Bank of Australasia, Eastern Branch, later ANZ Bank, 75-81 Collins Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
Archives
Total copies: 1
Title:
Bank of Australasia, Eastern Branch, later ANZ Bank, 75-81 Collins Street, Melbourne
Creator:
Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 102065
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-GeorgianPeriod: Inter-WarArchitects: Anketell & K. Henderson.ASSOCIATED RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER:.GRAEME BUTLER 1985-7 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYStatement of SignificanceHistoryArchitects, Anketell & K. Henderson, designed this office block for the Eastern Branch of the Bank of Australasia in 1934, applying, on behalf of the Bank, to build in December of that year. Henderson had been the bank's architect since the early 1890s.The bank interior was designed around a wide, central ground-level corridor, bordered by a long teller's counter, and two shops drew custom from Collins Street. The offices above were reached by the lobby at the north-west corner, with its ornate inquiry booth, elegant open stair and bronze-framed tenants' directory. The structure was reinforced concrete and the lino-clad floor system, hollow terra-cotta tiles. Glazed-over light courts were inserted midway down both sides of the building.In 1940, the bank occupied 75-7 Collins Street and J.N. McClelland 79, as his antique shop. Unsworth Dental Supplies were in the basement. Number 81 was the office tenancy address for the four floors above, encompassing the dental and medical dominance, long typical among professional rooms in this part of the C.A.D.The bank merged with the Union Bank and Australian and New Zealand Bank in 1951, causing the building's renaming to the A.N.Z. Building.DescriptionA mainly clinker face brick, Georgian revival facade, fenestrated with window pairs and ornamented with bracketed balconies with wrought iron balustrading. Chaste ornamentation exists at ground level with the papyrus Order pilasters in pairs, dividing off the shopfronts, and at the parapet, where balustrade panels flank the centre plain, raised entablature with its shield and banner behind, all in cement. Dentilation and rosettesornament the main cornice, while roundels are centred on implied piers in the facade below.Shopfronts are executed in brass, with pilasters reeded in the same manner as the cemented ones which frame them, with minor architraves and scrolled motifs worked into the glazing dividers. Number 81 has a Tenants' Directory built into the sidelight and most shopfronts have the built-in retractable skillion profile canvas blinds with bronze/brass fittings.The hall of 81 has an inner screen with square entablature over an ornate joinery surround, with Tenants' Directory built in on the side wall and an ornate curved corner Inquiry Booth on the right hand side, opposite. The ornamentation is similar to that used on the glazed screens, with reeded colonettes, guilloche pattern friezes and original light fittings. The number `81' is incised into the hall over the entrance.External IntegrityThe shopfront of 75 has been replaced with a modern black anodized suite and an Easy Bank automatic teller has been inserted in 73. Reflective glass has also been employed in some shopfronts and a shutter grille installed on 75. A Dutch Hood canopy has been added over the central bay and inappropriately coloured canvas has replaced one original retractable blind (81), (refer original canvas on 73).StreetscapeContributing part of a notable classical revival commercial streetscape, epitomizing the period of good architectural manners.SignificanceA relatively austere but complete Neo-Georgian design associated with a now defunct but once powerful banking company, which supports a notable commercial streetscape and possesses valuable ground-level details and fittings..NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954) Sat 7 May 1938 Page 4.COLLINS ST. CHANGESA Plea For Its IntegrityThe wreckers are in eastern Collins Street. "Great gaps show where ancient — and not-so-ancient — buildings stood. The face of Melbourne's finest street is changing but happily, for the most part, in character.WALK down Collins Street to day and you must skirt around tho builders' hoardings. In the extreme eastern end, next to Alcaston House, the way has been made for a new Anzac House. On the corner of Alfred Place n large area of rubble marks the site of a new branch of the Bank of New South Wales, Almost exactly opposite, on the corner of George Parade, the new branch building of the union Bank will rise. And, a little down the street, old Anzac House has made way for the T. and G. extensions. Collins Street is in transition. The medical men who once had their homes in It have departed for the suburbs; where these early houses stood have risen modern blocks of professional apartments. But some of the old houses, relics of an early Melbourne, still survive as they have for half a century and in some cases considerably more. Built flush with the, street, these old dwelling are for the most part apartment houses today with an odd restaurant here and there. Behind some of them on the northern side arc still to be found surprising plots of garden, stables and all manner of relics of ah earlier day. Most noteworthy of course. Is the walled garden of the Melbourne Club, an oasis of green In the heart of the city.NOW that banks have come east—the Bank of Australasia put up a fine building not Iong ago— there is hope that the character of the street will be preserved. Some time ago It seemed In danger with a few outbreaks of garishness In some small shops and— unaccountably— a motor showroom, very much out of place in that chaste locality and since departed. For obviously this eastern end of Collins- Street ought to be a street of clubs and little shops of n quiet kind, of professional rooms and banks, which are not given to daubing their premises with red paint or putting up neon signs.The garish facade of old Anzac House is a happy loss; the new one. it Is to be hoped, will nave a greater dignity.The oldest buildings, one is afraid, are doomed, charmed survivors in these days of high rates and rents, but one will be sorry to them go. They cannot claim the Georgian delights of old Sydney or old Hobart, but in their plain and honest fashion they are worthy pioneers and their loss will be deplorable if they are replaced by monstrosities out of keeping with their fellows. It is a pity that the City Council does not exercise some supervision over the manner of buildings erected in its principal streets. Certainly in many of them the conglomeration of bad styles is already so great that nothing could make it worse; but Collins Street east retains a certain integrity above Russell Street . and some effort should be .made to keep it. ?It ought not to be in the power of ignorant landlords— whether individuals or wealthy corporations— and of complaisant architects to put up structures which ruin a locality and are an offence to all who have -to see them. Let all of us who love Collins Street offer up a prayer that it may never be invaded by late-Victorian baroque, misinterpreted Scandinavian or that extraordinary Tudor which unaccountably flaunts its pathetic ostentation in some suburbs.Bourke Street is an aesthetic nightmare. Let us keep Collins Street as an example of what an Australian street plight be, the sort of street about which we may feel as Londoners felt about Regent Street before the vandals got at that, too.— C.T
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| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 102065 | 1 PDF : 1,100 KB ; A4 | Group of Items (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |