Bennett's shops & residences, 470-472 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Total copies: 1
Title:
Bennett's shops & residences, 470-472 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Creator:
Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 106033
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:
RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2022:__________________________________________________DATE: 1871-2;ASSOCIATIONS: Bennett, John;DESIGNER: Parry, John?;BUILDER: Parry, JohnPeriod: Early Victorian__________________________________________________CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceWhat is significant?The pair of shops at 470-472 Little Lonsdale Street, completed in 1872.Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):• The building’s original external form, materials and detailing;• The building’s high level of integrity to its original design;• Rendered masonry façade with simple detailing reflective of the pre-1880s construction date;• Pattern and size of original fenestration, and moulded architraves;• Timber double-hung sash windows on the upper-level;• Rustication on the edges of the building; and• Parapet with simple moulded cornice with dentilation and scrolls.More recent alterations, including the ground level shopfronts and wrought iron window baskets, are not significant.How it is significant?The pair of shops at 470-472 Little Lonsdale Street is of local historic and representative significance to the City of Melbourne.Why it is significant?The pair of two-storey shops at 470-472 Little Lonsdale Street, constructed in 1872 by builder John Parry and originally built as residences, is historically significant as a once common building typology demonstrating integrated uses of both retailing and housing. The building demonstrates a once common type of housing for city dwellers within the Hoddle Grid in the 1870s. (Criterion A)The pair of shops at 470-472 Little Lonsdale Street is a fine example of a mid-Victorian residential and commercial building. Once used as daily retail points, a number of these surviving shops are found in both the main streets and smaller streets of the Hoddle Grid. While the use of upper storey residences has become largely outdated, the ground floors of these examples continue to operate as retail outlets. The pair of buildings are legible and reasonably intact, with typical Victorian detail of rendered masonry, cornices with dentil features, scroll details, rusticated quoins, and Victorian-era windows with moulded architraves still evident to the upper façade. (Criterion D)Primary sourceHoddle Grid Heritage Review (Context & GJM Heritage, 2020).GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites source 79 PERROTT, LYON, TIMLOCK AND KESA 1976, C.B.D. STUDY, CITY OF MELBOURNE CONSERVATION STUDY AREA TWOp190;__________________________________________________PERROTT, LYON, TIMLOCK AND KESA 1976, C.B.D. STUDY, CITY OF MELBOURNE CONSERVATION STUDY AREA TWO470-2 Little Lonsdale Street.DESCRIPTION: Brick shop, seven rooms, two levels.SITE: 17' x 66' x 2No.BUILT: 1872-3OWNER: John Bennett (1872-89 ...)OCCUPIERS:No.470 Little Lonsdale StreetPat Bunbury. (grocer) 1873-4William Harold (Grocer) 1874-8No.472 Little Lonsdale StreetPeter Burns (1874-6) (Store)John Bennett (1876-8)__________________________________________________Lewis, M. Australian Architecture Index:74243 Bennett, John Melbourne VIC Houses Parry, John - Melbourne 1871 10 20 4601; MCC registration no 4601 [Burchett Index]. Fee 1.10.0 two-storey brick house__________________________________________________VICTORIAN HERITAGE INVENTORY H7822-10201866 map shows building on site (between two alleys).Extant building built 1872-3. Owner John Bennett, 1872-89.Occupiers include Pat Bunbury, Grocer 1873-4; William Harold, Grocer 1874-8.1880 Panorama - 2 storey building.1905 - building at # 470 shown as three storeys.__________________________________________________CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWHO1281Shops 470-472 Little Lonsdale Street (1872)· Historically significant for its demonstration of late 1870s city living and commercial use as a result of 1920s remodelling and additions.· Significant as a rare survivor of the mid-Victorian residential terrace rows around Park Street.· Significant as representative of a mid-Victorian residence that evidences the use and evolution of the building..SUMMARYThis pair of early shops (built 1872) are part of increasingly rare group of small shop buildings remaining in the city. Erected to serve as daily retail points, similar surviving shops can be found in both main streets and smaller laneways. Whilst the use of upper storey residences became largely extinct, the ground floors of these examples continue to operate as commercial outlets. Simple detailing, typical of the mid-Victorian period, is mostly intact on the upper façade of this pair of shops..SITE HISTORYIn 1866, a map shows that a building existed on the site of today’s 470-472 Little Lonsdale Street (Fels, Lavelle & Mider 1993).The two, two-storey shops at 470-472 Little Lonsdale Street (originally 119-121 Little Lonsdale Street) were built in 1872 by builder John Parry (MCC registration no 4601, as cited in AAI, record no 74243). The owner of the building between 1872 and 1889, John Bennett lived at 121 Little Lonsdale Street for several years from the late 1870s (S&Mc 1878-1884). According to the ‘notices intent to build’ lodged with the City of Melbourne, the brick buildings were originally built as dwellings, but were tenanted with various shops on the ground floor from the year of completion.Patrick Bunbury, grocer, was the first tenant at 119 Little Lonsdale Street in 1872. Other early tenants included grocers Harold William and Alfred Philliner. Throughout the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, 119 Little Lonsdale Street housed different food retailers. 121 Little Lonsdale Street was tenanted from 1873 with a store owned by P Burns, then John Flynn. From 1877 onwards, 121 Little Lonsdale Street was used mostly for residential purposes, (S&Mc 1873-1920). A local labourer, Edward McGinley, resided at 121 Little Lonsdale Street for about 40 years between 1898 and 1938 (S&Mc 1898-1938).The builder of the shops, John Parry, then based at 85 Chancery Lane Melbourne, erected a number of smaller sized buildings in Melbourne and nearby northern suburbs, including dwellings and shops. Parry’s career spanned the 1850s to the 1890s (AAI).Originally, the buildings at 470-472 Little Lonsdale Street were built to a symmetrical plan, each with a backyard with outside toilet and shed. (MMBW 736 1895). The shops have been extended to the north boundary of the subject site.By the late 1940s-early 1950s, the buildings were completely converted to shops, 470 and 472 Little Lonsdale Street being occupied respectively by a fish shop and a sandwich shop (Age 6 June 1952:14; Age 7 July 1949:8) (Figure 1). By the 1990s, the shops were merged to house a café (Archaeological Management Plan 1993, v3:20), but were again separated and now house two food outlets (CoMMaps).1175Figure 1. 472-470 Little Lonsdale shown in a section of Little Lonsdale Street North between Eagle Alley and William Street, Melbourne, Vic, c.1960-1969, by Halla (Source: STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA ).…REFERENCESAustralian Architectural Index (AAI), as cited. Copyright Miles Lewis.City of Melbourne Maps (CoMMaps) 2017, http://maps.melbourne.vic.gov.au/, accessed 7 June 2017.Context Pty Ltd 2012, Thematic History: A History of the City of Melbourne’s Urban Environment, prepared for the City of Melbourne.Fels, M, Lavelle, S and Mider, D 1993, ‘Archaeological Management Plan’, prepared for the City of Melbourne.Halla, K J c.1960-1969, ‘Little Lonsdale Street North between Eagle Alley and William Street, Melbourne, Vic’, State Library of Victoria (SLV) Halla collection of negatives. Views of East Melbourne, Fitzroy, Melbourne & North Melbourne, accessed online 26 June 2017.Nearmap 15 May 2014, 471-472 Little Lonsdale Street, accessed online 26 June 2017.Sands and McDougall, Melbourne and Suburban Directories (S&Mc), as cited.Young, John and Spearritt, Peter 2008, ‘Retailing’ in eMelbourne, School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne, http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM01241b.htm, accessed 13 June 2017..
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1258035
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 106033 | 1 JPEG : 486 KB ; A4 | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |