Melbourne - Collins Street

Swanston Street cuts across Collins Street.

In Collins Street - Melbourne's best known street - there are many elegant old buildings. Among them, at the east end of the street, is the Melbourne Club, founded in 1839: the oldest institution in Victoria. Collins Street has a number of well-preserved neo-Gothic buildings, including Goode House, the Olderfleet Building, the South Australian Insurance Building and, at the west end, the luxury Menzies at Rialto Hotel, whose Victorian façade is in interesting contrast to the glass walls of the surrounding high-rise blocks, the most imposing of which is the 242m high Rialto Towers. An observation deck at the top (525 Collins Street) gives a bird's-eye view of Melbourne.