Grant's warehouse, 217-219 Queen Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Total copies: 1
Title:
Grant's warehouse, 217-219 Queen Street, Melbourne
Creator:
Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 108078
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: 1904;ASSOCIATIONS: Grant, Alexander;DESIGNER: Gibbs & Finlay;BUILDER: Wright, James SGIMAGE: https://flic.kr/p/2nVEPLBPeriod: EdwardianConstruction date: 1906-1907Notable features: Unusually florid plant ornamentation.GRAEME BUTLER & ASSOCIATES 2011, CENTRAL CITY (HODDLE GRID) HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceWhat is significant?This three storey warehouse was constructed by James SG Wright in 1904 for Alexander Grant to the design of architects, Gibbs & Finlay. The first occupant was Paul C Grosser, a lithographic printer. Gibbs & Finlay designed the notable Druid House, Swanston Street, and neo-Grec styled National Bank of Australasia Bank branches in the 1920s.The building is an unusual example of the relatively small catalogue of works with the Art Nouveau style ornament within Melbourne's Capital City Zone. The building also recalls other tall-arched American Romanesque style buildings such as, the Ball and & Welch building, (1906-) by the Tompkins brothers.Below a cemented cornice at the top of the façade, semicircular cemented and ornamented arcading is carried on giant order red brick piers, with Romanesque cushion capitals and Art Nouveau influenced whip-lash motifs in the arcade spandrels. Below the first floor string mould are tiled panels and cemented tendril devices while spandrel panels at the first floor and at the arches are decorated with floral stalks and undulating wave motifs. Above a pronounced cornice, a profusion of leaves, buds other plant motifs, abstracted from the natural world feature within a large scrolled parapet. This building is distinguished from similar designs by the extent and vigour of its ornament. The building is an uncommon and distinctive example of Art Nouveau ornament within Melbourne's Capital City Zone.The rear lane elevation is well-preserved in a tall-arched red brick form with catheads above each arch but the building has been modified at ground floor level (new shopfronts) although stone pedestals survive either side of the central entry. These support the giant red brick piers of the façade above, with their carved dado mouldings, panelling and quarry faced plinths with tooled margins. The upper storeys are largely intact to their original state.The Traegerwellblech corrugated iron vaulted fire-proof roofing to the ground level main chamber is of special interest. Developed in Melbourne from the 1880s, this construction is now rare in the Capital City Zone.How is it significant?Grant's warehouse is significant historically and aesthetically to the Melbourne Capital City ZoneWhy is it significant?Grant's warehouse is of aesthetic and historical significance as an unusually ornate well-preserved example of the noted American Romanesque revival warehouse style and one of the relatively small body of Art Nouveau ornamented architecture within Melbourne's Capital City Zone and of historical interest for possessing a rare if late example of the Traegerwellblech corrugated iron vaulted fire-proofing..RAWORTH, B 2002. REVIEW OF HERITAGE OVERLAY LISTINGS IN THE CBDfor the City of MelbourneHistory and DescriptionThe Queen Street newsagency was constructed in 1906-7 [Reid] as a three storey retail establishment [Butler]. The designer and builder are not known. The first occupant was Paul C Grosser, a lithographic printer.It is an unusual example of the relatively small catalogue of works in the Art Nouveau style within Melbourne's CBD. The building recalls local buildings such as, the Ball and & Welch building, (1906, since altered) by Tompkins & Tompkins. The building has been modified extensively at ground floor level but the upper storeys are largely intact to their original state with arches on pilasters rising through the upper two stories of the building. Formally, the building recalls the American Romanesque withsemicircular arcading near the top of the facade carried on giant order piers. This building is distinguished from similar designs by the extent and vigour of its ornament. A beam above the ground floor is decorated with tendril devices while spandrel panels at the first floor and above the arches are decorated with floral stalks and undulating wave motifs. Above a pronounced cornice, a profusion of leafs, buds other devices, abstracted fro m the natural world feature within a large scrolled parapet.The building has been painted which has obscured its red brick character but it remains nonetheless, an uncommon and distinctive example of the Art Nouveau within Melbourne's CBD. It is understood that extensive restoration works have been undertaken on this site in the very recent past which may influence the condition assessment on the previous page.Statement of SignificanceThe Queen Street newsagency is of aesthetic significance at a local level as an unusually ornate example from the relatively small body of Art Nouveau architecture within Melbourne's CBD.Footnotes:Reid, 1980, CAD Study, p 167.Butler, 1985, CAD Conservation Study, 217-219 Queen Street..GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites Keith and John Reid, CBD Study Area 7 Historic Buildings Preservation Council, 1976: page 167 cites rate books compares with 115-117 Elizabeth St for ornament ;not recommended to Historic Buildings Register_________________________________________City of Melbourne i-Heritage:Central Activities District Conservation Study - Graeme Butler, 1984 Building Identification Form (BIF): Notable features include elaborate/high standard design of cement rendered surfaces; unusually florid plant ornamentation. Alterations / Recommendations: New awning (sympathetic), air units added (inappropriate - remove or reinstate sympathetic alternative), new shopfronts and shutter (inappropriate - reinstate original design or sympathetic alternative), upper signs new (inappropriate)._________________________________________CITY OF MELBOURNE BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONS15/9/1904 fee ₤2/2/VPRO:1928 11118 alterations ₤35signs1954 partitionssigns1969 shopfront1983 $100,000 alterations to shop and offices1988 basement as restaurant $150,000_________________________________________RAIA 20th century architecture register:1923 Gibbs & Finlay National Bank of Australasia Bank 76 High Street Mansfield1925 Gibbs Finlay & Morsby National Bank of Australasia Bank 183 Manifold Street Camperdown_________________________________________VICTORIAN HERITAGE INVENTORY H7822-1239Building on site 1866 & 1880.1888 - 2x two-storey buildings. 1905 - three-storey building, Chinese laundry and carpenter._________________________________________LEWIS, M- AUSTRALIAN ARCHITECTURE INDEX:Gibbs & Finlay.Butter factory, Melbourne. C. Taysom, Kerang.Building 12.12.1911,p 90Brick factory in Latrobe St., Melbourne. Swanson Bros., Melbourne.Building 12.1.1911,p 92Druid's Hall, Swanston St, Melb. in advert for metal windowsRoyal Victorian Institute of Architects Journal Nov 1929 pxlivfirst prize in a competition for the extension of the National Mutual Insurance Building, at the corner of Queen and Collins Streets. Design notable for its strength in planning. Building 12.8.1911,p 251918 Recently designed extensive additions to the National Mutual Life Assoc. Buildings in Queen St, Melbourne Royal Victorian Institute of Architects Journal May 1918, p 44Extensive brick stores, factory and stables are to be erected by builder J. S. G. Wright, in Little Collins Street East. Building 12.12.1911,p 64Warehouse at 138 Queen Street, Melbourne. Lockington and Sinclair, North Carlton.Building 12.1.1911, p 92_________________________________________STOREY, ROHAN 2019. HODDLE GRID INTERIORS THEMATIC STUDY (DRAFT): MAY 2019Grants Warehouse,217‐219 Queen St, 1904The ‘interior’ of Gants Warehouse is actually the underside of the floor above, revealed when the ceiling was removed at some point. The iron joists support shallow arched corrugated iron vaults which then support a floor above of mortar / concrete, a method of ‘fireproof’ construction. This example may well have used the proprietary ‘Traegerwellblech’ thick structural iron arches, imported from Germany, but this is not certain. Melbourne University’s Professor Miles Lewis, the authority on Traegerwellblech, has found evidence of its use on at least a dozen city buildings, and a reference to many ‘large buildings’ also using the system, so it was not uncommon. Before demolition of the all but the facades of the 1890s warehouses on Lonsdale Street, some Traegerwellblech style flooring was found, so it may have been relatively common in warehouses. More research would have to be conducted to say that this type of structure is rare and worthy of interior controls.(Graeme Butler- Traegerwellblech ceiling arches no longer evident as of 2022, images held of 2010 arches)_________________________________________NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)`The Argus':(Wednesday 12 August 1903Death and obit of Alexander Grant, solicitor of HawthornThe announcement of the death of Mr Alexander Grant in his 71st y ear, which took place yesterday at his residence, ' Roslyn, Power-street Hawthorn, will be recalled with sincere regret by his many friends, who held him in high esteem for his excellent qualities of mind and heart His illness was of brief duration, the immediate cause of his death being pneumonia, supervening on an attack of influenza He sailed from Glasgow by the ship Sir William Molesworth on October 11, 1802, and, after an eventful voyage, arrived at Melbourne on March 15 in the following year Among his fellow passengers who survive are Captain Archibald Currie, Messrs Alexander Dick Matthew Glassford, William Calder, and John M Barr, who celebrated, on March 16 last, the jubilee of then arriving in Victoria by a dinner at the Vienna Café. Mr Grant followed his profession as a solicitor in Melbourne since 1884, and from 1866 to 1871 he was a member of the Fitzroy Borough Council, and Mayor of the borough in 1870-1871, his retirement from office being the occasion of the presentation to him of an illuminated address Mrs Grant predeceased her husband, and there are three daughters and two sons, Mr F E Grant having been associated with his father as a solicitor The funeral will take place tomorrow, at the Boroondara Cemetery'2/2/1903: The Friends of the late Mrs. ELIZABETH GRANT, relict of the late Alexander Grant, are respectfully limited to follow her remains to the place of interment, in the Melbourne Genera Cemetery.Australia Death Index, 1787-1985Name: Alexr GrantDeath Place: Hawthorn, VictoriaAge: 70Father's Name: Grant DavidMother's Name: AndersonRegistration Year: 1903Registration Place: VictoriaRegistration Number: 9902)._________________________________________DIRECTORIES OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE-SANDS AND KENNY, SANDS & MCDOUGALL1915, 1920 (217-219) Munro H & Co, hardware merchants and importers1910 Grosser, Paul C lithographic printer1905 vacant(1904 115-117 William St Ground floor—No 2 Entrance. 3-6 Grant, Alexander, & Son, solicitors.. Only Alex Grant in CBDGrant, Alexander, 1 Fletcher-st, Ess.Grant, Alexander, 53 Rathmlnes-rd, Haw.Grant, Alexander, 67 Seacombe-st, N. F.Grant, Alexander, 32 Goulburn-st, Yarvle.GRANT, ALEXANDERfellmomrer, woolscourer and sheepskin tanner,Saltwater River, Kensington: specialty,pickletl sheep pelts; wool scoured A: sheepskinsfellmongered on commissionGrant, Alexander, Bower-st, Nthc.Grant, Alexander, 166 Btewart-ft, Bk.Grant, Alexander D.. 23 Argo-st, S. Y.)(1893: Grant, Alexander, View-st, Fcy.Grant, Alexander, Fletcher-at, Ess.Grant, Alexander, llutcheson-st, M. Pda.Grant, Alexander, bootmaker, Stanley-at, Fey.Grant, Alexander, grocer, 307 Cobden-st, S. M.Grant, Alexander (Grant, Alex. & Son), Power-at, Haw.Grant, Alexander, 52 Kerr-at, F.Grant, Alexander D., 23 Argo-at, S. Y.Grant, Alexander, 9 Margaret-et, S. Y.Grant, Alexander, 67 Seacombe-at, N. F.Grant, Alexander, & Son (Grant, A.; Grant, F. E.);solicitors, St. James'-bdgs, 125 William-st)
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Research and reports
Record number:
1261330
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 108078 | 1 JPEG : 476 KB ; A4 | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |