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Royal Bank Chambers ( E.S. & A. Bank), 287-301 Collins Street & 70-78 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne

Butler, Graeme1985

Record details

Title:

Creator:

Butler, Graeme (Name details)

Date of work:

1985

Reference number:

BIF-CITY 102087

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:

Notable features:1. Stone facing.2. 'Floating' parapet/corniceArchitects: Stephenson and TurnerSculpture: D.L. Steen.ASSOCIATED RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER:.GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYStatement of SignificanceHistoryThe site of the Clarence Hotel and the ill-fated City of Melbourne Bank. The location took on regal status with its new ownership by the Royal Bank. The English Scottish and Australian Chartered Bank (1927) and the Australian and New Zealand Banking Company (1970) completed the ownership hat trick.Demolition of the old 1885 Royal Bank allowed commencement of its nostalgically named replacement at mid 1939; completion was 20 months away. Stephenson and Turner, who had spent the last decade equipping Melbourne with the latest concepts in hospital design, were chosen ahead of tried commercial architects such as Marcus Barlow, as architects for a new international look in banks.It was limit-height, steel-framed, ten-storeyed, stone clad (Stawell free stone, Dromana granite) and along with its medical forbearers, cited in the 1956 Guide to Victorian Architecture as among our significant buildings. Inside it was the first to give counter type service in a bank. Tellers were at last freed from their cages and stood resplendent midst Black Bean, shaped plate glass and stainless steel. Nevertheless, city commercial precedents were obviously active. The Modern utilitarian designs seen at the prize-winning Women's Hospital wing and the Royal Melbourne were here constrained to a shape determined by 100 percent site coverage and the preconceived dignity of banking. The contemporary Bourke Street Commonwealth Bank shows this, by its stepped and symmetrical revival-born form and nearby, Anketell and K. Henderson's National Bank was pure revival.DescriptionNot devoid of revivalism, the elevation has its podium base with monumental doorways and windows. The upper facade, however, is organised in vertical strips with window-spandrel relationships unvaried from floor to floor. Moderne characteristics also are evident, such as the asymmetrically placed `vertical feature', which acts as a stop for the sweeping horizontal curve of the roof line, and the curved corner itself. Only the main fenestration was Modern and even the floating roof-line looked like a classical cornice. Inside, despite the grand height of the banking chamber, the counter design and ceiling treatment were new aspects to bank design.External IntegrityGenerally externally original.StreetscapeBecause of the use of stone and the implied colonnade in the vertical fenestration, the Collins Street elevation complies closely with the more revival prone facades to the east.SignificanceGiven its type (city bank) this design was a departure from the established manner and looked to the post-war rationalisation of external facades and interiors..GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites RAIA (Vic) 20th C. Register.HERITAGE BRANCH, MINISTRY FOR PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT 1987 CITY OF MELBOURNE CENTRAL CITY NOTABLE BUILDINGS CITATIONSOne of the best finished buildings in the city, the Royal Bank branch of the ES&A Bank was constructed in 1938-41 to a design by Stephenson and Turner. An exceptionally high quality modern building, it provides the perfect finish to the corner of Elizabeth and Collins Street.NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954) Fri 23 Jun 1939 Page 6 THE CITY CHANGEShttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/243466741THE CITY CHANGES (see illust)Landmarks Are DisappearingAttacks by time, and demands for expansion and greater utility, spare neither age nor beauty in a modern city. The face and skyline of Melbourne are being changed with a rapidity never previously approached. IF the speed of present rebuilding does not approach that of New York — now claimed to be reconstructed once every 25 years — the wave of replacement here is flooding at a new peak. Before it much beautiful and locally historic architecture is going. Facade after facade is being tossed into the wrecking pit. This is a new phase in the re-building of our city.Until, recently facades which had special merit for design, or stonework, were salvaged — sometimes re-erected at the University for the training of architects of the future. That was the fate of the porch of one of the city's first banks, and the facade of the old Bank of New South Wales Building is now being incorporated in the exterior of the new Commerce Building at the University.SIMILAR efforts were not made for other buildings wrecked recently. Perhaps the most notable was the old Royal Insurance Building. Architects claim that the facade of that building had the most perfect Gothic stonework in Melbourne, excepting St. Paul's Cathedral.Now the same fate hangs over the Corinthian columns and old facade of the Royal Bank branch of the E.S. & A. Bank, at the corner of Collins and Elizabeth Streets. Wrecking began on the building this week, to make way for a limit height., new branch bank. Tall, massive, but beautifully fluted and capped, there are 14 columns in the two facades of the old bank, and two, flanking the corner entrance, are of complete circular section.The architects for the planned replacement building. Messrs Stephenson and Turner, and the builder, Mr Ernest A. Watts, have no instructions about the old columns.ALL regret that the columns should disappear, but it seems that ideas are changing as fast in Melbourne as the appearance of buildings, and there is now less Interest in the retention of old architecture.Some architects would not retain even a flawless stone example of a past architectural style. They claim that construction in stone has been ended by the march of steel and concrete, and the introduction of improved methods and materials. (Picture in Page 12).

Names:

City of MelbourneStephenson & Turner, 1938–1995

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