An artist’s impression of the bar to be built along Flinders Walk. Source: Supplied
IT will fit 240 pots of beer in a row, run the length of a soccer field and likely add to Melbourne’s commuter delays.
A touch of New York will pull into Flinders St station with disused train tracks being transformed into the city’s longest bar.
The multi-million-dollar project being built along Flinders Walk is expected to be finished in July and will hold several hundred punters and 60 per cent will be al fresco.
The Arbory Bar and Eatery will stretch 120m along the Yarra River and is being built on the disused Sandridge railway line.
Owner Tim Botterill said New York’s famous High Line was used as a creative concept for the project that had taken three years to get on track.
“Originally, we thought it would be a perfect spot to put a coffee cart or a train carriage serving coffee but it has grown legs and just evolved to this,” he said. “Our inspiration is to join the city to the Yarra and build on this underused space.
“It is beautiful river frontage and we are excited by it.”
He said that “bits and pieces” of the available space, being leased from Metro Trains, were being peeled away, and he soon realised the potential.
The bar will run along the entire venue with the service pod stretching 60m.
Metro senior business development manager Mike Luxton said the development would bring Flinders St station to life.
“Arbory will transform this previously unattractive and unused area of railway land ... and become a vibrant area that many Melburnians will be able to enjoy,” Mr Luxton said.
The Sandridge line opened in 1854 and was closed in 1987.
The line’s bridge over the Yarra was refurbished as a pedestrian bridge and reopened in 2006 for the Commonwealth Games.
While the venue will border Flinders St station, there will be no direct access from a platform into the drinking hall.
Punters will enter the bar from the Elizabeth St underpass or at the base of the Princes Bridge.
aleks.devic@news.com.au
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