Melbourne's oldest extant theatre, after years of neglect,
underwent a major transformation to accommodate the big new musicals coming out of London and Broadway. Our role was to investigate, document and guide internal and external restoration.

The project commenced with a conservation management plan. This established that the theatre had been largely internally rebuilt and extensively redecorated in the early 1920s. The decoration is of particular interest in that it displays the then-new fashion for glazed and metallic leaf finishes. Painstaking investigation revealed many of these under layers of later paint, enabling their accurate reconstruction. Long-lost techniques had to be investigated and revived and specialist tradesmen found.

The decoration continues on the exterior, with its elaborate
gold leaf highlights and sculptures to which gold has been applied in solid form. A beautifully patterned slate roof was revealed and the elaborate ironwork on the mansard roofed pavilions restored. The theatre has been returned to Melbourne as the jewel it once was.