Privé is located in the iconic former Melbourne Safety Deposit building, part of Melbourne’s celebrated Gothic Bank precinct — one of the city’s most distinctive nineteenth-century landmarks.

The original project was commissioned by Sir George Verdon, a banker with a deep passion for art and architecture, and designed by William Wardell, an architect best known for his churches and cathedrals, in 1883. The result was a building of extraordinary character — widely regarded as the most accomplished example of Gothic Revival architecture in Australia. The bank occupied the ground floor, basement, and mezzanine, while the first and second floors formed an opulent residence, accessed via a private entrance on Queen Street.

Below the banking chamber, the basement housed a series of domestic rooms, including a wine cellar, larder, boot room, and servants’ hall. A mezzanine level accommodated offices alongside the residence’s kitchen and scullery. Upstairs, the first floor unfolded as a sequence of refined living spaces — bedrooms, drawing and morning rooms, galleries, and a grand dining room opening onto a loggia overlooking Queen Street. The second floor continued this sense of grandeur, with a billiard room, multiple bedrooms for family and staff, bathrooms, and a second loggia.

At the time, the scale and cost of the project raised eyebrows in London. One director, Charles Hegan, was dispatched to Melbourne to assess the investment. While he questioned the extravagance of the residential quarters, he was captivated by the building itself, describing the banking chamber as “one of the sights of Melbourne.” Of the residence, he remarked that it felt “built by a man of perfect taste, and ample means for gratifying it” — a fitting reflection of the ambition and confidence that shaped this remarkable building.

One of the precinct’s most notable features is the Melbourne Safe Deposit, constructed in the basement near Queen Street and designed by architect William Pitt in 1890. Designed for the secure storage of documents, jewellery, and valuables, it was built by specialist mechanics from the Milner Safe Company’s Liverpool works and shipped from Liverpool. It was Australia’s first safe deposit facility.

The facility was an exceptionally robust vault housing 3,000 safes. The strong room itself—constructed from wrought iron boilerplate and lined with undrillable steel—weighed nearly 200 tons. Each of its four sections was secured by grille gates and steel doors weighing 2½ tons. Widely regarded at the time as the strongest and safest of its kind in Australasia, it was claimed by its makers to be the finest vault in the world. Privé is located above the strong room.