Royal Historical Society caretaker's lodge, 6 La Trobe Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Title:
Royal Historical Society caretaker's lodge, 6 La Trobe Street, Melbourne
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Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 110752
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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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UnrestrictedPlease contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images.
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RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2024:__________________________________________________DATE: 1869;ASSOCIATIONS: Royal Society Trustees;DESIGNER: Joseph Reed of Reed & Barnes; BUILDER: J Wood_________________________VICTORIA HERITAGE REGISTER H0373WORLD HERITAGE ENVIRONS AREA OF GREATER SENSITIVITYWhat is significant?The Royal Society of Victoria, located on a triangular site at the northern edge of the city opposite the Carlton Gardens. The main features are the two-storey Royal Society building, a caretaker's cottage and the Bureau of Meteorology instrument enclosure at the eastern corner of the site.History SummaryThe Royal Society of Victoria, first known as the Philosophical Institute, was established in 1855 by the amalgamation of the Philosophical Society of Victoria with the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science (both formed in 1854). The name was changed to the Royal Society of Victoria in 1859. Its aim was to encourage the growth of scientific knowledge, especially in areas related to the development of Australia's natural resources. A grant of land at the northern edge of the city was given in 1857 to construct a hall for meetings and a caretaker's cottage. Joseph Reed of the firm Reed & Barnes designed the buildings on an honorary basis, and in 1859 the contract for the building of the hall was awarded to Matthew Taylor for a price of £2750. The building then comprised only the three northern bays of the existing building, and the interior was one large open space. In 1869 Reed drew up plans to subdivide the interior to provide a double height meeting room, a council room and a secretary's room on the ground floor and a library and reading room above. The contract for the alterations was awarded to John Wood for £415. Wood also built the adjacent caretaker's cottage, which was completed in 1869 and extended in 1886. In 1880 the hall was again subdivided internally, to provide a supper room on the ground floor and a meeting room above, and the exterior was then rendered. Between 1953 and 1954 a two-storey addition was built along the south side of the building for the use of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. This added another two bays in the same style as the 1859 building, resulting in a building with a square plan form. Following the transfer of the responsibility for Victoria's meteorological activities to the Commonwealth in 1907, the Bureau of Meteorology (at that time known as the Meteorological Branch/Bureau. Commonwealth of Australia) leased the eastern end of the site from the Society for use as a weather station. Most of Melbourne's weather-recording instruments were installed in 1908 within an enclosure on the eastern corner of the site, and the station has continuously monitored the city's atmospheric and meteorological conditions to the present (January 2014). To mark the centenary of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1959, a small monument, designed by the architects Grounds Romberg and Boyd and incorporating a glacial boulder from Antarctica, was erected on the west side of the site to mark the special interest of the Society in Antarctic exploration and research.Description SummaryThe Royal Society building is a rendered brick two-storey Renaissance Revival style building with a solid parapet. It is divided into five bays along each side by Tuscan pilasters with arched windows between. The unusual rounded corners of the building are repeated at both the cornice and parapet levels. The 1859 building comprises the three northern bays and the 1953-54 addition comprises the two southern bays of the present structure. The library contains a collection of books and journals dating back to the establishment of the Society. The caretaker's cottage to the east of the hall is a single storey asymmetrically-planned brick building with a hipped slate-clad roof. There are various plantings of shrubs and trees around the perimeter of the main building and in the garden of the cottage. The surroundings are complemented by plantings of Lophostemon confertus (Queensland brush box), Melaleuca styphelioides and three old Schinus molle (Peppercorn). On the eastern corner of the site at the junction of Victoria and La Trobe Streets is the meteorological station, which is a grassed area enclosed by a high cyclone fence. It has on the west side a small wooden shed which dates from the establishment of the station, and located around the site are various recording instruments, all of which have been continually updated and replaced since 1908.This site is part of the traditional land of the Kulin Nation.How is it significant?The Royal Society of Victoria site is of historical and architectural significance to the State of Victoria. It satisfies the following criteria for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register:Criterion A Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria's cultural historyCriterion D Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural placesCriterion H Special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Victoria's history.Why is it significant?The Royal Society of Victoria site is significant at the State level for the following reasons:The Royal Society of Victoria is historically significant as the oldest scientific and philosophical society in Victoria. The Royal Society provided the main forum in Victoria in the nineteenth century for the exchange of intellectual and scientific knowledge, and its members were among the colony's most prominent intellectuals. The Society organised and supported early exploration, including the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition in 1860, and their bodies lay in state in the hall in 1863. The Royal Society buildings are among the oldest surviving buildings in the City of Melbourne. The Bureau of Meteorology instrument enclosure reflects the scientific interests of the Royal Society. It is historically significant for its role in monitoring the changing atmospheric and meteorological conditions in Melbourne for over a century from 1908. [Criterion A]The Royal Society of Victoria building is an outstanding example of the many public and other halls which were built in the city and suburbs in the nineteenth century as venues for the numerous lectures, recitals, concerts, meeting and theatrical productions which provided entertainment and intellectual stimulation for the population. It is architecturally significant as an outstanding example of the Renaissance Revival style, with the rounded corners on the exterior being particularly unusual. The interiors of the hall and library are notable for their decorative scheme, with Corinthian pilasters which rose the full height of the hall before it was divided horizontally in 1869 and 1880. [Criterion D]The Royal Society of Victoria building is significant for its association with Joseph Reed, one of the most important and prolific of Victoria's nineteenth century architects. Reed dominated the architectural profession in Melbourne at the time and designed many of Melbourne's major buildings in the late 1850s and early 1860s. [Criterion H]The Royal Society of Victoria is also significant for the following reasons, but not at the State level:The Royal Society building is significant as an important meeting place for Melbourne's scientific and intellectual community since the 1850s. The caretaker's cottage is probably the oldest single-storey house in the City of Melbourne still used as a residence.[This Statement of Significance was adopted by the Heritage Council of Victoria at its meeting on 3 April 2014]___________________GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM_______________________________________Heritage of Australia V3: 60_______________________________________BUILDING IDEAS (CSR) March 196586 Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 8 Latrobe StreetExquisitely proportioned, a beautiful building and a gem of its period._______________________________________VICTORIA HERITAGE REGISTER(Information from Allom Lovell, Royal Society of Victoria Buildings, Conservation Analysis and Management Plan, 1994)Many of Victoria's scientific, cultural and educational institutions, including the University of Melbourne, the Public Library and the Natural History Museum, were established in the 1850s. Victoria's first scientific societies were the Philosophical Society of Victoria and the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science, both formed in 1854. These two organisations merged in 1855 to form the Philosophical Institute, whose name was changed in 1859 to the Royal Society of Victoria, with its first President being Ferdinand von Mueller. The Royal Society of Victoria was modelled on the institution of the same name in Britain, and its aim was to 'embrace the whole field of science, with a special reference to the cultivation of those departments that are calculated to develop the natural resources of the country'.In 1857, with a membership of over 230, the Philosophical Institute had approached the President of the Board of Land and Works for a grant of land. A vacant triangular site of 0.22 ha at the corner of Victoria and Latrobe Streets was approved and reserved for the Institute (it was officially granted by the Crown in 1867). At a special meeting of the Institute held in 1857 it was decided that a building containing a meeting room capable of holding 300 people, together with a museum, a space which could be used for a Secretary's Room, Library and Council Room, an entrance hall, a laboratory and caretaker's quarters should be erected immediately. Eventually Joseph Reed of the firm Reed & Barnes, who offered his services on an honorary basis, was commissioned to design the building. It was planned as a single open space for meetings, which could be partitioned in the future as funds allowed. Tenders were called in May 1859 and the contact was awarded to Matthew Taylor for a cost of £2,750, with £350 saved by postponing the rendering of the exterior. The first meeting was held in the new building in December 1859. The main entrance was then on the north side of the building.In 1869 Joseph Reed, again in an honorary capacity, drew up plans to subdivide the interior to provide a meeting room (rising the full height of the building) and two smaller rooms to be used as a council room and a secretary's room on the ground floor, and a library and reading room on the first floor (above the two smaller rooms), as well as a separate caretaker's cottage. The contract for the alterations to the hall was awarded to John Wood for £415. Wood was also awarded the contract for the brick cottage, which was completed in August 1869 (and extended in 1886). The first caretaker was the policeman Sergeant O'Flaherty, whose duties included gardening, clerical work, cleaning of the hall and lighting fires when meetings were to be held.Further alterations were completed in 1880. The full-height meeting room was divided horizontally to form a supper room on the ground floor and a meeting room above, the whole of the interior was repaired and Venetian blinds were added to the windows. The exterior of the building was also rendered at last. Only minor changes were made to the hall and the cottage from then until the mid-twentieth century.In 1951 it was decided to build a two-storey addition along the south side of the building for use by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, whose honorary architect, H J Heath, designed the addition in the same style as the original building. The interiors of the old building were also remodelled. The works were begun early in 1953 and opened in August 1954. These additions comprise the southern two bays of the present building.In the late 1950s it was proposed to convert the site for use as a service station, and later to build a new library east of the hall and demolish the cottage for car parking. Fortunately neither of these plans ever eventuated.The centenary of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1959 was marked by the erection in the grounds on the Exhibition Street side of a small monument, designed by the architects Grounds Romberg and Boyd and comprising a low pedestal with a glacial boulder from Mawson in Antarctica.In 1990 works were carried out to the interior, including the insertion of a new kitchen in the original pantry and secretary's office, and the refurbishment of the supper room. In 1992 part of the hall building was underpinned.The Bureau of Meteorology Instrument Enclosure[Information from Godden Mackay Logan, 'Bureau of Meteorology Instrument Enclosure, Melbourne', Report prepared for the Bureau of Meteorology July 2012.]On the eastern corner of the site is an enclosure containing weather-recording instruments, which is leased from the Royal Society by the Bureau of Meteorology.Victoria's first weather recording site, which operated from 1840, was at Flagstaff Hill, where the atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind and a description of the weather were recoded until 1851. By 1855 Victoria had twenty observing sites. From 1863-1907 Melbourne's weather recording equipment was located at the Melbourne Observatory adjacent to the Botanical Gardens. In 1907 responsibility for meteorological activities of all the states was transferred to the Commonwealth and the Bureau of Meteorology was formed following the Meteorology Act 1906. In 1908 most of Melbourne's meteorological instruments were transferred to an enclosure at the Royal Society site. Within the enclosure is a small shed of an unknown date, but engraved graffiti by Bureau staff on the interior walls dates back to 1922.An automatic weather station was added to the Instrument Enclosure in August 1986, but wind speed and direction sensors were switched off in September 2009. This site has remained in use until the present (2013) but it the Bureau of Meteorology has plans to close it in 2014.History of Place:(Allom Lovell, Conservation Analysis and Management Plan, 1994)In October 1857 the Philosophical Institute approached the President of the Board of Land and Works for a grant of land. The triangular site at the corner of Victoria and Latrobe Streets was approved and reserved for the Institute. The land was officially granted by the Crown in 1867. In 1859 the Philosophical Institute merged with Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science and was renamed the Royal Society of Victoria. These two bodies were Victoria's first scientific societies. Scientific life in the mid 1850s centered on Government departments. The University of Melbourne was recently formed and the foundation stone of the Public Library laid. The Natural History Museum was established, on an albeit small scale, in the office of Crown Lands under the guidance of the Surveyor-General , Captain Andrew Clarke.Associated People: Burke and Wills_______________________________________LEWIS, M- AUSTRALIAN ARCHITECTURE INDEX: Record75337 Royal Society Trustees Melbourne VIC Houses Wood, J 1869 07 30 3357-MCC registration no 3357 [Burchett Index]. Fee 1.0.0three rm lodge
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| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 110752 | 1 JPEG : 271 KB ; A4 | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |