Nahum Barnet (16 August 1855 – 1 September 1931) was an architect working in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, during the Victorian and Edwardian periods, best known for his extensive legacy of commercial buildings in Melbourne's CBD, as well as his last design, the Melbourne Synagogue.

Barnet was born in the Melbourne Hospital on Swanston Street, the son of newly arrived Isaac Barnet, a Polish-born pawnbroker, tobacconist, and later a noted jeweller. Isaac was an active member of Melbourne's Jewish community throughout his life, as well as civic affairs, becoming a Councillor in the City of Collingwood in 1879.

Nahum Barnet began practicing as an architect in 1879, and was an early advocate of red brick and terracotta, then gaining popularity in England, rather than the ubiquitous stucco or stone. By the late 1880s he had produced some major works, including Rosaville, an unusual and highly elaborate two storey terrace in Carlton, the Renaissance Revival style Her Majesty's Theatre (1886), as well as the Moss White & Co Tobacco Warehouse (1888) and the Austral Building (1891) in Collins Street, amongst the first to introduce the red brick Queen Anne style to the city's streetscapes.

Barnet was active in Jewish life like his father; in 1882 he was elected secretary of the Anglo-Jewish Association, and was honorary architect to the Jewish Philanthropic Society, doing work at the Jewish almshouses (later the Montefiore homes). He was to develop an extensive Jewish clientele, designing many houses and a number of tobacco warehouses and factories, and his first major commission, Rosaville in Carlton, was for Abraham Harris, a prominent member of the Jewish Community. in St Kilda Road, an early block of flats (demolished), the Edwardian Baroque of the Empire Arcade and Wertheims, and stylised Gothic of Francis & Co. His last work was the Baroque Revival Melbourne Synagogue (1929) in South Yarra.

The claim that there "was not a street in the Melbourne central business district where a Barnet building could not be found" was coined by his friend Isaac Selby and reiterated in Barnet's obituary in The Argus in 1931. The obituary relates that when challenged with the street "Carpentaria Place" (a short street opposite the Windsor Hotel, now pedestrianised), the reply was "You are wrong. You have overlooked the cabman's shelter." Barnet had designed this in 1898, and it still exists, though relocated to Yarra Park along Brunton Avenue some time in the interwar years.

In 1885 Barnet married Ada Rose Marks in the Great Synagogue, Sydney; they had four daughters and from the mid-1890s lived next door to his parents in Alma Road St Kilda. He died at home in St Kilda on 1 September 1931.

  • 1886 Her Majesty's Theatre, 199-227 Exhibition Street, Melbourne
  • 1887 Working Men's College (1st stage), 124 La Trobe Street, Melbourne (with Terry & Oakden)
  • 1888 Fergus & Mitchell Warehouse (later Robur Tea), 28 Clarendon Street, Southbank (with engineer John Granger)
  • 1888 Moss White & Co Tobacco Warehouse (later Gill Memorial Home), 217-219 A'Beckett Street, Melbourne
  • 1889 Liverpool (large house), 36 Princes Street, St Kilda
  • 1891 Austral Building, 115-119 Collins Street, Melbourne
  • 1891 Voltaire & Racine, a three storey terrace pair, 73-75 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda (demolished)
  • 1892 Rosenthal Aronson & Co (later Slatters), 275-277 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
  • 1900 Bernard's Swiss Portrait Studio, 323-5 Bourke Street Melbourne (demolished 1923)
  • 1902 Melbourne Sports Depot, 55-57 Elizabeth Street (2 floors added in 1925)
  • 1902 Clauscen's Furnishing Arcade (later Love & Lewis), 194-196 Bourke Street Melbourne (demolished 1970s)
  • 1903 Alcock & Co, 155-157 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne (demolished 1930s)
  • 1904 Altson's Corner, ne corner of Collins and Elizabeth Streets, Melbourne
  • 1905 Paton Building, 115-117 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
  • 1905 Empire Arcade, 290 Flinders Street, Melbourne
  • 1905 Dr Barrett's Chambers, 103 Collins Street Melbourne (demolished 1988)
  • 1909 Barnet Glass Rubber Co., 289-299 Swanston Street, Melbourne (later doubled in width and a floor added, and details removed, now Legacy House)
  • 1912 Majestic Theatre, 172 Flinders Street Melbourne (with Klingender & Alsop, demolished 1980s)
  • 1913 Young Women's Christian Association, Russell Street, Melbourne (demolished 1970s)
  • 1914 Roughton & Co, 284-288 Bourke Street, Melbourne
  • 1914 Elizabeth House, nw corner Elizabeth & Little Collins Streets, Melbourne (with Grainger & Little architects, demolished 1930s)
  • 1916 Florida Mansions, 601 St Kilda Road, Melbourne (demolished 1982)
  • 1919 Cann's Department Store, 135-137 Swanston Street, corner Little Collins Streets. Four floors added 1935.
  • 1925 Lancashire House (for J. & B. Sniders), 36-50 Flinders Lane, Melbourne (demolished 1970s)