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Sutton Pty Ltd, later Darrod's ladies department store, also part Albion Café, 288-292 Bourke Street, Melbourne

Butler, Graeme1985

Record details

Title:

Creator:

Butler, Graeme (Name details)

Date of work:

1985

Reference number:

BIF-CITY 101196 1

Level of description:

Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)

Type of materials:

Graphic materialsTextual material

Part of:

Series: Central City (BIF-CITY)

Access restrictions:

UnrestrictedOpen access.

Use restrictions:

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

General notes:

Period: EdwardianConstruction date: 1902Notable features: 1. Adjoining main competition Wertheim's (both built 1902). 2. Relates to similar period buildings 282-286 Bourke Street. 3. Notable statuettes, parapets and façade..ASSOCIATED RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER:.GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYStatement of SignificanceHistorySutton brothers, Henry and Alfred, conducted their musical instrument and bicycle importing business at this site from its construction in 1895. Also at 290-292 Bourke Street were the Vanderwyde photographic studio, Johnson & Simonsen manufacturing jewellers and the 14 room Albion Hotel. Wertheim, also a musical instrument (and sewing machine) importer, established their business next door (294-6) in 1902-3, in a building designed by Nahum Barnet.At first owned by H. J. Condell's estate, the property passed to Vallange & Vallange by c1905 and finally to Suttons Pty. Ltd., prior to the possible renovation of this building in c1912-13. After this, the Albion Cafe resided in a basement, listed as 290a Bourke Street.Around 1911, Sutton's Rooms was a feature of the business where private music tutors, such as Miss Hortense Fyfe, Signor Manzoni and Miss Mellon, instructed the populace on matters musical. A similar concept was embodied in Sutton's Music Hall, in the 1920-30s, which had by then replaced the Albion Cafe in the basement. In 1920, the two shops (290 and 292) were amalgamated and new shop fronts and mezzanines incorporated in a new Sutton image.However, by the Second War, Darrod's ladies department store had displaced Suttons, along with the expansion of Buckley & Nunn and Myer, in a general purge of all music from Bourke Street. Darrod's occupied 284-88 (Roughton's Buildings) and 290-292, commencing the uneasy unification which now exists there. Darrod's was the second longest running occupier of 290-292, installing the first cantilever verandah there in 1958 (in a traditionally verandahless, south-facing environment), but the present image is based on extensive ground-level renovation work done in 1977 for Katies, since modified seven years later. Meanwhile, Sutton's had moved in 1938 to a new music centre in Elizabeth Street and were taken over in 1963 by Brash's, trading as Brash-Sutton'sSutton's history, like the adjacent Buckley & Nunn Stores, started in the gold fields during the 1850s. RichardSutton opened his business in Ballarat during 1853, commencing the firm R.H. Sutton & Co. in 1872, four years before his death. His sons and widow continued, expanding into new Sturt Street (still surviving ?) premises and beyond to the provincial cities, Bendigo in 1892 and Geelong in 1893. Two of the brothers (Alfred and Walter) also commenced in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne (State Bank site) in 1884, on the fringe of Melbourne's Bourke Street entertainment centre. They became first Sutton Brothers and then Sutton's, Pty. Ltd. in 1894, (four brothers), expanding with each acquisition of an overseas agency.Once at 290-292 Bourke Street, they ventured into manufacturing with the Concord piano works at Fitzroy, in 1919. Their next step, in 1922, was to Sydney, at first wholesale and then retail. They acquired the Decca gramophone label agency in 1924 and by 1927 had become a limited liability company, with Alfred as chairman of directors. Their move to Elizabeth Street in 1938 still kept them on Melbourne's magical but fading theatre block, at a half-way point between the remaining Bourke Street theatres and the other music centre, grouped around Allen's (a site they had occupied since the 1880s) and close to Brash's Elizabeth Street site of the 1880s onwards.DescriptionThe design shows the result of the commercialisation of English Gothic, which is here typically overlaid withMedieval inspired plant ornamentation, achieved in pressed cement at the spandrel and gable panels. Huge glass areas offset the ecclesiastical mode, but address the dim southern orientation practically. Because of this glazed area, the tall pointed arch seems to be barely supported on the slim foliated columns below, particularly given the rich embellishment of the gabled parapet and flanking pilasters.Of questionable musical meaning, are the two demons which plunge their broad spears down each of the gables' pier-supports.External IntegrityThe 1977 renovations and Darrod's initial unification of 284-88 and 290-292 have ignored all upper-level characteristics in their pre-occupation with the ground-level selling point and consequently created (fortunately removable) visual havoc to the two buildings.StreetscapeRelates visually to 298-312, 274-278 Bourke Street, by the relative complexity of period detail, scale and finish to the adjacent Modern blandness and, specifically, in style to the Gothic inspired 280-282 Bourke Street, the balance being classically derived. Even the neo-Gothic of Myer has some relationship to Suttons.SignificanceAn altered (part) but effective application of the Gothic revival for commercial purposes, possessing distinctivedetailing and statuary and is identified with the period when this part of Bourke Street was Melbourne's musical mecca and, in particular, with the Sutton brothers' business..FURTHER REFERENCES.NIGEL LEWIS DECEMBER 1976, HISTORIC AND ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY OF THE CENTRAL CITY OF MELBOURNE BOURKE STREET, EAST AREA 8 OF THE SURVEY COMMISSIONED BY THE HISTORIC BUILDINGS PRESERVATION COUNCIL: 9, 33DARRODS M22, L41284-292 Bourke Street This building was erected in 1902 for Suttons as a musical instrument store and teaching rooms. The upper floors, which remain intact, have very fanciful decoration. The central section is emphasised by a single lancet arch of gothic origins which is surmounted by a dwarf arcade supported on abbreviated Corinthian columns. This in turn supports a Jacobean gable and featuring decorative infill panels with an exotic final capping the apex. Two demon figures flank the gable. This heavy composition is supported at second floor level on two thin attached columns and appears suspended over the large window openings, which are as shown in the 1914 photograph 1 ...RECOMMENDATION: These two highly individual buildings should be protected under the proposed planning controls as essential elements in the Bourke Street Environmental Area.1. Real Property Annual, 1914, p. 59.

Names:

City of Melbourne

Topics:

Central Activities District Conservation Study 1985Conservation studiesFederation/Edwardian style1900-1909Retail tradeParapets

Places:

Melbourne (Vic.)

Form/Genre:

Building Identification Forms (BIFs)

Record types:

Research and reports

Record number:

1189377