As one of the original members of the Working Men's College on its foundation in 1882 his interest in visual design inspired his fitting out the building as artist studios.

Each window features recessed balustrades beneath impost mouldings and prominent keystones and Stawell freestone pilasters on the upper storey.

Contemporary reaction to the building and its pruprose was recorded in reports of its opening, such as that in the Australian Sketcher;The Australian artist has only recently begun to assert himself, to come out of holes and corners and back places of the city, to take his high and proper place amongst the professions, and to beard the Philistine with a bold front [...] A little while ago it was a very difficult matter tor an artist to find a house.

The doctors took and held their own end of Collins street, and the artist had to be content with any hole or any corner where he could set up his easel and fix his modest plate to a back door.

A hundred people had gathered by that time, and were ranging over the building, somewhat amazed, a few of them, to find an artist nearly as comfortably disposed as a bank manager, with all his wants anticipated and supplied.

The high south windows, which all day long flood the easel and the sitter's throne with light, darkened now, and only the gaslight showing the pictures on the walls.

In the studio were three examples of Mr. Roberts's art— a forest scene, in which a workman is employed in clearing away gum-tree stumps; a 'bit' of Sydney harbour, which, though well painted, gives one very little idea of the beauty of the place; and a study of a girl's head.

[29] Roberts also conducted a series of conversaziones like those in which he joined at the Buonarotti Club until 1887, inviting other artists to bring their newest French and other art journals for coffee, song and discussion "in true Bohemian style.

[4] The building was auctioned on November 18, 1970,[61] though artists continued to rent studios there until the mid-1970s, before a plan for an office tower replacing 5-9 Collins Street was proposed.

The National Trust, which regarded the historic Treasury precinct as key parts of Melbourne's Victorian architecture, protested along with Dr. Virginia Spate and other stakeholders.

[62] Singaporean developer Jack Chia purchased the site in March 1980 for about A$2 million,[62] or A$215 per square metre,[63] and proposed a compromise development retaining Campbell House and a 9m (or one room) depth of the terraces at 5-9 Collins Street including Grosvenor Chambers at 9 Collins in which the studios in the front, and their skylit saw-tooth roof were preserved, with a tower rising behind.

It was approved 'in principle' by the National Trust,[64] and the State Government, to assist and encourage the preservation waived land tax for ten years,[65] saving the Chia Group A$100,000 p.a.

[62] In 1979 and 1980 partner in the development Robert Peck worked with the National Trust to reach agreement on preserving and incorporating into the new structure elements of the existing buildings they saw as significant.