by Underneath Flinders Street Station was once a unique Melbourne institution: a private club for women run by Ada May Gunn.
Flinders Street Station is one of Melbourne’s most iconic locations. On the banks of the Yarra River, it opened in 1854, making it Australia’s first city railway station.
The original iteration was modest, with open platforms and wooden passenger sheds.
The current version of the main building opened in 1910. A design competition was held by the state government, the winning entry supplied by railway employees James Fawcett and H. P. C. Ashworth.
Their design was in the French Renaissance style, featuring a large main building along Flinders Street, decorated with a dome over the main entrance, and a clock tower at the other end. Shops were incorporated at ground and sub-ground level, with offices in the floors above.
Work began on the new station in 1900, and took a decade to complete (read more about the history of Flinders Street Station, here).
From 1909, the shops in the station building were offered for lease. Among the initial occupants was Ada May Gunn.
Little is known about Ada Gunn’s life. A search of digital sources returns almost nothing: the State Library of Victoria, the Melbourne Museum and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, key sources for this blog, have no listing for her at all.
Her one mark in the historical record is in relation to Flinders Street station, where she is noted in a few places as the proprietor of ‘The Loungers Club’.
The Loungers Club was conceived as a solution to a problem faced by women in the city.
Women had always played a key role in the life of Melbourne. There were women with the first European settlers that arrived; by the early twentieth century, thousands commuted to the city each day for work and study.
Many others attended for recreation and social activities.
Despite this, there were very few facilities in the city for women’s use. It was not until 1902, nearly 70 years after the city’s founding, that the first public toilets for women were built.
Located on Russell Street, these were also the city’s first underground toilets: this was by design, to discourage men from lurking around outside.
The women of Melbourne lacked places to freshen up, to have a few minutes privacy, or do that most Australian thing and get a beer: until the 1970s, women were only allowed into a segregated ‘ladies lounge’ at most pubs, and some did not even offer that.
Even having a rest could be problematic.
While most Melbourne streets featured public benches, these were usually dominated by men. A newspaper report from the 1930s on this topic noted that the city had plenty of seats available, ‘the problem was that men usurped more than their fair share of the accommodation.’
Manspreading was an issue, even a hundred years ago.
Melbourne City Council tried to intervene. In 1934 they designated the benches outside St Paul’s Cathedral, opposite Flinders Street station, as set aside for women’s use.
Large letters were painted on the paving stones in front of them, stating ‘LADIES ONLY’.
The press wryly noted that men continued to occupy most of them anyway (the signage can still be seen today).
As a young woman in the city, Ada Gunn experienced these problems, and set to try and improve them.
Her idea was simple. Melbourne already had a number of private clubs for men only, she opened one that was restricted to women.
In 1909, Gunn leased one of the new below ground shops between Elizabeth and DeGrave’s Streets, and was able to secure a second room at a reduced rate. She combined these into one establishment she called, ‘The Loungers Club’.
The club was outfitted like a suburban parlour, in shades of green and mauve. There were armchairs and lounges, writing desks, fresh flowers, a library that was regularly updated, and tasteful art on the walls.
Use of the facilities was by annual subscription, or pay as you go.
‘For one penny a woman could freshen up, write a letter, make a phone call, or just lounge on a sofa waiting for unpunctual friends. Tea and scones cost threepence, and newspapers could be read for free.’
– Robin Annear, ‘Adrift in Melbourne’
The club quickly became a haven for local women.
The Loungers Club was especially popular with working women. They would come to find a peaceful place for lunch, or after work to freshen up before other activities; students utilised it for similar reasons, shoppers would come to take a break.
‘The Australasian’ newspaper provided this description:
‘Miss Gunn’s idea is to provide a rest-room for tired shoppers, students and others in the city. It ought to be an inestimable boon, especially to business girls and clerks who wish to go to a theatre or some other entertainment without the tiring rush of going home and to the city again. Up until now there has been absolutely no place of this kind for their convenience.’
The lounge was open until 11 30pm, and so provided a safe space after dark. In the evenings it was also used for meetings of various women’s groups.
In 1910, political candidates attended the lounge to pitch to members. One candidate stated that the time was not quite ‘ripe’ for women to be MP’s themselves, then asked them to vote for him.
Australia did not elect a woman to Parliament until the following decade (Edith Cowan in WA, in 1921).
Ada Gunn ran the Loungers Club until 1915. Then she left the business and, as at time of writing, recorded history.
In the available sources there is no information about what happened to her subsequent.
While popular, the institution she founded did not continue very long after her departure. The club had different managers in both 1915 and 1916, and added a few additional services, such as parcel minding.
But opposition to the venue had been growing. The idea of a women’s-only club was threatening in some quarters, some even feared it may lead to a demand for their admission to men’s private clubs.
In her excellent book, Robin Annear provides this quote from an editorial of the era:
‘God help Australia when women begin to take the place of men in clubs hitherto sacred to male loungers!’
In 1917, club management bowed to external pressure and began to admit male customers to the smoking lounge. It became instantly less desirable for female patrons, and their attendance sharply declined.
After nearly a decade of useful, unique service, The Loungers Club closed shortly afterwards.
The rooms the club had occupied lay empty for a time. In the 1930s, Victorian Railways began planning a public cafeteria that would take over the space.
This opened in 1949, offering sandwiches and other basic staples.
The cafeteria ran until 1984, when a major overhaul of the station saw many of the operations in the main building cease. The cafeteria was closed at the same time as the upstairs ballroom, the administrative offices were relocated as well.
After this time, the space has again sat vacant.
Last year a new underground cocktail bar opened below Flinders Street station. While the location is not the same, the new venue gave a little nod to its pioneering, elusive predecessor: its name is, ‘Miss Gunn’s’.
