I don’t know who or what “Whitehouse” is, but they’ve done a splendid job of restoring the Mail Exchange building — somehow I’ve never noticed it before, possibly because most of the time I walk down Bourke Street near Spencer Street, I’m facing the other way.
9 replies on “The Mail Exchange”
My partner used to work there in the eighties. There was a tunnel under Spencer Street to the station. The building looks good.
Whitehouse? They have a .com website, I think. :-)
My father used to work there when it was the telegraph office …
Looking on Google Maps found this:
http://whitehouse-design.edu.au/
I saw that yesterday but I did not like the way they copied America Washington.
Any relation to Mary Whitehouse (of 1970s British fame)?
Well you know it is the Whitehouse Institute of Design ?? Naturally they do a stylish restoration.
I used to work in that building with a company called Figgins. A quick Google shows that they went bust earlier this year, which is a shame as it was a nice company to work for. The inside of the building was astounding. When you went up the big stone stairs to the main level, and through the entry it opened out into essentially a two story open space with huge marble columns. As big as it was, the furnishings and decour gave it a wonderful intimate feeling, and the sound was closer to a library rather than an office. There were numerous other floors dedicated to wharehose/shipping tasks, which were also interesting to wander around. We need more of this re-furbished office places as they are a delight to work in, rather than the modern cubilcle city.
hi just to set the record straight, the building is owned by a few developers who love old buildings and they also restored the building at great cost, also Sargood House in Flinders lane and the Werribee Mansion. I was the designer of the Whitehouse sign and the school of Whitehouse is on the top floors. I am also the designer of a new pub which is being built in the lower ground floor as we speak and will be open mid September and we have created a great space in character of the building design features oh and the name? Why it’s called the Mail Exchange Hotel so look out for it.