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Levy and Robertson's stores, 129-131 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Butler, Graeme1985

Record details

Title:

Creator:

Butler, Graeme (Name details)

Date of work:

1985

Reference number:

BIF-CITY 103927

Level of description:

Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)

Type of materials:

Graphic materialsTextual material

Part of:

Series: Central City (BIF-CITY)

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UnrestrictedOpen access.

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UnrestrictedPlease contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images.

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RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2021:Period: Early VictorianDATE: 1856-7;ASSOCIATIONS: Levy and Robertson;DESIGNER: Matthews, J.F.;BUILDER: Nathan, JamesIMAGE: https://flic.kr/p/2mf5cT8.VICTORIA HERITAGE REGISTER H0428What is significant?The warehouse at 129-131 Flinders Lane is a three storey bluestone building built for Levy and Robertson in 1857. The basement has oregon timber columns and beams. Externally the ground floor is heavily rusticated in a variety of finishes and is punctured with one semi-elliptical and two semi-circular arch openings. The central opening was the original entrance. The stuccoed upper storey is more austere, comprising of three windows with light architrave mouldings and slightly heavier hoods. Quoins and a cornice and parapet complete the main facade. The contractors were Nation and Company and the building was possibly designed by Robertson and Hale. Levy and Robertson (later Levy Brothers and Company) were established in the 1850s and became a large importing and wholesale business. Levy and Robertson moved to larger premises in the late 1860s and since that time the building has had a number of tenants. The rear, southern part of the building is a later addition.How is it significant?The warehouse at 129-131 Flinders Lane is of historical and architectural significance to the State of Victoria.Why is it significant?The warehouse at 129-131 Flinders Lane is historically significant as one of the oldest warehouses in the Central Business District. It is particularly unusual as the oldest building of its type in the eastern part of the City.The warehouse at 129-131 Flinders Lane is architecturally significant as a fine example, for its proportioning and detail, of the Renaissance Revival style. The fine quality rusticated ground floor stonework contrasts to the relatively plain upper storey, and draws for inspiration on the architecture of High Renaissance palazzi.__________________________________________________.CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWsignificant to the Flinders Lane East PrecinctStatement of SignificanceHeritage Place: Flinders Lane East PrecinctWhat is significant?The Flinders Lane East Precinct comprising 31-149 Flinders Lane, 11-15 Duckboard Place, 130-148 Flinders Street, 10-30 Oliver Lane, ACDC Lane, Duckboard Place, Higson Lane, Oliver Lane, Sargood Lane, Spark Lane and including the rear of 24-30 Russell Street.Elements that contribute to the significance of the precinct include (but are not limited to):• The commercial and warehouse buildings constructed from c1857 to c1939, as shown on the precinct map.• The pattern of development in the precinct which comprises mixed streetscapes of Victorian, Federation and interwar commercial and warehouse buildings, and the key features and original detailing characteristic of their respective styles.• The high quality commercial and warehouse frontages and some side aspects to Flinders Lane, Exhibition Street and Russell Street.• The industrial streetscapes throughout the fine grain network of laneways intersecting with Flinders Lane, with rear and side aspects and some frontages to ACDC Lane, Duckboard Place, and Higson, Oliver, Malthouse, Sargood and Spark lanes.The buildings at 31-35, 37-45, 57-59, 91-93, 95-101, 103-105, 107-109, 121-123, 133-135 Flinders Lane, and 138-148 Flinders Street are contributory. The laneway rear aspect of 24-30 Russell Street fronting Oliver Lane is also contributory.The buildings at 61-73, 75-77, 87-89, 125-127, 129-131, 137-139, 141-143, 145-149 Flinders Lane, 130-132, 134-136 and 142-148 Flinders Street, 11-15 Duckboard Place, and 10-20 and 22-30 Oliver Lane are significant. The VHR-listed Duke of Wellington Hotel at part of 142-148 Flinders Street is also significant.Non-original alterations and additions to the contributory buildings are not significant.The buildings at 55 Flinders Lane (32 Flinders Street), 114-128 Flinders Street, and 14-22 Russell Street are non-contributory to the precinct.How it is significant?The Flinders Lane East Precinct is of local historic, representative and aesthetic significance to the City of Melbourne.Why it is significant?The Flinders Lane East Precinct is historically significant for its association with manufacturing and warehousing principally for the clothing and textile businesses, colloquially referred to as the ‘rag trade’, between the 1850s and the 1930s. Far from dealing in rags, Flinders Lane was the hub of a fashion industry with its many small niche businesses that provided specialist finishing services to the clothing manufacturers. The area provided employment in clothing manufacture, and many employees were women. Flinders Lane was the epicentre of the textile and clothing industry and benefited from the Commonwealth tariffs that resulted in further construction of factories and warehouses throughout the 1920s and 30s. Historically, the Flinders Lane East Precinct was the home of several other industries including Melbourne City Council’s Corporation Yard (11-15 Duckboard Place) and 91-93 Flinders Lane, coach and carriage builders Samwells and Reeves at 103 Flinders Lane and box manufacturers Morris and Walker at 31-35 Flinders Lane. (Criterion A)The Flinders Street East precinct is significant for its low-rise built form and street pattern that represents the pre-modern city. The attributes of the precinct include the laneway network that provides additional street frontages for some buildings, and an almost continuous streetscape of up to six storeys in height on Flinders Lane. The precinct demonstrates a great variety of architectural expression developed over approximately 80 years and representing many styles. Several buildings of the Romanesque revival style including nos.31-35, 87-89, 125-127, and 145-149 Flinders Lane are notable. Interwar buildings in the stripped classical style of Pawson House (no.141) or the Gothic revival of the former Bank of New South Wales at no.137-139 are also notable examples. (Criterion D)The Flinders Lane East Precinct is aesthetically significant for its views down Oliver, Malthouse and Higsons Lanes. It is also aesthetically significant for its nearly complete streetscape of small lot buildings up to six storeys in height and built to the property boundaries. The slope to the Yarra River allows some buildings to have basements or additional lower storeys. The open-ended Oliver Lane is aesthetically significant for its views to Flinders Street and beyond to the south, and of 42 Russell Street to the north. ACDC Lane, Higson Lane and Duckboard Place are significant for their enclosed and intimate scale enhanced by the red brick walls. The views along these lanes are significant for the aspects they reveal of the side of nos. 87-89, 91-93, 103-105, 107-109, 125-127, 129-131, 137-139 and 141-143 Flinders Lane.The streetscape is highly varied but includes many buildings of individual architectural importance and high aesthetic value. The three buildings fronting Flinders Street (nos.130-132, 134-136 and 138-140) are of a similar scale and proportion to those in Flinders Lane. (Criterion E)The attributes of the Flinders Lane Precinct include:• VHR listed places at 129-131 Flinders Lane and 142-148 Flinders Street, reinforced concrete warehouses at 10-20 & 22-30 Oliver Lane associated with Sir John Monash and the early use of reinforced concrete as a construction material. The Oliver Lane warehouses are of technical and associative significance.• Significant places with existing HOs at 61-73, 75-77, 125-127, 129-131, 141-143 and 145-149 Flinders Lane and 130-132 Flinders Street.• Places assessed to be significant as part of the Hoddle Grid Heritage Review, 87-89 and 137-139 Flinders Lane, 134-136 Flinders Street and 11-15 Duckboard Place.• All other contributory places noted in the precinct category schedule.• The building height and scale of the precinct up to six storeys, some places with several additional storeys added but not compromising this scale.• The intimate scale and character of Duckboard Place, ACDC Lane, Higson Lane, Spark and Sargood Lanes and the way in which they provide side views of significant and contributory places.• The open-ended Oliver Lane with views to the north and south to the river.Primary sourceHoddle Grid Heritage Review (Context & GJM Heritage, 2020).GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites source 78,p4;.MURPHY ARCHITECTS, JOHN AND PHYLLIS 1976. HISTORIC BUILDINGS STUDY OF PART OF THE C.B.D. MELBOURNE : { AREA 1} WITH MURPHY, JOCK, FOR HISTORIC BUILDINGS PRESERVATION COUNCIL: 7.54131 Flinders LaneConstruction Date : 1858This small, handsome stone warehouse stands on the south-west corner of Higson and Flinders Lanes. It is a National Trust Classified building and it has a quality of elegance which sometimes exists in a well-proportioned, straightforward and unpretentious building. The bold rustication on the ground floor is an interesting contrast to the rendered floor above.It replaced an iron store and stone cellar which existed on the site in 1857. 1 It would be reasonable to assume that the original cellar may have been incorporated into the newer building. It was at first occupied by Levy Robinson & Co. and in 1860 by Levy Bros. 2 This old established firm, which began in the fifties,3 had a large importing and wholesale business operating from several different addresses in the city as expansion of the business made it necessary to obtain extra accommodation. 4 In 1869, Michael Nolan occupied the building and in 1870 Alexander Thompson; both were clothing manufacturers. In 1877, it housed Stone & Robottom's brush factory and in 1890 it was a store for Wm. Dean & Co., the wholesale oil, varnish and colour merchants. 5 It appears to have been used mainly as a clothing warehouse this century and it has remained remarkably intact.1. M.C.C. Rate Books, Latrobe Ward No. 224, 1858.2. Sands & McDougall's Directory of Victoria, 1860.3. Sutherland, A., (ed), Victoria and Its Metropolis, Vol 11, P 567.4. The Australian Storekeepers' Journal, July 31, 1908, P57~5. Sands &McDougall's Directories of Victoria, 1869-1877..NATIONAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA (VIC)A notable example of boldly rusticated bluestone at ground level, with one semi-elliptical and two semi-circular arches nicely juxtaposed with an austere stuccoed upper storey.Classified: 'Regional' 05/06/1958Revised: 03/08/1998.HERITAGE BRANCH, MINISTRY FOR PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT 1987 CITY OF MELBOURNE CENTRAL CITY NOTABLE BUILDINGS CITATIONSThis two-storey warehouse was built for Levy & Robertson, importers and wholesalers, in 1857; they occupied it until the late 1860s. Its facade is composed of rusticated stone on the ground floor with a large centre arch and render on the first floor and is well proportioned and detailed in a conservative classical style. It is one of the oldest and finest warehouses in the City..VICTORIA HERITAGE REGISTERHistory of Place:The 1857 warehouse replaced an earlier iron and stone cellar which may have survived to be incorporated into the new building. It was first occupied by Levy Robinson and Co. and then in 1860 by Levy Bros. This was a large import and export business begun in the 1850s and which operated from several addresses in the city . In 1869 the occupier was Michael Nolan, and in 1870 Alexander Thompson, both clothing manufacturers. In 1877 it became Stone and Robottom's brush factory. In the 1870s it was owned by George Douglas, operator of a local brass foundry. He let it as a store to Wm. Dean and Co, wholesale oil, varnish and colour merchants. In the twentieth century its main use seems to have been as a clothing warehouseHistoric Building No. 428, Bluestone Warehouse No. 129-131 Flinders Lane, Melbourne (to the extent of the total building carcass excluding the interior).[Victoria Government Gazette No. 10 - February 8, 1978 p.333].LEWIS, M- AUSTRALIAN ARCHITECTURE INDEXRecord No. 44974 J.F. Matthews or Matthews, John Felix: Tenders wanted - erection of a store in Flinders Lane East for Levy and Robinson. Argus 27.9.1856 p 7Record No. 76051 Levy & Robinson Melbourne VIC Warehouses Nathan, James - 121 Flinders Lane east 1856 12 22 892 Flinders Lane - near Russell, MCC registration no 892 [Burchett Index]. Fee 2.0.0 store.VICTORIAN HERITAGE INVENTORYH7822-19314th land sale 1839, Block 7, Allotment 2, Thomas Gone. Iron store with stone cellar on this site 1857. Replaced 1858 by current stone warehouse. Original cellar probably incorporated into new building, 2 storeys bluestone & brick. First occupants, Levy Robinson & Co., Levy Bros. This form commenced in 1850s, importing & wholesale business. 1866 - building shown on site.1877 - 3 storey building, iron shed, store; Rowbottom Brush Factory.1888 - same building; Painter & Fancy Brush Manufacturer.1905 - same; Higson & Son, Saddler..REGISTER OF THE NATIONAL ESTATE:Building Citation, 131 Flinders Lane:The former warehouse, 131 Flinders Lane, was erected for Levy and Robertson in 1857. The contractors were Nation And Co. And the building was possibly designed by Robertson and Hale. The two storey façade is composed of rusticated stone on the ground floor and rendered on the first floor. Levy and Robertson moved to larger premises in the late 1860s and since that time the building has had a number of tenants. This is one of the oldest and finest warehouses in the C B D and the oldest building of its type in this part of the city. The façade is a fine example of the conservative classical style. It is well proportioned and detailed. The fine quality rusticated ground floor stonework with the large centre arch is a distinctive feature. Levy and Robertson, later Levy Bros. and Co. who initially constructed the building, were established in the 1850s and became a large importing and wholesale business. The building is remarkable intact, the front façade has however been painted, and some painted signs remain on the side façade. Some of the mouldings require restoration.Of state significance.'

Names:

City of Melbourne

Topics:

Central Activities District Conservation Study 1985Conservation studiesEarly-mid Victorian period (1851-1875)WarehousesOfficesBluestone1850-1859

Places:

Melbourne (Vic.)

Form/Genre:

Building Identification Forms (BIFs)

Record types:

Research and reports

Record number:

1208400