London Court

London Court is a three and four-level open-roofed shopping arcade at 647 Hay Street.  It was built in 1937 on land which used to be a series of alleys, called Gun Alley.  It was then a combination of residential and commercial premises for wealthy gold miner and financier, Claude de Bernales (1876-1963).   London Court was designed by Brigadier Sir Bernard Evans (1905-81), officer and architect and one-time Lord Mayor of Melbourne, using architectural features present in Elizabethan times.  It opened with an ‘Olde English Fayre’, complete with Elizabethan costumes and traditional music.  At the Hay Street entrance, a blue-faced clock is a replica of the Great Clock at Rouen in France, with four knights who circle in the window when the clock chimes.  A second clock is located at the St George’s Terrace entrance, with a miniature St George doing battle with the dragon.  Today London Court continues to attract local and international visitors with its unique architectural style, statues of Sir Walter Raleigh and Dick Whittington with his cat and a feeling for the narrow streets of a past era.