibition Building

The Royal Exhibition Building was designed by Joseph Reed, notable and influential architect also known for the State Library, Trades Hall and the Melbourne Town Hall, as well as Rippon Lea estate, of which regular readers will know how fond we are. Reed’s designs are a mix of classical Romanesque and French Renaissance styles that are intricate and imaginative.

The foundations were laid for the Royal Exhibition Building in 1879 only a year before its completion in time for Melbourne’s first International Exhibition. The building was used again for the next International Exhibition in 1888. International Exhibitions were a chance for countries top display their best art, engineering, design, culture from the local area and the world and attracted big crowds. While International Exhibitions and World Fairs have since gone out of vogue somewhat there were significant to the culture of cities that chose to host these monumental events. Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Centre is notable for being one of the few remaining of such 19^th century exhibition buildings.

Before the Royal Exhibition Building was erected the grounds were predominantly parkland, and the gardens were established in around 1856, based on designs by Edward La Trobe Bateman. The Carlton Gardens now feature some rare and beautiful Victorian natives as well as beautiful examples of Melbourne’s much-loved tree-lined promenades featuring Moreton Bay Figs and English Oaks. The Victorian Heritage Register has a very detailed list of the various significant plants in the Carlton Gardens in their Latin names, which you can find here, but more than knowing which plants it features and their significant the real beauty is in the design of the garden and its features.

The garden as designed to compliment the Royal Exhibition Building has two ornamental lakes created in 1880, the beautiful French Fountain, and the even more elaborate Hochgurtel fountain, which mimics the themes Royal Exhibition Buildings, so complex and brilliant they are worthy of their own paragraph. Also in the 1880s, the building hosted two major International Exhibitions: The Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880 and the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition in 1888 to celebrate a century of European settlement in Australia. The most significant event to occur in the Exhibition Building was the opening of the first Parliament of Australia on 9 May 1901, following the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January. After the official opening, the Federal Parliament moved to the Victorian State Parliament House, while the Victorian Parliament moved to the Exhibition Building for the next 26 years.

On 3 September 1901, the Countess of Hopetoun, wife of the Governor-General, announced the winners of a competition to design the Australian National Flag. A large flag, 5.5 metres by 11 metres, was unfurled and flown over the dome of the Royal Exhibition Building.

The Free Classical style opens itself to a more liberal approach to architectural expression. Many features of the Royal Exhibition Building were added to represent a vision of a unified and motivated Victoria. Most notably the three plaster heads under the dome depicting an Indian, an Indigenous Australian and a Chinese man. It also had “lunette” style windows (circular or semi-circular windows) depicting the facets of a prosperous country; commerce; industry; science and the arts. There are painted panels of “sylphs” which, to simplify a dated and confusing concept, are elemental representations of a human concepts. A discovery of the old paintings underneath layers of new paint inspired the Museum Victoria to reinstate the Royal Exhibition Buildings previous glory and now the interior can be viewed.

All of these elements show-off an optimistic, ambitious Victoria not afraid to embrace it’s prosperity and creativity in order to encourage more. Very Victoria, and a memento from amazing 19^th century Melbourne.