News / Council
Plans afoot to bring Brunswick Town Hall back to life
Mayor keen to see the building be used by artists
Mark Phillips
Monday, May 4, 2026
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It is one of the most significant and historic buildings in Melbourne’s inner north, but after years of under-use Merri-bek Council is looking at ways to give the Brunswick Town Hall a new lease of life as a hub for artists.
Despite its striking architecture and prominent location, much of the town hall building is empty most of the time while elsewhere the artistic community is crying out for more spaces to perform and practice their crafts.
With most of Merri-bek’s administrative operations located at the Coburg Civic Centre, increased use by creative workers is one possible future vision for the Brunswick Town Hall.
Current plans are modest after the council allocated $73,000 in next year’s budget for minor building improvements and low-key activation, but Mayor Nat Abboud believes nothing should be off the table about future potential uses for the Town Hall.
Abboud said she would like to see the Town Hall being increasingly used as a medium-sized performance venue to complement the nearby Brunswick Mechanics Institute which is managed by the Next Wave arts organisation.
“It’s just always empty,” Abboud said.
“Sometimes there are small weddings in here, but what I would like to see is just more scheduling of small performances.
“That’s our best case scenario, ticketed performances that are affordable and accessible for people to just come and see stuff that people are doing.
“It’s just a beautiful, neat little hall and so much bigger than the Mechanics Institute. So bigger things can happen over here.”
Built in 1876 and extended throughout the twentieth century, the Town Hall was Brunswick’s centre of government until the council was merged with the City of Coburg in 1994.
The building, which was originally designed by Evander McIvor in a French Renaissance revival style, survived plans in the 1970s to demolish it and replace it with a modern five-storey building. Community opposition by the Brunswick Progress Association meant the building was saved and it continued to host council meetings and staff for another two decades.
Today the building has a small customer service centre within the large foyer, and its southern wing is home to the Counihan Gallery. The more recently built western wing, which opens onto Dawson Street, is now the Brunswick Library.
But according to a report to the council meeting in March this year, the Town Hall is hardly visited these days. 
The report said the combined customer service centre and gallery average between 45 and 60 visits a day. By contrast, the library, with its separate entrance around the corner, averages 580 visits a day.
There are also 15 empty office spaces in the building.
The council report said the building’s problems included an unwelcoming and intimidating façade with unclear entry points due to cluttered signage and aging infrastructure, which was compounded in the vast foyer.
“Brunswick Town Hall is a significant building in Merri-bek and making it more inviting and better utilised would have positive impact on the community, particularly the creative and artistic community,” the report said, noting that there was significant unmet and ongoing need for affordable spaces for artists to work locally.
Council staff have proposed several initiatives to get better value from a major asset.
These include creating a contemporary and welcoming entrance to the Town Hall , improving the amenity of the foyer, providing artists’ residences in office spaces, and increasing marketing of the building as a venue for hire for creative industries.
These minor projects would cost $73,000 next year and ongoing funding of $32,000 to 2030.
Future improvements could include upgrading the sound, lighting and blackout infrastructure of the main hall as a live performance venue and encouraging more council staff to hot desk in the Town Hall’s office.
Also in the background in the next few years are potential expansions of the library and the gallery.
Abboud said the main hall had potential to be upgraded with a new lighting rig and portable bleacher seating to become a performance space, while offices in the administrative wing that have been empty since the Covid pandemic five years ago could be made available at low rents to artists to use.
More broadly than just the Brunswick Town Hall, the Mayor believes Merri-bek can make better use of its buildings to ensure the area does not lose artists as real estate becomes more expensive.
“It’s important to me how we hold on to creatives as we facilitate and observe the inevitable gentrification of the area we live in,” she said.
“We need to make sure that we keep facilitating access to arts and especially because we have such a diverse offering here.
“That [arts] is an important part of our DNA – it’s such a clichéd thing to say – but in Merri-bek that is really important to hold on to as inevitable gentrification doesn’t mean we have to lose that part of our value.”
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Fascinating article, and thank you for your local coverage of our beloved Brunswick!
Wouldn’t the best use of the space be for democratic grassroots activities? Something along the lines of monthly community ‘town halls’ so to speak? Where the councillors have to come and meet the residents they represent to discuss the issues / matters of the day? Something that actually sparks local life & energy back into our democratic system or democracy in general? These could be hosted on the same day of the month. I’m sure attendance would start off slow, but once people understood that these regular town halls were taking place, surely attendance would rise as people realise this is a fantastic opportunity to meet their councillors to discuss local matters. Just a thought, considering it is a question about how best to utilise the ‘town hall’! I would love to be involved in helping Brunswick Voice in any way I could to get something like this going!