Brooks Chambers, 59-65 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Total copies: 1
Title:
Brooks Chambers, 59-65 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
Creator:
Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 103175
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:
Style: Neo-BaroquePeriod: EdwardianConstruction date: 1910-1911Notable features: Unusual notable colonnade at 'attic' level,.ASSOCIATED RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER:.GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYHistoryBrooks Robinson and Company were window glass, oil and colour merchants. They imported `paper hanging' and light fittings. They also made mantlepieces, stained glass and `embossed' windows. Show windows of the `cathedrals' of commerce at one point or the divine inspiration in an actual cathedral at another, illustrated the wide breadth of their decorative work. They imported a multitude of electric light fittings and Luxfer basement lights, by 1920, and a range of vitreous china by 1940. Henry Brooks and Co together with Brooks, Robinson and Co occupied the lower half of the building. The War and Old Age Pensions Offices occupied the uppermost three floors as did the Invalid and War Service Pension Office at a later date.Beattie's Physical Culture School had replaced them by 1940. Around the early 1970s the ground-level was transformed into the Embank Arcade and Victoria's most distinguished firm of decorators and decorators' suppliers had gone. Architects, Inskip and Kemp, designed the Henry Brooks buildings in 1910; the eminent Clements Langford being the builder.DescriptionWith its orderly, graduated-height fenestration and parapet pediment, the facade appears, at first glance, to be a typical Renaissance revival (see 107-113 Elizabeth Street) but the English Queen Anne scrolled and gabled pediments over windows and the bellied balustrading of the attic level, proffer other influences on the design. Although an attic storey, in the reign of the Romanesque revival warehouses such as Royston House, the design of this section is more like those of the British Edwardian Free Style. The bellied perforated balconettes and the unusual compounded and stylised Ionic colonade may be compared to Townsend's Free Style designs whereas the lower facade relates more to Norman Shaw's Queen Anne (or English Baroque) revival (see Bryanston, Dorset, 1889-1894). In summary, the design may be described as Free Baroque revival in the manner of Henry Hare.Inskip and Kemp's Assembly Hall (156-160 Collins Street) is late French Gothic Revival, showing no Free Style tendencies. The previous partnership of Inskip and Butler, under Butler's influence, produced some Free Style inspired work.External IntegrityGround level rebuilt and a canopy added.StreetscapeRelates to the altered 55-57 Elizabeth Street in finish and period.SignificanceAn uncommon variation on the neo-Baroque commercial style for Melbourne, exhibited here on a near intact upper façade..GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites 80; Ppt; CITY OF MELBOURNE BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONS 2206.LEWIS, M- AUSTRALIAN ARCHITECTURE INDEXRecord 75216 Inskip & Kemp; Brooks, Henry - Trustees Melbourne VIC Warehouses Langford, Clement - 275 Bridge Rd Rich. 1910 09 27 2206-MCC registration no 2206 [Burchett Index]. Fee 6.0.0 brick warehouse.NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954)Thursday 1 June 1911 - Page 3illus.t.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/242218683City improvement....New warehouse in Elizabeth street near Flinders Lane for Brooks Robinson….The new- structure covers the whole site. 60ftx 50ftt, and rises at Its highest point to 92 feet on top of parapet. The building will have six storeys and a basement exceedingly well lighted by prismatic pavement lights…Three of the floors will be subdivided into offices to suit tenants….remainder, comprising the basement, ground, first and top floors, will be used as showrooms by the firm.Access will be had from the showroom on the first floor by means of a bridge over the right-of-way to the firm's existing large stores at the rear. The entrance to the showrooms, from Elizabeth street, occupies the centre of the block, and there is an entrance for the office portion on the northern side of the frontage. The stylo of architecture is Elizabethan, the front being faced with the best pressed red bricks, with the exception of the top storey, where the wall recedes, to form a balcony the full width of the building, treated with cement dressing.The windows of the showroom floors will be specially glazed by Messrs Brooks, Robinson themselves with samples of stained, glass- from their own stocks.--The architects are Messrs Inskip and Kemp, and the contractor Mr Clements Langford . and the structure will cost about £14,000.The business of Brooks Robinson and Co. will be carried on under the pre sent management- in the now premises on the same wholesale lines, as in the old building, where they were established since as far back as 1854.
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Research and reports
Record number:
1203991
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 103175 | 1 PDF : 1,416 KB ; A4 | Group of Items (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |