Russell Street Police Headquarters in Melbourne, Australia was for many years the headquarters of the Victoria Police before they were moved to William Street in about 1990. The main multi-storey brick building located on the west of the site was constructed 1940-1943 in the Art Deco style by architect Percy Edgar Everett and is reminiscent of the design of the Empire State Building. The complex also included buildings along Mackenzie Street constructed in the 1880s and modified in the 1920s, as well as a 1970s brown brick building on the east of the site, which has since been demolished.
It was used in the opening titles of the television series Homicide, a fictional police drama series dealing with the homicide squad of the Victoria police force.
The complex is located on the north-eastern corner of Russell and La Trobe streets, and extends along Russell Street to the intersection of Mackenzie Street, Melbourne. Across the road on Russell Street is the Old Melbourne Gaol, old City Police Station and City Courts buildings (both now occupied by the RMIT University). The Police Headquarters was the site of the Russell Street Bombing in 1986.
Following vacation of the buildings by the Victoria Police in 1995, the site was involved in several failed redevelopment proposals including conversion to student accommodation and to a hotel. In 2005, the eastern wing of the complex, a 1970s building and part of the 1940s southern wing including a theaterette, were demolished to make way for a new apartment building, and the remainder of the complex was being converted into apartments. The apartment complex is now known as "Concept Blue".
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Russell St Police Headquarters
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The control room for Air Raid Precautions services during World War II were located at the Russell Street police headquarters
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Control room during World War II.
Famous quotes containing the words russell, street, police and/or headquarters:
“Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come.”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)
“For now the moon with friendless light carouses
On hill and housetop, street and marketplace,
Men will plunge, mile after mile of men,
To crush this lucent madness of the face....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“He took control of me for forty-five minutes. This time I’ll have control over him for the rest of his life. If he gets out fifteen years from now, I’ll know. I’ll check on him every three months through police computers. If he makes one mistake he’s going down again. I’ll make sure. I’m his worst enemy now.”
—Elizabeth Wilson, U.S. crime victim. As quoted in People magazine, p. 88 (May 31, 1993)
“If the national security is involved, anything goes. There are no rules. There are people so lacking in roots about what is proper and what is improper that they don’t know there’s anything wrong in breaking into the headquarters of the opposition party.”
—Helen Gahagan Douglas (1900–1980)