The Quadrangle

The Law School began in the University's main building, later known as the old quadrangle. It also housed the University's other departments, its small administrative staff and the library. Some of the early professors (including the Law School's first dean, William Hearn) lived there with their families.

In the early years of teaching law there were no designated lecture rooms for law students, and lectures were generally held in the Mathematical and Natural Sciences Lecture Rooms. It was not until the establishment of the Faculty in 1873 that Law acquired a designated room. This, however, was only for the Dean's office, and lectures continued to be held in lecture rooms belonging to other faculties.

Many law students worked in the city and studied part-time. To make it easier for them to get to classes, lectures in several law subjects moved to the law courts in William Street (now the Supreme Court) in 1884. The move also suited the part-time law lecturers, and freed up space in the crowded quadrangle. Most classes were held at the law courts until 1925.

Growing staff numbers and enrolments after World War II made accommodation a problem across the University. The Law School was increasingly short of space in the quadrangle, which it continued to share. In 1958 the dean, Zelman Cowen, commented that Melbourne's Law School was 'one of the worst equipped in the world for its size.'  He went on to say, 'We have been going as a law school for a hundred years – a law school which has seen some pretty distinguished men. But if we are going to do the job at all, we must have the proper facilities.'

The Law School gradually occupied more of the quadrangle, as other departments moved out. When the university library moved to the new Baillieu Library in 1959, a new law library was created inside the quadrangle building, along with teaching rooms and offices. The Law School gained more space when the University's administration moved to a new building in 1970.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Law School spilled out of the quadrangle into other buildings on and off the main campus. A new, purpose-built law building had been a goal for decades. It became a reality with the opening of the present law building in Pelham Street, adjacent to University Square, in 2002.