Located between William and Queen street, the original Temple Court formed an arcade from Collins Street to Little Collins Street, and was was named after one of London's Inns of Court. The original three story building was built in 1859, and was the original centre for barristers in 19th century Melbourne. It was also home to stockbrokers, shipping agents, estate agents, and surveyors among other professionals.

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The original building was demolished in 1923, and the current Temple Court building was constructed in 1924 as an office building in the Palazzo style. It was designed by architects Grainger, Little, Barlow and Hawkins and is built to the maximum height limit of that time of 132 feet (40 metres). 

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It is a massive stretched palazzo constructed of reinforced concrete and featuring 4 distinctive sections. It comprises a modern take on the piano nobile as a base, a stretched facade featuring projecting faceted bays of a highly contrasting material, a balcony separating 2 stories of early corbusian windows crowned by a series of twin columned giant orders and giant arched windows. The entire composition is framed and accentuated by modest treatment of the building flanks. An overall classically powerful building.

It is a substantial and impressively detailed example of the classical revival in modern architecture in Melbourne in the 1920s.

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Over the years, Temple Court has housed a number of commercial tenants before its current incarnation as a 12 floor apartment block in 2001.