Cleve Brothers and Company stores, later Seabrook House, 573-577 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Cleve Brothers and Company stores, later Seabrook House, 573-577 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
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Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 105715
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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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RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2022:__________________________________________________Period: Early VictorianDATE: 1858;ASSOCIATIONS: Cleve Brothers & Co;DESIGNER: Terry, Leonard 1858; Kevin Greenhatch Pty Ltd. 1984;BUILDER: Amess, Samuel.VICTORIA HERITAGE REGISTER HO721https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/777Statement of SignificanceWhat is significant?The land now partly occupied by Seabrook House was bought by D H Cleve in April 1855 from John McKenzie for 1000 pounds. In May 1858 Leonard Terry tendered for the erection of a bluestone store in Lonsdale Street for Cleve Bros. & Co. Terry adopted the palazzo style for his design, a style that was usual for warehouses of the period in Melbourne.Seabrook House is a three storey bluestone warehouse, including basement, with a hipped roof covered with corrugated galvanised iron. It is rectangular in plan, except for a chamfered treatment to the south-east corner. Seabrook House has a frontage of approximately 15 metres and a depth of approximately 27 metres. The building stands with laneways to both sides and an open courtyard space to the rear. The laneway to the east was formally occupied by a building, the removal of which caused some damage to the cornice of Seabrook House.The bluestone walls, set in lime mortar, are approximately 600mm thick. The ground floor walls are of coursed, quarry-faced masonry, contrasting to the smaller, dressed blocks with rusticated quoins at first floor level. There is a variety of richly detailed dressed finishes to the bluestone on the Lonsdale Street facade.There have been considerable alterations to the rear openings of the building.There are no internal structural walls. The ground floor and roof structure is supported by square section timber posts with massive cast iron shoes carrying timber beams. The posts in the basement sit on basalt footings. The first floor is carried by cast iron columns, 170mm in diameter. The roof trusses are no longer exposed but are boxed in. Modern lightweight partitioning has created a number of office spaces.How is it significant?Seabrooke House is of historical and architectural significance to the State of Victoria.Why is it significant?Seabrook House is historically significant as an intact example of the palazzo style of warehouse. Palazzo style warehouses were typified by their large windows, rusticated quoins and projecting cornices. The style of architecture, which alludes to imposing Italian palazzos, and the fine decorative execution of the bluestone, demonstrates the wealth and prestige of Cleve Bros. and their peers in the rapid economic expansion in 1850s Victoria. This is one of the oldest and finest bluestone warehouses in the city and forms part of a streetscape of warehouses with the neighbouring Blight's Stores.Seabrooke House is architecturally significant as a fine early example of the personal style of noted architect Leonard Terry. Terry particularly favoured the palazzo style and developed his ideas later in his many bank buildings..GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites CBD studies 1975-6 source 79 Perrott Lyon Timlock and Kesa, Historical and Architectural Survey Area 2, page 118;.Perrott Lyon Timlock and Kesa, Historical and Architectural Survey Area 2, page 118-Graeme Butler project manager.573-585 LONSDALE STREET(No.114 Lonsdale Street, West)DESCRIPTION: Bluestone store and offices, two: levels.SITE: 50'x90'BUILT: 1858OWNER: Cleve Brothers (1855-93 … ) (Merchants)OCCUPIER: Cleve Brothers and E.L. Montefoire and Co. (Merchants.)Cleve Brothers (Merchants) (1855 -88 .. )EXISTING CONDITIONS:Appears to be substantially original apart from the application of paint to the cornice and window architraves.ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE:The facade is composed of classically decorated fenestration, storey' divisions and cyclopean rustication below the first storey cornice. Above this cornice moulding the walling is composed of bluestone masonry with cyclopean quoining; the whole topped by quite a heavy cornice.The upper window openings are topped with cornice mouldings and flanked with simple architraves; their line is continued to the lower cornice mould by the use of a panel infill (similar treatment is adopted on the other Terry Stores,. i.e. Zanders stores, Cleves stores and Levicks stores, King Street). Levicks store, King Street, is very similar to this building but of a wider frontage and consequent greater horizontality in the design. The upper windows employ a bracketted cornice above them presumably to increase the evident vertical dimension.Zanders store, King Street, is the direct progression from the latter building: an attic storey is added, with typically small window openings, and the ground floor window line is dropped to achieve visual emphasis on the first storey windows: the result is the desired horizontal appearance above the rustication. These three buildings are of great architectural importance, individually and as a minor progression of one Architect's style.NOTES:(1) Tender: Argus May 24, 1858Tenders are required for the erection of a bluestone store in Lonsdale Street for Messrs. Cleve Brothers & Co. L. Terry, office 466 Collins Street West.(2) Memorial: 24.140, 6th April, 1855, John McKenzie sold the land to Sali and D.H. Cleve for ₤1,000..LEWIS, M- AUSTRALIAN ARCHITECTURE INDEX:Record 75612 Cleve, Bros Melbourne VIC Warehouses Amess, Samuel - Melbourne 1858 06 17 502-MCC registration no 502 [Burchett Index]. Fee 3.10.0 stone store Lonsdale near west.NATIONAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA (VIC)Seabrook House was erected in 1858 for Cleve Brothers, a local firm of merchants. The architect was Leonard Terry. The two storey bluestone building is still used as offices and warehouse. This is one of the oldest and finest bluestone warehouses in the C.B.D. The street facade is a fine example in stone of the conservative classical style of Leonard Terry and has a variety of rough and finely worked surfaces. The more utilitarian side and rear facades with their rusticated stonework are also important.The building has continued in the same use since 1858 and forms an interesting group with the neighbouring Blight's Stores.Generally intact, the dressed stone mouldings on the street facade have however been painted and there have been some alterations to the openings on the side and rear facades.Classified; 07/09/1959.HERITAGE BRANCH, MINISTRY FOR PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT 1987 CITY OF MELBOURNE CENTRAL CITY NOTABLE BUILDINGS CITATIONSThis two-storey bluestone warehouse was erected in 1858 for Cleve Bros ., a firm of merchants. It is important for its conservative classical design by architect Leonard Terry who was influential in that design idiom..VICTORIAN HERITAGE INVENTORYhttps://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/91451854 - 2 storey bluestone warehouse constructed for Cleve Bros. Merchants. Occupied by F Blight. Shown on 1866 map.1880 - large warehouse building.1888 - 2 storey building, Cleve's Bonded Store.1905 - same (no. 2 store)..VICTORIA HERITAGE REGISTERhttps://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/777HistoryThe land now partly occupied by Seabrook House was bought by D H Cleve in April 1855 from John McKenzie for 1000 pounds (Historical and Architectural Study of the CBD, Area 2, September 1976). Leonard Terry tendered in May 1858 for the erection of a bluestone store in Lonsdale Street for Cleve Bros. & Co (Argus 24 May 1858, p7).The warehouse was a place to keep the goods safe from the weather as well as safe from prying hands. The bonded warehouse was the place where dutiable imported goods were kept in bond until the importer paid his customs duty. Palazzo style warehouses were built in Manchester in the 1840s, and were typified by their large windows, rusticated quoins and projecting cornices. Early examples were compared to the gentleman’s clubs of Pall Mall, styled by Charles Barry’s in the manner of the Renaissance Revival (Industrial England, M Stratton & B Trinder, London 1997 p.100).In the mid 1850s cast iron columns may have been cast locally in Melbourne but are more likely to have been imported. (Miles Lewis, Melbourne, The City’s History and Development, p.55) In 1856 they were on sale as standard items from 8 to 13 feet.Contextual History:Leonard Terry. Terry was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire in England in 1825 and arrived in Melbourne in 1853. He worked briefly for architect Charles Laing until Laing’s death in 1857. In 1860 Terry became diocesan architect for the Church of England in Melbourne. Much of his early work was bluestone warehouses, and bluestone remained a favourite material throughout Terry’s career, especially for his church designs. Terry is most famous for his series of about 50 banks throughout Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia, all similarly designed in a restrained classical style drawing on the palazzi of Florence and Rome and the Renaissance Revival style in Britain popularised by Charles Barry. Terry’s most explicit use of the Renaissance Revival style was the Melbourne Club, Collins Street in 1858. In 1874 Ballarat architect Percy Oakden joined Terry as a junior partner and the firm’s work expanded to schools and non-conformist churches. In 1879 Terry was supervising architect to the construction of St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, designed by English architect William Butterfield. Butterfield never visited Australia but during construction Terry visited the architect in England. (ADB, 1974, ‘Leonard Terry’; Philip Goad, Melbourne Architecture, p.241)Associated People: Owner CLEVE BROTHERS;.City of Melbourne i-HeritageThis two storey bluestone warehouse was erected in 1858 for Cleve Brothers, a firm of merchants. It is important for its conservative classical design by architect Leonard Terry who was influential in that design idiom.References See VI p. 91 (2869)Other Listing Victorian Heritage Register, National Trust RegisterCity of Melbourne online mapsA two storey bluestone former warehouse with a basement. Designed by Leonard Terry and built in 1858 for the importers and merchants Cleve Brothers & Co.. Refurbished in 1969 by the wine merchants Seabrooks. Converted to legal offices in 1984 to a design by Kevin Greenhatch Pty Ltd..NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)1858The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Wed 20 Oct 1858 Page 8Tenders called by Leonard Terry for 2 3 storey stores in King Street for Messrs Cleve brothers and Co. Walls of bluestone...Jewish Herald (Vic. : 1879 - 1920)Friday 14 November 1919 - Page 12https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/149671623OBITUARY. MR. SALI CLEVE.News of the death of Mr, Sali Cleve, which occurred on Sunday, will be learned with regret, by a large circle of friends. Mr. Cleve arrived in Australia in the early, fifties with 50,000 sovereigns, as the representative of the late Baron Rothschild. He established the firm of Cleve Brothers, which also carried on business in London and Dunedin, N.Z. and was the owner of Cleve's Bond at the corner of King and Lonsdale streets. He was well known as a mercantile broker in Melbourne.In 1881 Mr. Cleve, in conjunction with Mr. Frank Henty, purchased South Comondin, a large sheep and cattle station near, Thargomindah, in Queensland; and held it until 1910, when it was sold to Mr. Fred Knight. He then retired from business.Mr. Cleve was a very old resident of St. Kilda, and at his own expense established the public gardens at the corner of Fitzroy-street and the Esplanade, St. Kilda, which bear his name. He also erected a drinking fountain there. A cottage to the Old Colonists' Association and a bed each to the Women's and Children's Hospitals were amongst his gifts.Mr. Cleve, who was a bachelor, was in his 89th year, and had been in, falling health for some time, but was not seriously ill until recently. The deceased gentleman has an elder brother who survives him, and who is a resident of Sydney. Mr. Cleve was a member of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation. The funeral took place on the 3rd inst., Rev. S. M. Solomon officiating.
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| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 105715 | 1 PDF : 2,327 KB ; A4 | Group of Items (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |