DIAMOND HOUSE
Standing tall on the Bourke Street Mall, Diamond House is a striking example of Melbourne’s art deco ambition. Its façade, now part of Hotel Indigo Melbourne Little Collins, offers more than just visual impact.
Commissioned by Dunklings the Jewellers, one of Melbourne’s most prominent jewellery houses of the time, Diamond House was designed in the 1930s by renowned architects HW & FB Tompkins. The same duo was responsible for some of the city’s most iconic structures, including the original Myer department store. Their design for Dunklings was bold and self-assured. Vertical lines, geometric motifs and a strong sense of symmetry gave the building presence. It projected confidence during a decade still marked by the aftermath of the Great Depression.
At the time, Bourke Street was evolving into Melbourne’s luxury retail spine. Jewellers, milliners and department stores lined the strip, drawing locals and visitors alike into a world of glamour. Diamond House was a key part of that transformation. Its street-level windows became showcases for fine jewellery, attracting curious passers-by with glinting displays and refined interiors. Shopping here was more than a transaction. It was ceremony. A quiet act of optimism in a world that had been through so much.
The name itself, Diamond House, captured that spirit. It suggested rarity and brilliance. A place where beauty was created, celebrated and worn with pride.
Art deco found a particularly expressive voice in Melbourne. While other cities leaned into industrial modernism, Melbourne embraced architecture with flourish and personality. From the Capitol Theatre’s crystalline ceilings to the Manchester Unity Building’s soaring tower, the city created a skyline that balanced grace with confidence. Diamond House fit this movement perfectly. More compact than its neighbours, but just as bold.
Today, the original façade remains preserved, offering a warm welcome to guests arriving from Bourke Street. Behind it, Hotel Indigo opens into a very different interior. Contemporary in design, layered in texture, but always connected to the stories held in the brickwork and geometry outside. It is not a recreation. It is a reinvention.
Look closely and you can still feel the energy of that earlier era. Trams pass by on the same tracks. The rhythm of shoppers and pedestrians continues. There’s still a sense of anticipation in the air — of people searching for something beautiful, whether in a store window or within the walls of the hotel itself.
For guests, Diamond House becomes more than an entrance. It is a threshold between two moments in time. A reminder that even in the busiest part of the city, stories endure in the spaces we often walk past.