Hardware House, 386-392 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Total copies: 1
Title:
Hardware House, 386-392 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
Creator:
Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 105869
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:__________________________________________________IMAGE: https://flic.kr/p/2nrECxfPeriod: Inter-WarDATE: 1926;ASSOCIATIONS: Hardware Club;DESIGNER: Ward, J V T;BUILDER: Concrete Building Company.GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORMCITY OF MELBOURNE BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONSQueen St - Lit Collins Sthttps://www.ancestry.com.au/imageviewer/collections/60672/images/44777_349576-006411916 Dec 438 ₤2500 Alterations to building …1925 March 7258 ₤22,000 Erection of club premises.LOVELL CHEN 2017. GUILDFORD & HARDWARE LANEWAYS PRECINCT3.5.3 Hardware House, 386-392 Little Bourke StreetThis property is known as Hardware House, at 386-392 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne. It was previously graded C.What is Significant?HistoryIn August 1924, the Hardware Club purchased the site of the Governor Arthur Hotel at 386-392 Little Bourke Street for £17,750. The hotel had been unlicensed since 1916.74 The Hardware Club was originally formed in the mid-1890s as a social club for members of the hardware trade. Within a year it had 148 members, and within ten years, it boasted over 1,000 members. 75The new club premises, known as Hardware House, was designed by architect J V Ward and constructed by the Concrete Building Company. During excavations of the site, the adjoining building at 394 Little Bourke Street collapsed. The resulting demolition of what was known as Endicott’s Building saw textile workers in the adjoining White’s knitting and white work factory in Goldie Place temporarily out of work due to the risk of brick walls collapsing on the warehouse.76 The new club building was opened in October1926 at a ceremony performed by the Lord Mayor, Sir William Brunton, a member of the Hardware Club. The six-storied Hardware House comprised ‘dining, card and reading rooms, bathrooms, billiard room, library, lounge and a suite of offices’, with ‘sample rooms’ on the sixth floor for use by members.77 In the mid-1980s, Hardware House became an exclusive and popular nightclub named, somewhat ironically, the Hardware Club.Hardware Lane took its name from Hardware House. The lane was created as an extension of Wrights Lane, following subdivision of the former Kirks Horse Bazaar property.78 Hardware Lane was also at the forefront of contemporary laneway renewal in the central city, being a popular nightspot from the 1970s, with restaurants, bistros and clubs moving into its buildings.DescriptionHardware House occupies a prominent corner in the precinct. Externally, the reinforced concrete79 building adopts a straightforward multi-storey composition with glazed shopfronts at ground floor level and five more massive floors above, capped by an overhanging bracketed cornice. The ground floor retains the broad form of its two original shopfronts with original leadlight glazing to highlight windows.Lower lights have been altered. The corner to the intersection is notable for a decorative canted corner and corbelled first floor designed to reduce vehicle impacts. The upper floors are largely without ornament, apart from rendered signage spelling ‘Hardware House’ to the Little Bourke Street façade accompanied by simple circular decorative devices to pilasters along to both frontages. Window joinery to the upper levels has been altered although the original pattern of fenestration and the broad character of the building survives. An additional level has been added to the building in the relatively recent past.How is it Significant?Hardware House at 386-392 Little Bourke Street is of local historical and aesthetic/architectural significance.Why is it Significant?The building, which dates from 1926, is historically significant as a purpose-built former club house associated with members of the hardware trade. Its scale is demonstrative of the importance of hardware traders to the City of Melbourne. Hardware House, together with Farrant’s Building across Little Bourke Street, also illustrates the redevelopment of this area of the precinct after the closure of Kirk’s Horse Bazaar, and is significant for bestowing its name on the adjacent Hardware Lane, an early and popular example of laneway renewal in central Melbourne. Aesthetically, the building is a large and prominent corner building in the precinct; it is also substantially externally intact. While a simple but well-resolved design, it provides evidence of the widespread adoption of concrete as the material of choice for multi-storey buildings during the interwar period. The ground floor façade retains original leaded highlight windows to the shopfronts, and a chamfered corner entrance.Notes:74 Australasian, 9 August 1924, p. 42.75 Argus, 22 October 1926, p. 13.76 Argus, 25 June 1925, p. 11.77 Argus, 22 October 1926, p. 13..NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)1926ITEMS OF NEWS.Victoria's great annual draughts event-the Town v. Country match will be played on the evening of Show Day, September 23, at the headquarters of the Melbourne Central Draughts Club, Hardware House. 386 Post Office place. Country players should please note that the venue of this year's match is not the same as last year. It is still the Hardware Club's rooms, but in a new building at the corner of Post Office-place (Little Bourke-street) and Wright's lane-directly at the rear of I the old Kirk's Horse Bazaar site in Bourke-street. The country organisers will be very pleased to hear from country players who intend to play in the match. The organisers are:-Messrs. F. H. Faulkner, Warrnambool, and A. E. Watson, Bayles. Any draughts player who will be in Melbourne for the Royal Show should send in his name for inclusion in this gigantic match..1927https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/222819252Club Architect's DeathOut of respect to the memory of j Mr J. V. T. Ward, an old member and the club's architect, who died last week, shooters at Tottenham on Thursday last stood with bared heads and observed a two minutes' silence, Mr Ward superintended the building of the pavilion and enclosures at Tottenham, and while he was not a trap shot, he took a keen interest in field shooting.
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Research and reports
Record number:
1253408
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 105869 | 1 JPEG : 513 KB ; A4 | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |