Meat Market, 36 Courtney Street, North Melbourne
Butler, Graeme15/01/1985
Archives
Total copies: 1
Title:
Meat Market, 36 Courtney Street, North Melbourne
Creator:
Date of work:
15/01/1985
Reference number:
BIF-NORTH 110862
Level of description:
Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)
Type of materials:
Graphic materialsTextual material
Part of:
Access restrictions:
UnrestrictedOpen access.
Use restrictions:
UnrestrictedPlease contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images.
General notes:
Grading as at 1985 : APeriod : Mid Victorian (1880, 1889)Grantee : D Campbell, H Creswick, S Donovan 1852___________________________GRAEME BUTLER 1983, CONSERVATION STUDY FOR THE CITY OF MELBOURNE OF NORTH AND WEST MELBOURNE.History - Following the establishment in 1842 of the Hay and Corn, Horse and Pig Markets in Sydney Road (Royal Parade) and the intention to provide a 'General Market" on Block 78A (revoked in 1878) near to other public reserves, this site was acquired privately as convenient place for the sale of wholesale meat. [Parish plans]Future Mayor of North Melbourne, a councillor for 12 years and a successful wholesale butcher, William Reynolds was the initiator of a company formed to build the market. After experiencing cramped conditions at the Melbourne Town Council Meat Market, on the site of the present Queen Victoria Market, and in the privately owned Victoria Meat Market, further north in Elizabeth Street, the Metropolitan Meat Market Co was founded in 1879. [Dr Blanchard "Notes prepared by Dr Blanchard for an early history walk of the area" p 47] [H Peck "Memoirs of a stockman" pps 62, 66]As chairman of directors of the Company, Reynolds saw the design by architect George R Johnson adopted for the new building, having already witnessed the success of the Hotham (North Melbourne) Town Hall by the same man. M Greenlaw was the builder and the foundation stone laid in February 1880. [H Peck “Memoirs of a Stockman”] Company directors included Thomas K Bennet, J Birtwistle, John Brundell, William Meader and John Ogden.Included in the premises was the Metropolitan Hotel of 30 rooms, whilst shops and a branch of the National Bank were opened further along Blackwood Street. S Johns & Co, W Reynolds & Sons, Joseph Birtwistle and Son, George Bygate, C Dudley, John Ogden, Mark Morris and A R & W Pridham were among those that sold at the market, whilst, to the west, the "Second Victorian Meat Market Co" and allied outlets were also sited along Courtney Street. [H Peck “Memoirs of a Stockman”]An illustration of 1880 shows the market complete to one bay past the arched entrance ion Blackwood Street, whilst the 1896 MMBW Record Plan shows the added originally one-storey 'cooling bay' to the north east (now two storey), which was added in 1889 to Johnson's design and leased to Mr Dunkerley. [1880 Panorama; Board of Works Record Plan 31] Further work was carried out in 1906-9 and 1918-22 by architects Gibbs and Finlay [Australian Heritage Council Citation] : the latter structure was an extra storey to the cooling bay at the south-east corner and the former extension of the hall to Tyrone Street and superficial renovation of the hotel (glazing).Description : A two-storey stuccoed brick and parapetted building with trabeation consisting of the giant Corinthian order overlaid on arched (upper) and flat headed (lower) fenestration. Two implied pedimented bays flank the south façade, turning the corner in an ungainly fashion, by means of a splayed corner: the Metropolitan Hotel and associated free standing parapet entablature, the shop, hall entrance and bank chamber, forming what was initially half a façade with the tall-arched entrance at its intended centre and gabled pediment at its end facing Blackwood Street. An arched parapet entablature reinforces this central entrance bay, showing the deep bracketted cornice of the rest of the façade to the south, whilst a smaller but similar, entrance arch also is placed off-centre on the Courtney Street façade. The balance of the Blackwood Street façade is a two and one storey continuation of the earlier section but it lacks a parapet cornice, entablature and the giant order trabeation.Internally, the segment arched market hall is the centre for open perimeter stalls, with hanging frames. Offices are at the Courtney Street end and a separate cool-store section runs down the north West side. The former shop, bank, hotel, and cooling chambers are separate from the hall.Each ceiling panel bay is board-lined with cast-iron foliation in the spandrels and soffits of the flanking arched trusses and circular vents are placed central to each bay. Side stalls are divided by capitalled timber columns with cast-iron brackets and further intermediate cast-iron bracketting supports hangers, which hold dividing rails in place. Stall holders' names are still lettered on a painted entablature, above the column line, whilst metal or stucco heads of a variety of beasts adorn walls and stalls. Arcading and associated arch-segments set in bas-relief on the walls provide further articulation of the wall surface. Of note is the vestibule of the hotel entrance.Integrity - Externally, the Blackwood Street facade was added to (1918-22) unsympathetically, fn detail, at the smith-ease end; windows have been altered on one side of the arched Blackwood Street entrance; signs have been painted and attached to the walls; the stonework on the plinth painted; and the main doors replaced with roller-shutters; arid the wheel window of the Blackwood Street entrance closed in.Internally, mouldings at entrances have been damaged and alterations in localised detail (offices) and paint finfish fn general; the hotel barInterior {s generally altered and glazing removed from the central lights.Streetscape - Atypical, In scale to original elements of the area and therefore dominates, but similar fn finish, detail and siting; relating tothe Comer hotel at 34 Courtney Street, the opposing corner..Significance : architecturally, internally and externally, the most pretentious and consequently the most decorated market building in Victoria; Johnson's typically Italian Renaissance derived decoration being a fore-runner of many later commercial façades and the internal elegantly arched clear-span being unusually long and better finished than any other equivalent building (market). Historically, as a former privately-owned market hall, a rarity amongst generally municipal-owned market buildings; and part of an initially localised group of produce and stock markets, linked by the Flemington Road to the other stock market at Newmarket (granted to the Melbourne Town Council in 1856): of State importance..References:(RB= Rate book; D= Melbourne or Victoria Directory)1. Parish Plans2. Dr. Blanchard No. 47; Peck. Memoirs of a Stockman . pps. 62,663. Ibid; Foundation Stone on building4. Ibid; D.18855. 1880 Panorama; MMBW Record Plan,316. AHC citation___________________________RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2024:.VICTORIA HERITAGE REGISTER H0042see https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/882.Statement of SignificanceLast Updated: 01/03/2000What is significant?The former Metropolitan Meat Market was built in 1880 to the design of the architect George Johnson. Later additions extended the main hall in 1908. The exterior is a two storey stuccoed brick building with facades to both Blackwood Street and Courtney Street. It sits on a rusticated basalt base and the main decorative system is of giant order Corinthian trabeation. The ground floor windows are flat headed with bracketed hoods, and the upper storey windows are round arched with vermiculated keystone decoration. A continuous bracketed and dentillated cornice runs along both facades and over the pair of pediments flanking the splayed corner. This section of the building comprised the original Metropolitan Hotel, shop, hall entrances and bank premises. The market hall measures about 34 metres by 82 metres and has a shallow barrel vault timber roof with a 16m span. The arches are of built-up timber springing from timber posts which divide the roof into bays the width of each market stall. The floor is paved with basalt pitchers. The bressumer at the junction of the hall ceiling and the top of each stall has decorative cast iron brackets. Cast iron heads of animals decorate the stalls.The basement cooling chambers were added in 1890 and 1908 to provide considerable cellarage space under the market hall. The 1908 cooling chambers and cellar space areas are constructed with load bearing brick walls, reinforced concrete columns and steel columns carrying a concrete slab ceiling, which forms the floor of the extended market hall above.How is it significant?The former Metropolitan Meat Market is of architectural, historical and scientific significance to the State of Victoria.Why is it significant?The former Metropolitan Meat Market is architecturally significant as the most ostentatious and decorated market building in Victoria. At the date of construction in 1880 the 16 metre clear span of hall was one of the largest timber roof spans in Victoria. The reinforced concrete in the 1908 basement extension is an early Victorian example.The former Metropolitan Meat Market is historically significant as an unusual example of a privately owned and operated market. The Victorian Meat Market Company had determined to separate themselves from council facilities and control and integrated other businesses into the complex including the Metropolitan Hotel , shops and a bank.The former Metropolitan Meat Market is technologically significant for the use of cool room technology. The additions in 1890 and 1921 took advantage of evolving technology to provide for cool air for the overnight storage of meat.
Related material link:
Topics:
Places:
Form/Genre:
Record types:
Images, maps and artefacts
Record number:
1348252
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 110862 | 1 PDF : 19812 KB ; A4 | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |