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Blencowe's warehouse, 37-45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Butler, Graeme1985

Record details

Title:

Creator:

Butler, Graeme (Name details)

Date of work:

1985

Reference number:

BIF-CITY 103915

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 2021:Period: EdwardianDATE: 1910 apprx, remodelled in 1933;ASSOCIATIONS: Blencowe, J. R., clothing manufacturers.CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceHeritage Place: Flinders Lane East PrecinctWhat is significant?The Flinders Lane East Precinct comprising 31-149 Flinders Lane, 11-15 Duckboard Place, 130-148 Flinders Street, 10-30 Oliver Lane, ACDC Lane, Duckboard Place, Higson Lane, Oliver Lane, Sargood Lane, Spark Lane and including the rear of 24-30 Russell Street.Elements that contribute to the significance of the precinct include (but are not limited to):• The commercial and warehouse buildings constructed from c1857 to c1939, as shown on the precinct map.• The pattern of development in the precinct which comprises mixed streetscapes of Victorian, Federation and interwar commercial and warehouse buildings, and the key features and original detailing characteristic of their respective styles.• The high quality commercial and warehouse frontages and some side aspects to Flinders Lane, Exhibition Street and Russell Street.• The industrial streetscapes throughout the fine grain network of laneways intersecting with Flinders Lane, with rear and side aspects and some frontages to ACDC Lane, Duckboard Place, and Higson, Oliver, Malthouse, Sargood and Spark lanes.The buildings at 31-35, 37-45, 57-59, 91-93, 95-101, 103-105, 107-109, 121-123, 133-135 Flinders Lane, and 138-148 Flinders Street are contributory. The laneway rear aspect of 24-30 Russell Street fronting Oliver Lane is also contributory.The buildings at 61-73, 75-77, 87-89, 125-127, 129-131, 137-139, 141-143, 145-149 Flinders Lane, 130-132, 134-136 and 142-148 Flinders Street, 11-15 Duckboard Place, and 10-20 and 22-30 Oliver Lane are significant. The VHR-listed Duke of Wellington Hotel at part of 142-148 Flinders Street is also significant.Non-original alterations and additions to the contributory buildings are not significant.The buildings at 55 Flinders Lane (32 Flinders Street), 114-128 Flinders Street, and 14-22 Russell Street are non-contributory to the precinct.How it is significant?The Flinders Lane East Precinct is of local historic, representative and aesthetic significance to the City of Melbourne.Why it is significant?The Flinders Lane East Precinct is historically significant for its association with manufacturing and warehousing principally for the clothing and textile businesses, colloquially referred to as the ‘rag trade’, between the 1850s and the 1930s. Far from dealing in rags, Flinders Lane was the hub of a fashion industry with its many small niche businesses that provided specialist finishing services to the clothing manufacturers. The area provided employment in clothing manufacture, and many employees were women. Flinders Lane was the epicentre of the textile and clothing industry and benefited from the Commonwealth tariffs that resulted in further construction of factories and warehouses throughout the 1920s and 30s. Historically, the Flinders Lane East Precinct was the home of several other industries including Melbourne City Council’s Corporation Yard (11-15 Duckboard Place) and 91-93 Flinders Lane, coach and carriage builders Samwells and Reeves at 103 Flinders Lane and box manufacturers Morris and Walker at 31-35 Flinders Lane. (Criterion A)The Flinders Street East precinct is significant for its low-rise built form and street pattern that represents the pre-modern city. The attributes of the precinct include the laneway network that provides additional street frontages for some buildings, and an almost continuous streetscape of up to six storeys in height on Flinders Lane. The precinct demonstrates a great variety of architectural expression developed over approximately 80 years and representing many styles. Several buildings of the Romanesque revival style including nos.31-35, 87-89, 125-127, and 145-149 Flinders Lane are notable. Interwar buildings in the stripped classical style of Pawson House (no.141) or the Gothic revival of the former Bank of New South Wales at no.137-139 are also notable examples. (Criterion D)The Flinders Lane East Precinct is aesthetically significant for its views down Oliver, Malthouse and Higsons Lanes. It is also aesthetically significant for its nearly complete streetscape of small lot buildings up to six storeys in height and built to the property boundaries. The slope to the Yarra River allows some buildings to have basements or additional lower storeys. The open-ended Oliver Lane is aesthetically significant for its views to Flinders Street and beyond to the south, and of 42 Russell Street to the north. ACDC Lane, Higson Lane and Duckboard Place are significant for their enclosed and intimate scale enhanced by the red brick walls. The views along these lanes are significant for the aspects they reveal of the side of nos. 87-89, 91-93, 103-105, 107-109, 125-127, 129-131, 137-139 and 141-143 Flinders Lane.The streetscape is highly varied but includes many buildings of individual architectural importance and high aesthetic value. The three buildings fronting Flinders Street (nos.130-132, 134-136 and 138-140) are of a similar scale and proportion to those in Flinders Lane. (Criterion E)The attributes of the Flinders Lane Precinct include:• VHR listed places at 129-131 Flinders Lane and 142-148 Flinders Street, reinforced concrete warehouses at 10-20 & 22-30 Oliver Lane associated with Sir John Monash and the early use of reinforced concrete as a construction material. The Oliver Lane warehouses are of technical and associative significance.• Significant places with existing HOs at 61-73, 75-77, 125-127, 129-131, 141-143 and 145-149 Flinders Lane and 130-132 Flinders Street.• Places assessed to be significant as part of the Hoddle Grid Heritage Review, 87-89 and 137-139 Flinders Lane, 134-136 Flinders Street and 11-15 Duckboard Place.• All other contributory places noted in the precinct category schedule.• The building height and scale of the precinct up to six storeys, some places with several additional storeys added but not compromising this scale.• The intimate scale and character of Duckboard Place, ACDC Lane, Higson Lane, Spark and Sargood Lanes and the way in which they provide side views of significant and contributory places.• The open-ended Oliver Lane with views to the north and south to the river.Primary sourceHoddle Grid Heritage Review (Context & GJM Heritage, 2020).GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM.VICTORIAN HERITAGE INVENTORYH7822-1953.CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEW: 35, 39PRECINCT DESCRIPTIONThe Flinders Lane precinct is relatively large, spanning nearly two whole blocks of the Hoddle Grid between Spring and Russell Streets. The borders of the precinct exclude Shell House forecourt and Milton House at 21 Flinders Lane, commencing at 31-35 Flinders Lane and extending to the corner of Russell Street. (contributory )...It is likely that the building at 37-45 Flinders Lane, constructed c1910, was built for the J R Blencowe clothing factory, which was in operation at that address by 1911 (Age 22 March 1911:6). J R Blencowe won a number of contracts for the manufacture of clothing for the Australian military forces during World War One in the period 1915-1917 (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 13 January 1916:72; 15 March 1917:472). A 1925 map shows that J R Blencowe clothing manufacturers continued to occupy the building at 37-45 Flinders Lane in this year, when the building was described as two storeys at the front and three at the rear (Mahlstedt Map no 3, 1925)..NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954)Wednesday 22 October 1913 - Page 6https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/229347094SAVED BY TELEPHONE.BOY'S FIRST DAY AT WORK.LOCKED IN WAREHOUSE!MELBOURNE. 'Wednesday. Proud at having secured his `first Job’, a small boy left his home In One of the suburbs on Monday, and stepped, out manfully to Messrs. J. R.- Blencowe's offices In Flinders-lane. He put in a 'good day's work, and toiled so earnestly that- he did not observe the other employees leave in the evening.At 6.30 p.m. a sharp ring of the 'telephone at the Russell-street Police Barracks told the experienced operator, Constable A. Gumley, that there was a nervous person at the other end of the line..' The call was promptly answered, and it was discovered that the small boy was the caller. He was sobbing, and evidently in a state of fear.`I'm locked in,’ he said. `I just started work here to-day, and everybody left while I was washing my hands. I don’t know how to get out.’Constable Gumley assured the nervous youngster that there -was no occasion to be frightened,, and at once put himself Into communication with Mr. Blencowe, at Cheltenham.That gentleman caught a train immediately, came to town, and, on opening the establishment, found the lad asleep.The little boy was overjoyed on finding that he was not destined to spend the night in the warehouse.See also The Border Morning Mail and Riverina Times (Albury, NSW : 1903 - 1920)Wednesday 22 October 1913 - Page 3; Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW : 1888 - 1954)Monday 27 October 1913 - Page 4; The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1950)Tuesday 4 November 1913 - Page 11.The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957)Thursday 3 August 1933 - Page 11https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4752954 illustARCHITECTURE & PROPERTY. ACTIVITY IN CITY. ----REMODELLING BUILDINGS.Influence of Business and Costs.Improved business and low building costs are leading many property owners to have their properties remodelled or renovated. Some are having only superficial work done, but many are having important alterations made to the structure so, that it may look more modern and be more useful. A large proportion of the building work which is being done now is in repairing, redecorating, or remodelling business places, and most of the work is being done in the city.Flinders House, on the south side of Flinders lane, between Spring street and Collins place, is one of several factory buildings winch are being remodelled completely.It is of brick, and comprises ground and first floors and a basement and sub-basement. The work is being done in sections so that, the occupiers (Messrs. J. R. Blencowe and Co.) may continue business without complete interruption.In most buildings which it has been found necessary to re- model columns supporting the upper floors have been a source of inconvenience on the ground floor. In Flinders House wooden the remodelled facade of Flinders House, at the east end of Flinders lane wooden columns cluttered up this floor They were not large but there were so many that they were an obstructionIn remodelling,, the building the architect Mr CJ Cummings of 94 Queen street has replaced the wooden, columns with steel columns but has used six uprights only where there had previously been a large numberNew hardwood flooring has been laid over the whole of the ground floor which has an area of 5,600 square feet and all other floors have been reconditionedThe ceilings have been covered with pressed metal sheeting painted white to reflect light and `pugged' to deaden the sounds in the roomsA saw tooth light roof and light area have been rebuilt and the windows in the facade of the building have been altered and improved. The building has been redecorated inside and out and a new tiled entrance lobby has been built in Flinders lane.DIRECTORIES OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE-SANDS AND KENNY, SANDS & MCDOUGALL191545 Blencowe , J. R. clothing manufacturers(49-53 Burbank, O. E.. & Co (States Manufacturing…)192037-45 Blencowe, J. R., clothing manufacturers193037-45 Blencowe, J. R., & Sons Pty Ltd, mnfrs

Names:

City of Melbourne

Topics:

Central Activities District Conservation Study 1985Conservation studiesFederation/Edwardian styleWarehouses

Places:

Melbourne (Vic.)

Form/Genre:

Building Identification Forms (BIFs)

Record types:

Research and reports

Record number:

1208202