State Library Victoria
State Library Victoria – La Trobe Reading Room
Look down into a six-storey domed reading room
- Hours
- Daily 10am–6pm; closed New Year's Day, Good Friday, 25 & 26 Dec
- Tickets
- Free
- Address
- 328 Swanston Street, behind the front lawn opposite Melbourne Central
Push through the reading-room doors and desks with green lamps radiate out beneath an octagonal dome. This is the La Trobe Reading Room, opened in 1913, and you're welcome to walk quietly among the people studying. The real view is upstairs: take the stairs or lift to the Dome Galleries and look down from the sixth-floor balcony, where the desks fan out like petals. It's free, and people linger for ages.