The building that started it all. Discover more about Melbourne’s most beloved wine cellar and why Dan Murphy calls Prahran home.
A long time ago (1952 to be exact), in a suburb not too far away, lived a man we like to call old mate Dan Murphy. Dan spent many years working in his father’s liquor store, but he harboured a dream to run his very own. After years of pining, at the ripe age of 34, Dan finally decided to go into business for himself and leased a small grocery around the corner from his dear old pa’s shop on Chapel St, Prahran.
But there was a problem. Old mate was collecting so much great wine he was running out of places to store it in his little shop. But Dan was lucky. Next to his shop was an unused basement in the beautiful Prahran Arcade. So, with the owner's permission (and a lot of elbow grease), he knocked down the wall to create his now famous cellar.
Righto, so we know how Dan started his liquor venture. But can we talk about how pretty the actual building is?
It was designed by prominent local architect George W. McMullen in 1889 and built by James McMullen for the incredibly fancy-sounding Mrs Elizabeth Delaney of St Kilda. So it was always going to be a schmick structure. The now called Prahran Arcade was built in the very trendy (at the time) Italianate style and features two severe-looking stone eagles on the building’s facade. Because who doesn’t love stone eagles on their building? It was eventually finished in 1890, becoming the Arcade Club Hotel, and housed everything from Turkish baths, to a café, to restaurants, and even a few billiard rooms.
Some thirty years later, the building had a bit of a rebrand (as we all do, now and then) to become the Centreway Arcade. Tenants included a dance academy, a painting school and clothing manufacturers.
When Dan’s business took off in 1968, he was able to lease out the building and renamed it The Gallery. The new and improved arcade was packed to the brim with specialty shops; a pizza bar and bistro followed, as did a restaurant, The Epicurean, where Dan and his son Philip worked at night.
Dan even had two famous artists, Howard Arkley and his wife Elizabeth Gower, move into the upper floors in 1978. That’s how fancy the joint was (and is). Dan was actually an aficionado of art and even opened up a small gallery in the Prahran Arcade. Eventually, the building changed hands and Dan Murphy took his business elsewhere. That is, until 2016 when Dan Murphy’s came back home.
We’ve talked about the beginnings of Dan, we’ve swooned over the building’s architecture, so let’s talk more in-depth about Dan’s baby: the Prahran cellar and its legacy.
The first thing you notice about Prahran Cellar is that it is stunning. All the original brick and heavy antique windows in the street level wells have been lovingly restored, which makes you feel as though you’ve stepped back in time. There’s super soft lighting, timber panelling, memorabilia and carefully curated racks of wine and select whiskies on display, harking back to Dan’s famous encyclopedic liquor knowledge.
But perhaps the most exciting part of Prahran Cellar is the amount of hard-to-find, one-off, rare wines and liquors you can find in store. There’s also a beautiful tasting room and some very highly trained wine and spirit experts eager to impart Dan’s knowledge and love of liquor.
So if you find yourself in the area, or need some top-notch liquor advice, toddle down to Prahran Cellar – a museum, a shop, a time-capsule and a loving homage to our old mate, Dan Murphy
