Coop's Shot Tower is located in the heart of the Melbourne CBD. It was completed in 1888 and is 50 metres high. The historic building was saved from demolition in 1973 and was incorporated into Melbourne Central complex in 1991 underneath an 84 m-high conical glass roof.
Coop's Shot Tower is 9 storeys high, and has 327 steps to the top. The tower produced six tonnes of shot weekly up until 1961, when the demand for the lead shot dwindled, because of new firearm regulations.
Recently a museum called the Shot Tower Museum has been set up inside of the tower at the back of R.M. Williams, a tenant in the tower.
The site is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Famous quotes containing the words shot and/or tower:
“I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
“The tower said, “One!”
And then a steeple.
They spoke to themselves....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)