The building on this site, now part of St Vincent's Hospital, was formerly the Belvedere Hotel, a key site in the Eight Hour Day movement. On 21 April 1856, stonemasons working on constructing the "Old Quad" building at the University of Melbourne downed their tools and walked off the job in support of the eight-hour working day. There are competing accounts of the route of that initial march, however the masons were joined by workers from other sites as they marched in the direction of Parliament House. When the march reached the Belvedere Hotel, the marchers organised a banquet at the hotel to celebrate their strike. This strike spurred successful negotiations with the stonemason's union and government for an eight-hour-day for masons, and a 48-hour working week. To celebrate this success, a further celebratory march was held on 12 May 1856, which commenced at the Carlton Gardens and ended at the Cremorne Pleasure Gardens. The eight hour day would not become the legal norm in Victoria until 1916, and it was only in 1948 that the 40 hour working week was passed into federal law.
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