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MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA: Twenty-six years to the day since the doors slammed shut on one of Australia’s most notorious prisons (1 May 1997), the shackles of the past have been thrown off and HM Prison Pentridge has reopened as a billion-dollar dining and entertainment precinct just 8km from the Melbourne CBD.
The redevelopment of the 170-year-old site is one of the largest bluestone restoration projects ever undertaken in Australia and one of just 40 prison hotel conversions worldwide.
The unique centrepiece of the redevelopment is The Interlude, the world’s first experience-led urban wellness retreat in a converted prison. It features 19 exclusive heritage suites, each created out of 4 to 5 original cells with vaulted brick ceilings, original cell doors and bluestone walls. Each wall between the original cells took two weeks to demolish.
With no blueprints to work off, converting the landmark gothic revival building was no mean feat says Jesse Kornoff, General Manager, The Interlude “behind every wall in every roof space, under the floors is a new surprise that the builders were able to discover.”
Guests at The Interlude can indulge in an underground candlelit relaxation pool which took three months to dig out by hand using a conveyor belt to remove the 250 tonnes of rock. The result is a stunning sanctuary carved out of bluestone and basalt that has to be one of the world’s most unique swimming pools.
Melbourne is renown as Australia’s capital of culture, and guests at The Interlude will be immersed in the flavours, colours, sounds and stories of this creative community as part of an all-inclusive experience.Bespoke itineraries include spending time exploring the evolution of wines through the 525 wines on offer at Olivine wine bar.
The bar features former cells converted into cosy booths and a wine cellar that was itself once a cell. It’s also a feast for the eyes, the Pentridge precinct home to its own onsite art gallery showcasing resident artists and emerging local artists.
HM Pentridge Prison began operating in 1851 and closed almost 150 years later, one of its most infamous inmates was bushranger Ned Kelly. The walls of the buildings were built from stones that prisoners quarried on site in the 1850s and 1860s. Eventually the prison had more than six kilometres of interior and exterior bluestone walls, some six meters high.
During the redevelopment of the site, several rare panopticons were unearthed under the old prison exercise yards. Built in the 1850s and shaped like cartwheels, they were known as airing yards where inmates were granted one hour per day to exercise in isolation. Only eight known airing yards of this style still exist in the world, three of these at Pentridge.
Everywhere at Pentridge the modern and historic blend. The Adina Apartment Hotel Pentridge Melbourne that rises above the original HM Prison Pentridge buildings reuses one of the panopticons as its reception. The 106-room apartment hotel and conferencing space rounding out the billion-dollar redevelopment which also includes residential apartments, shopping, dining, and a cinema.
The land on which Pentridge was built was a sacred area for the Wurundjeri (Wuh·ruhn·juh·Ree) people. A traditional gathering place and source of water, plants, and animals. The transformation now coming full circle, with a local Wurundjeri Elder Bill Nicholson performing a Welcome to Country and ceremonial cleansing of the entire site before it officially begins this new chapter of its diverse history.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jodi Clark - TFE Hotels (Director of Communications)
+61 499 900 658 / jclark@tfehotels.com
NOTE TO CHIEF OF STAFF/EDITORS:
The following information has been independently verified by Katrin Strohl, Art Historian and Pentridge expert.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF PENTRIDGE
About: Nicknamed ‘The Bluestone College,’ ‘Coburg College’ or the ‘College of Knowledge’, the former Pentridge Prison complex was of historical significance as the largest prison complex constructed in Victoria in the nineteenth century. The site is on the Victorian Heritage Register (H1551) and is part of the City of Moreland’s Heritage Overlay (HO47).
Opened: Her Majesty’s Prison Pentridge was established in 1850 as a stockade, located on crown land of
140 acres, 8 km north of Melbourne, in the township of Pentridge, known today as Coburg.
Closed: 1 May 1997 - The prison officially closed as part of the government’s decision to privatise prisons and most prisoners were relocated to H.M. Prison Barwon. In 1999, the State Government of Victoria sold Pentridge to independent real estate developers. Purchased by the Shayher Group in 2013, in a derelict state, the depth of the site’s cultural significance has guided its redevelopment. By changing the perspective from a derelict site to one of Melbourne’s cultural assets, the iconic bluestone walls of Pentridge live on to see a new era.
SUCH IS LIFE: B DIVISION’S 5 MOST WELL-KNOWN RESIDENTS
Edward ‘Ned’ Kelly
Bushranger Ned Kelly was found guilty of receiving a stolen horse and was sentenced to three years of imprisonment with hard labour. Ned began his sentence at Beechworth and was transferred to Pentridge several months later. He was now eighteen years old, known as Prisoner 10926 and spent time in Pentridge from February 1873- until June 1873. As every prisoner, Ned started his time in Pentridge in solitary confinement, in what is now called A2 Division. After the 6 weeks he was sent to what was in now B Division where he is allowed to mingle with his fellows and attend school for one hour a day.
There are no records of the exact cell he was in. Convicted in Melbourne on 29 October 1880 for murder. He was hanged at Old Melbourne Gaol, aged 25. His last words are said to have been, “Ah well, I suppose it has come to this.” His (and others) body was exhumed from the (Old) Melbourne Gaol and re-buried at Pentridge Prison in 1929, where they remained undiscovered until 2008. Kelly’s remains were identified a year later and eventually returned to his family. The remains of others were reinterred on the Pentridge site at the end of D Division. The location of Kelly’s skull remains a mystery. In 2013 Ned Kelly’s remains were buried in an unmarked grave at Greta Public Cemetery.
William Stanford
At an early age, had been an apprentice to a stonemason in London before he ran off to sea and landed in Melbourne. He was soon in trouble though and was sentenced to 10 years hard labour in Pentridge for the theft of a horse. Released on a 'ticket-of-leave', he was soon in trouble again, and this time he was sentenced to 20 years - on charges he always denied - with an extra 2 years in irons, after an escape whilst building the new prison.
Stanford spent time in the solitude of the panopticon (B Division).
He carved bones left over from stews. His talents were noticed by a prison chaplain who was so impressed with his work that he persuaded the prison governor to allow him tools and facilities. Local sculptor Charles Summers tutored Stanford. Shortly after, Stanford spent some years carving a fountain from prison bluestone - the only material available for him.
His fountain was erected in Gordon Reserve near the State Parliament buildings where it still stands. Stanford died from 'stonemason's disease' - the effects of inhaling dust while chiselling his work at Pentridge.
Ronald Joseph Ryan
On 19 December 1965, during the prison warders' Christmas party, Ryan and prisoner Peter Walker scaled the prison's inner wall and reached the guard's walk, surprising warden Helmut Lange. Ryan saw a rifle on the wall of the post and grabbed it. They had not intended to use firearms, but Ryan realised that if he didn't use it, Lange would.
Another warden, George Hodson, came out from the party and went after the escapees, without sounding the alarm. When Ryan heard Walker call for help because Hodson had caught up to him, Ryan turned, and a shot rang out. Hodson died almost instantly. Ryan and Walker were re-captured in Sydney, extradited to Melbourne, and tried for murder.
During the trial it was revealed that another prison guard had fired at the escapees, and all parties agreed only one shot was heard. Ryan himself maintained that he had not fired the gun, but despite ambiguous evidence and the fact that Ryan's rifle was never examined to determine if it had been discharged, the jury found Ryan guilty of murder.
He was given the death sentence, which was not commuted to life, although this had been the practice for the past 35 death penalty cases since 1951.
The Victorian premier, Henry Bolte, was determined that Ryan be executed, and would not be deterred by strong opposition from the general public, the media, and prominent politicians and clergy. Ryan was hanged on 3 February 1967, closing the door on Australia's history of capital punishment.
NOTE: In 1932, the Pentridge Penal Establishment was incorporated, along with Metropolitan Gaol and the Pentridge Female Prison, into His Majesty’s Gaol, Pentridge. The Female Prison and the Metropolitan Prison were then revoked as separate institutions. The former Metropolitan Prison became D Division - the receiving division for the whole of Pentridge. NOTE: D Division (now the Pentridge Cellars) is where capital punishment sentences were carried out and is located about 325m away (and separated by Pentridge Boulevard) from modern day B Division.
Mark Brandon ‘Chopper’ Read
Mark Read spent more than 23 years in jail for crimes including armed robbery, assault, and kidnapping, including trying to abduct a Victorian County Court judge at gunpoint, of which he served a 14-year sentence. Read earned his reputation by ripping off drug dealers and brothel owners in Melbourne. Mark Read was nicknamed 'Chopper' after a childhood cartoon character, a bulldog in the show Yakky Doodl, long before he cut off his ears in jail.
Mark's life transformed from criminal to public speaker. On his final release from jail he vowed to never go back. He became a successful artist, rap singer, stand-up comedian, and author. Read wrote 16 books and sold over 600,000 copies worldwide.
THE PENTRIDGE PANOPTICONS
In 2014 Archaeologist Adam Ford and his team were hired by the Shayher Group (the owners of 6.76 hectares of the former prison site) to carry out excavations before the commencement of housing and commercial development. A condition requirement from Heritage Victoria requested that five areas of the site be excavated as of archaeological importance.
What was unearthed was the bluestone foundations of three rare panopticons, shaped like cartwheels, which are the remains of what is known as airing yards built in the 1850s constructed in A and B division yards. One was found in A Division, and two in B Division exercise yards. The first uncovered and excavated was to the north of A Division.
The panopticons are very rare as there were not many built in the world, nor have many been found. The fact that there are three at Pentridge is quite exciting as they are of world significance to penal history representing a ‘silent and separation’ system utilised to conform prisoners in solitary contemplation under complete surveillance.
The circular design, with walls coming out from the centre, created wedge-shaped ‘airing yards’ where prisoners would be permitted access for
one hour per day without coming into contact with each other.
After its demolition in the 1950s, the ruins were buried under the exercise yards until Pentridge closed in 1997. The footings of the A Division panopticon remain relatively intact. The excavation and uncovering of the other two panopticons in B Division only revealed the remains of its rubble footings.
WHAT’S IN A NAME:
The Interlude (The name cannot be shortened).
Adina Apartment Hotel Pentridge Melbourne can be shortened to Adina Pentridge Melbourne.
Adina Apartment Hotel (brand) can be shortened to Adina Hotels or Adina.
Olivine (not Olivine wine bar);
North & Common (name cannot be shortened).
Ends.
WHO ARE TFE HOTELS?
TFE Hotels (TOGA Far East Hotels) is Australia’s International Hotel Group - headquartered in Sydney and operating in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Austria, Singapore, and Switzerland. TFE has a portfolio of seven hotel brands - A by Adina, Adina Hotels, Vibe Hotels, Quincy Hotels, Travelodge Hotels, Rendezvous Hotels and Collection by TFE Hotels which includes The Calile Hotel, The Hotel Britomart, Hotel Kurrajong and The Savoy Hotel on Little Collins, with more in the development pipeline.
TFE Hotels acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands we conduct business upon and pays our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We respect the Country itself, including its trees, animals, spirits, waters, skies, stars, and special sites.
https://www.tfehotels.com/
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0:00 Drone exterior of front gates of former HM Prison Pentridge signage.
0:11 Drone footage exterior of The Interlude, Adina Hotel Pentridge Melbourne, featuring former Pentridge Prison buildings.
0:27 Panopticon aerial.
0:48 Interiors of The Interlude corridor and former cells.
0:59 Interior shot of The Interlude corridors featuring bars on doors.
01:05 The Interlude corridor with former cell doorways leading into suites.
01:15 Art on walls alongside bars on doors and windows in The Interlude.
01:22 Interior foyer of The Interlude featuring bars on doors and former cells.
01:40 The Interlude Suite interiors featuring bluestone walls.
02:07 The Interlude Bathroom.
02:23 Drone interior shot of former cell block corridor.
02:38 Drone tracking shot of underground pool.
02:51 Guest using underground pool.
03:12 Tea ceremony - prepared and served to guest using pool.
03:26 Olivine wine bar.
03:33 Private booths at Olivine wine bar made from former cells featuring bluestone walls.
03:50 Olivine wine bar cellar with Sommelier choosing bottle of wine.
04:03 Exterior ground level shots of the Adina Apartment Hotel featuring former Pentridge Prison walls, buildings.
04:10 Exterior signage The Interlude, Adina Hotels.
04:16 Reception with guests checking in to the Adina Apartment Hotel Pentridge Melbourne.
04:22 Adina Pentridge Melbourne room overlay.
Interview with Jesse Kornoff, General Manager, The Interlude Hotel
04:37 The story of The Interlude’s development here at Pentridge is one of adaptive reuse. The owners had a vision here to create something really special and rather than like so many developments knock down and start again they really wanted to preserve the unique history here with an experience quite unlike any other.
04:55 Each suite was created from five cells; those bluestone walls took two weeks each to cut out and there are four of them in each room.
05:05 The interlude is a world’s first urban wellness retreat in a converted prison.
Interview with Katrin Strohl, Art Historian and HM Prison Pentridge Expert
05:14 Ned Kelly was found guilty for receiving a stolen horse and he was sentenced to three years imprisonment he spent most of the time of his sentence here in Pentridge.
05:25 Cityscape footage of iconic Melbourne landmarks and attractions.
05:35 Historic photos of Pentridge Prison.
06:01 Ned Kelly photo.
06:11 Local Wurundjeri Elder, conducting welcome to country and cleansing ceremony of the site.
30 April 2023
