Wool Exchange, later Winfield Building, 487-495 Collins Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Title:
Wool Exchange, later Winfield Building, 487-495 Collins Street, Melbourne
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Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 102103
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Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)
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Graphic materialsTextual material
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Series: Central City (BIF-CITY)
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UnrestrictedOpen access.
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Period: VictorianConstruction date: 1891-2.ASSOCIATED RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER:.VICTORIA HERITAGE REGISTER H0040What is significant?The Winfield Building, formerly the Wool Exchange building, 487-495 Collins Street, was erected in 1891. It became known as the Winfield Building from the mid 1920s. The architects were Charles D'Ebro and Richard Speight jnr. It is believed to have been built for J R Murphy, owner of Murphy's brewery. Part of the financing for the building came from the architect and his father, Richard Speight Snr, a commissioner of the Victorian Railways. From 1892 to 1894 the building was Melbourne's first amalgamated wool exchange and incorporated an auction hall which brought together all the Melbourne wool sales. Other tenants in the rear stores included the Melbourne Chilled Butter Company and Melbourne Cool Storage Co. The front section to Collins Street is all that remains of the original, much larger complex. The rear of the Winfield Building was replaced by a fourteen storey extension in 1984, part of the redevelopment of the site as a hotel. The four storey building with a facade to Collins Street was built as two ground level shops with offices overhead. It is constructed of brick on a bluestone plinth and cement render mouldings. It is in the English Queen Anne style, reflecting the architectural influence of Richard Norman Shaw in England. The corner treatment echoes the adjacent Rialto building, being splayed and crowned by a conical turret. Characteristic of the Queen Anne style is the steep pediment at roof level, reminiscent of Flemish gables and penetrated by windows. Also contributing to the style is the banded cement contrasting to the face red brickwork and the wide variety of window treatments. The dormer windows and decorative iron ridgework add further interest to the variegated and picturesque roofline.How is it significant?The Winfield Building is of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria.Why is it significant?The Winfield Building is architecturally significant as one of the best examples of the Queen Anne style in Victoria. In contrast to the Gothic and classical modes, the Queen Anne style was employed only sparingly for Victoria's commercial buildings in the 1890s. However, the style was well suited to the flamboyant and confident designs favoured by commercial developers during the so-called `boom period'. It is one of architect Charles D'Ebro's finest buildings.The Winfield Building is architecturally significant for its unique spatial relationship to the adjacent Rialto building, with which it formed a narrow laneway. Together they form an integral part of the exceptional block of late Victorian ?boom? period buildings in Collins Street.The Winfield Building is historically significant as the location of the amalgamated Wool Exchange. The wool industry and its stores was a dominant force in the west part of the city and the Winfield Building became a focal point for the industry from the early 1890s.The Winfield Building is historically significant as a demonstration of the building boom in Melbourne during the early 1890s, shortly before the economic depression halted building for most of the decade. The design demonstrates the new approach to office accommodation, being specifically planned for a range of commercial tenants and with shops to the ground floor of the street façade..PERROTT, LYON, TIMLOCK AND KESA 1976, C.B.D. STUDY, CITY OF MELBOURNE CONSERVATION STUDY AREA TWO:p61-1.09 WOOL EXCHANGE BUILDING487-495 COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNEBUILT: 1891ARCHITECT: RICHARD SPEIGHT, JNR.BUILDER:NOTE: RENAMED c.1926: "THE WINDFIELD BUILDING"THE WOOL EXCHANGE BUILDINGThe Building, Engineering and Mining Jnl, December 1891, published a photograph of the Rialto Building, by then complete, showing also the Wool Exchange Building, substantially complete with scaffold still up around the base of the building. Melbourne City Council Rate Book for year ending 1892, describes the new building as consisting of 2 shops and offices over, with two brick stores, each of three levels, at the rear. The owner was credited as the late J.R. Murphy, former brewer and Melbourne Town Councillor. 1 Murphy had owned the land for a long period before this time; the land and stone stores erected thereon being an extension of Murphy’s Brewery established near the south-east corner of the block in the early 1840s. 2The financiers of the building's erection were T.P. Fallon, in partnership with its Architect Richard Speight.3 Speight's father, also Richard, was a Commissioner for the Victorian Railways and was the major financial backer for his son's interest. 4Fallon, a rich and prominent man, Consul for Chile and Colombia, committed suicide in January of 1892. The building had not been let and his Bank was foreclosing. 5The newly formed Melbourne Woolbrokers Association advertised for a building or hall which could serve as a Central Auction Room, able to seat 250 people and be ready for occupation by October 1st, 1892. This "Room" was to replace what had been fragmented wool auctions by the various woolbrokers as a general resolve to amalgamate all wool sales and wool sellers.Many buildings and halls were offered for consideration, including Speight's Exchange Hall, in dimension 95 feet by 57 feet, at £2,000/year. In June, 1892, a meeting of the Association at their offices in the Olderfleet Building, resolved to accept Speight's revised offer, which included roofing over about half of the 'Exchange Hall' to form an area suitable for a Sales Room, to be constructed to the details of Architects, Lloyd Taylor and Fitts.6By August Richard Speight, Jnr. had completed the arrangements for the alterations, seating provision and general fitting-out to be carried out by W. Massey at a cost of £, 920. Name plates were provided on the seating allocated to each buying group and the first Melbourne Wool Exchange Sale Room was open for October 1st, 1892.Other tenants occupying the second of the 2 stores at the rear for those years, were the Melbourne Chilled Butter Company and the Melbourne Cool Storage Co.: cool rooms being provided in the lower basement. Turnbull and Hobson, brokers; occupied the first store for many years, 1893 onwards. 7 By August 1894, the Association decided to opt for more competitive rental, resulting in the transference of the Exchange Room to a room offered by Mr. McCaughan, in the Rialto Building, the seating from the old Exchange being relocated in the Rialto, with extensive alterations also being carried out by the building's owner to equip the new Exchange.The Age, December 1st, 1899, however, describes a wool sale, noted as being held, in a sumptuously appointed hall, high in the Olderfleet Building. The Association, whose offices had always been in the Olderfleet, had expended a sum of money (£134) on renovation of the "Wool Exchange" in 1898. When the Association moved into its own building, the “Wool Exchange" King Street, early in 1915, it allowed for removal of the seating from the old Sale Room at the Rialto. 8The new Wool Exchange obtained the postal address, as such, in 1917, consequently the Wool Exchange Building, Collins Street, became known as the "Old Wool' Exchange". In 1926 its postal address became "The Winfield Building".9NOTES:1. Chronicles of Old Melbourne, Garryowen.2. M.M.B.W. Survey Map, 1853.3: The Land Boomers. p.'17. Cannon. (Refer to Sands and McDougalls Melbourne Directory, 1894). NOTE: Speight joined Henry Tomkins, Architect, 1895.4. The Leader. Sep. 1901. p.33. also Melbourne Woolbrokers Association (M.W.A.) Minute Book, 1890-1894.5. ·Cannon. p. 17.6. General Reference to M.W.A. Minute Book, 1890-1894.7. M.C.C. Ratebooks, 1893, 1894, etc.8. M.W.A. Minute Book9. Sands and McDougalls Melbourne and Victorian Directories..EXISTING BUILDINGThe "Exchange Room" is located off the ground floor landing, Room 34. The Balcony-Mezzanine, as added in 1892 for the Association, is still there but the balcony and its cast iron panels have been removed. The Mezzanine is supported off cast iron brackets from circular cast iron columns. The interior is lit from roof lights spanning across the room.NOTE: Further details of the existing interior will be ascertained when some sort of overall access can be gained to the building. Photos will follow when this is achieved.STREETSCAPE ASPECTThe Rialto and the Wool Exchange Building, together, create an internal streetscape which is both unique and architecturally significant. The use of cast iron panel work on the open balustrades to all levels, adds substantially to this effect.Demolition of anything but the rear 90 feet of the Wool Exchange Building, or any part of the Rialto Building would destroy this effect..2.12 Streetscape No. 2Includes -The Olderfleet Building 1891Record Chambers 1888New Zealand Insurance Co. Building 1888Winfield Building 1891The Rialto 1890-1The Adelaide Steamship Co. Building 1905-6Robbs Buildings 1885This streetscape must be the most popularly appreciated collection of buildings in Melbourne, particularly those buildings extending from the Rialto to the Olderfleet Building. This latter group of buildings represent the most intact and striking examples, collectively, of the late 'Boom Period' of 1880-90, in Melbourne. The styles vary from freely adapted Venetian Gothic, Elizabethan to the Classic but the unifying elements are their mutual scale and the richness of their decoration. These facades of buildings are on the State Register.The inclusion of the Steamship Buildings, Phosphate House and Robbs Buildings in the streetscape creates two other stylistic brackets of building; the early Boom and the post Boom, 'Company Headquarters' phase.a) The Steamship Building, in its unpainted form, had many similarities to its uphill neighbours; the use of brick as a decorative material and the accompaniment of stone and cement dressings, plus its scale and loose stylistic affiliations (the use of Elizabethan elements) make it an integral part of the streetscape.Another factor is that of the ground level treatment; care has been taken to align the first storey cornice with that of the Rialto, given that this meant a lofty business chamber inside. Subsequent storey cornices align with the Rialto's, as does the punctuation of window openings at each level. In short, the Architect (D'Ebro) took some pains to achieve a similarity to the Rialto, in general massing, if not a similarity in the decorative enrichment.b) Phosphate House, however, is not such an immediate inclusion in the streetscape; there is a similarity of scale but the Gothic verticality of the facade marks a complete change from the Classic storey divisions and 'horizontal emphasis of the other buildings. These vertical ribs terminate, at least, at a horizontal 'cornice' which has been designed to correspond with that of the Steamship Building.However, at ground level, the consequence of the building being purely a headquarters of the 1930's is seen immediately. There is no show window or Business Chambers and indeed the line of the building's podium is thus much lower than its neighbour. b) The building is thus not an integral part of the Streetscape but it does contribute just a little more than just by its scale;- some gesture has been made via architectural detail, as described above, plus the obverse factor, i.e._ the bland foil it gives to the rich detail beside it. It is a well designed building and, as such, does not offend in any way. c) Robbs Building completes the Boom Period collection. This massive classical facade is a very suitable corner building. In scale, it relates across Collins Street, to Aberdeen House and across King Street, to the former New Zealand Load Building (now Security House). Its decoration and parapet line correspond to its late Boom associates, up the hill; the gap presently in between them could be filled by a set-back tower building without destruction of the common parapet line.The presence of this building and those on three corners mentioned constitute an Environmental Area; albeit this area is busy King Street..GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDY.LEWIS, M- AUSTRALIAN ARCHITECTURE INDEXRecord 74641 D'Ebro & Speight, Speight & Fallon Melbourne VIC Office Buildings; Warehouses Cockram, T & Son - 8 O'Connell St Nth Melb 1891 03 6 4881-MCC registration no 4881 [Burchett Index]. Fee 16.10.0 offices - exchange - and stores Collins west.National Trust of Australia (Vic)The former Wool Exchange Building was erected in 1891. The then owner of the land was J.R. Murphy. T.P Fallen and R. Speight Jnr, financed the project. The architects were Charles D'Ebro and Richard Speight Jnr. From 1892-94 the building was Melbourne's first Wool Exchange and incorporated an auction hall which amalgamated all wool sales. The four storeyed building has exposed brick facades with rendered mouldings.The front section of offices to Collins Street is, however, all that remains of the original complex. This section is erected in the English Queen Anne style and reflects the architecture of R. Norman Shaw who epitomised the style in England. It is among the best examples of this style in Victoria. The special relationship with the adjoining Rialto building and their role in an exceptional block of boom period commercial buildings is of great significance.An important commercial building from the closing phase of the Boom and of stylistic interest in that Franco - Flemish Renaissance elements are combined with pier and arch elements suggestive of the brick Romanesque style then emerging in Melbourne.Adapted from AHC Citation.Group classification with: B0469 Olderfleet; B3057 Record Chambers; B3058 SA Insurance; B2894 Rialto; B3664 Adelaide Steamships.Group Classified: 25/10/1973Revised: 03/08/1998.HERITAGE BRANCH, MINISTRY FOR PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT 1987 CITY OF MELBOURNE CENTRAL CITY NOTABLE BUILDINGS CITATIONSThese two buildings have now been amalgamated as a hotel. The whole of the Rialto Building remains within the complex but only the front portion of the Winfield survives. The Winfield was constructed in 1891 as the Melbourne Wool Exchange and designed by Charles D'Ebro and Richard Speight. It is one of the finest examples of the English Queen Anne Revival in Victoria. The Rialto was built as offices and warehouses in 1890-91 for Patrick McCaughan. The architect was William Pitt. It is one of the finest boom style buildings in Melbourne and was the largest load-bearing brick structure of its day. The cobbled laneway and balconies over Winfield square create a unique urban space in the city..NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954)Thursday 6 October 1892 - Page 5https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/197174138THE NEW WOOL EXCHANGE.For a considerable time past it has been recognised in the wool trade that the facilities for the most important part of the business — buying and selling — were not thoroughly abreast of the requirements of that flourishing industry. The tri-weekly sales were conducted at the ware houses of the associated brokers, whose places of business are scattered over the city, so that time was lost and business to some extent, perhaps, impeded by the necessary journeyings of the buyers to the various selling rendezvous. The inconvenience of this system was so real that some months ago the brokers determined to provide one central place for their sales, and in consequence of this resolve the Wool Exchange was yester day thrown upon for the first time to an eager crowd of buyers. The Exchange is situated at the Rialto, 419 Collins-street, where on the first floor a handsome and spacious hall has been secured and fitted up. The Exchange has seating accommodation for 210 persons, and these seats have been planned so as to afford the auctioneer and his bidders the greatest opportunities of catching each other's eyes. Each row of seats is raised above the other in the same way that the seats in the dress circle of a theatre are arranged, the lowest row facing the selling rostrum, and the highest being at the back of the room. Owing to this simple but thoughtful arrangement the auctioneer is enabled to command the crowd of buyers with ease, and take note of each lightning like bid with unerring accuracy. The advantage of this arrangement was evidenced yesterday, when Captain Kent, who conducted the sales, was enabled to dispose of some thousands of bales of wool without the approach to a hitch or dispute. The hall is 62 feet long by 52 feet broad, and was planned and built by Mr. Richard Speight, jun. In all about £7000 was spent upon it. The Exchange is the property of the associated wool broking firms, and in future all sales will take place there. To give some idea of the extent and magnitude of the business that will therefore be transacted at the Exchange it may be mentioned that in 1848, when Mr. Richard Goldsbrough, the founder of the firm of Goldsbrough, Mort and Co., started business in Melbourne, the total export of wool from the city only amounted to 30,000 bales, whilst now the export has increased nearly sevenfold.See also https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/196890845
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| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 102103 | 1 PDF : 1572 KB ; A4 | Group of Items (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |