Warburton's shops & warehouses, 365-367 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Title:
Warburton's shops & warehouses, 365-367 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
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Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 110727
Level of description:
Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)
Type of materials:
Graphic materialsTextual material
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Series: Central City (BIF-CITY)
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UnrestrictedOpen access.
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UnrestrictedPlease contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images.
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ESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2024:__________________________________________________DATE: 1887;ASSOCIATIONS: Warburton, Thomas;DESIGNER: Twentyman & Askew;BUILDER: Radden, William____________________GRAEME BUTLER & ASSOCIATES 2011, CENTRAL CITY (HODDLE GRID) HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceWhat is significant?Warburton's shops & warehouse building was constructed in 1887 as a three storey warehouse for Joseph Warburton at the corner of Warburton Lane, the location of Thomas Warburton's iron merchandising business, and east of the gigantic Kirk's Horse Bazaar that attracted this type of hardware business. The designers were Twentyman & Askew who specialised in warehouse architecture in the late Victorian-era and the builder, William Radden of Rae St, Fitzroy.Shown in 1888 as three 3-level stores, the west half facing Little Bourke St was Day & Sons ironmongery, the eastern half occupied by T&C Timms, ironmonger, and the rear store was occupied by A Nicholls & Co. By the Edwardian-era, the stores had reverted to the Warburton ownership, as the rear part of his large iron merchandising business which faced Bourke Street (380-384). This Bourke Street building survives in an altered form.Thomas WarburtonMr & Mrs Thomas Warburton arrived in Melbourne in 1853 on `the Birmingham', the same ship as Thomas Stokes, the diesinker who was to strike many tokens for him and other Australian businesses. From the early 1860s, Warburton advertised in `The Argus' Building Materials column typically as 'Corrugated and Plain Iron all lengths and gauges, zinc 8, 9. Warburton's 11 Little Bourke street west.' Warburton built a machine for producing spouting based on an American design and the company soon became the major supplier of these products for the colonies of Australia and New Zealand. By 1866 they moved into larger premises, buying up the block at 23 Bourke Street West, running from Bourke Street right through to Little Bourke Street. Warburton took a quarter page advertisement In the Sands and McDougall Melbourne Directory for 1867, describing his business as 'Galvanised Iron and Zinc Spouting Manufacturer, Importer of Plain and Corrugated Iron, Cast Iron, OG, and Ornamental Gutters, &c.'.Warburton was involved in the notorious Polynesia Company Limited that acquired large tracts of land in Fiji and created the town of Suva among their other developments. He also salvaged maritime scrap metal in the Pacific Islands until 1871 when he and other traders on a 'blackbirding' ship, the Meva, were killed by mutineers. His widow, Martha Warburton managed the business until 1886 when she handed it over to Thomas H. and Ada Warburton who administered the business until c1908, when Alfred E. Warburton assumed control. Martha Warburton died in 1896. The company remained there for 108 years until 1966 the business relocated to Kavanagh Street in South MelbourneThis business survives today as Thomas Warburton Pty. Ltd., owned by the multinational Wurth Group. The company is based in Mulgrave, with branches at Sunshine, Kilsyth, Ballarat and Campbellfield.A representative example of an early warehouse in an Italian Renaissance Revival mode, Warburton's shops & warehouses building has a rendered classical revival façade to Little Bourke Street and dichrome face brick to Warburton Lane. Segmental window arches are used on the façade top level and full arches on the first level, each with heavily moulded architraves and impost mouldings. Pilasters and quoining trim either end of the main elevation. Key decorative elements include the architraves with keystones to arcuated windows and a decorative main cornice. The first warehouse wing in Warburton lane has a distinctive raised parapet section central to the pair with scrolls either side, while the third of the warehouses has a lower eaves line and grouped window openings in the Venetian manner. Adjoining on the south is a tall-arched Edwardian-era (or later) warehouse which relates well with the earlier building, probably as part of the Warburton empire.The dark paint colour on Little Bourke Street façade and return wall has masked the early character of the building but the Warburton Lane façade retains the most of dichrome brickwork and openings of the original design, with their corbelled arch heads. The main ground floor elevation has been modified with large openings and existing openings on the lane have also been closed-in and services, new large unrelated openings and upper level balconette added. However the building has retained its early warehouse character, particularly the Warburton Lane façade.How is it significant?Warburton's shops & warehouse building is significant historically and aesthetically to the Melbourne Capital City ZoneWhy is it significant?Warburton's shops & warehouses building is of aesthetic significance as a good example of an early dichrome brick and render warehouse in the Italian Renaissance Revival mode within Melbourne's Capital City Zone.Historically it remains part of the extensive Thomas Warburton metal merchandising complex as the forerunner of a large hardware supply enterprise that remains active today.__________________________RAWORTH, B 2002. REVIEW OF HERITAGE OVERLAY LISTINGS IN THE CBDfor the City of MelbourneHistory and DescriptionThe building at 365-367 Lt Bourke Street was constructed in 1887 [Reid] as a three storey factory and warehouse. The designer and builder are not known although Day & Sons, saddlers appear to have been the first occupants. It is a representative example of an early warehouse in a late Renaissance Revival mode. The building was constructed in polychrome face brick with rendered ornamental details. Key decorative elements include hood mouldings with keystones to arcuated windows and a decorative cornice. The Little Bourke Street facade has been painted which has to some extent masked the early character of the building but the Warburton Lane façade retains the polychrome brickwork and openings of the original design.The ground floor has been extensively modified with large openings and inappropriate tiling present but the building in general and the Warburton Lane facade in particular has retained its early warehouse character.Statement of SignificanceThe former factory and warehouse at 365-367 Lt Bourke Street is of aesthetic significance at a local level as a good example of an early warehouse in the Renaissance Revival mode within Melbourne's CBD.Footnotes:Reid, 1980, CAD Study, p 305; suggests a construction date of 1887Sands & MacDougall, Directory of Victoria, 1885, 1890 suggest a slightly later construction date.________________________GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM_______________________________________Keith and John Reid, 1976. CBD Study Area 7 Historic Buildings Preservation Council: page 305 Recommended- no Historic Buildings Register ; cites rate books Mrs Raines as occupier of brick shop and 3 rooms, Mrs Warburton as owner until 1886; 1887 brick 3 flats, with 2 shops one by T Timms, the other Day & Low, offices occupied by H Graham and printing office by G Cook._______________________________________Burchett Index; MCC Building Permit Application (BPA) 11/10/1886: 2459 fee ₤6, shops & warehouse, owner, designer, builder.VPRO MCC Building Permit Application register 1912-16: 11/1/1912 brick factories and additions for Warburton Trust in Warburton and Rankins Lanes, fee ₤10/14 (large) ._______________________________________MCC i-Heritage: Graeme Butler, 1984. Central Activities District Conservation Study - Building Identification Form (BIF): Notable features include unpainted decorative brickwork; factory/ warehouses adjoin at rear. Alterations / Recommendations: New shopfront (sympathetic), awning new, upper illuminated sign new, light and air units added (all inappropriate - remove or reinstate sympathetic alternative), verandah gone (inappropriate - reinstate original design or sympathetic alternative). cites Building Permit Application_______________________________________Mahlstedt Fire Insurance Plan Series:Mahlstedt & Gee 1888: plan 13: 16, 16A Lt Bourke St West - 3 levels, west part Day & Sons ironmongery, east part T&C Timms, ironmonger, rear store was A Nicholls & Co; `T Warburton iron merchant' shown south end of Warburton laneMahlstedt 1910-1923 (MUA): all shown as part of `T Warburton'_______________________________________Lewis, Miles web site: http://mileslewis.net/australian-building/pdf/metals/metals-galvanized-iron.pdf cites Warburton as having a galvanised iron works from 1859- see Thomas Warburton of 28 Little Bourke Street West: C B Mayes, The Victorian Contractors' and Builders' Price-Book (Melbourne 1859), pp xvii & xxii._______________________________________eMelbourne web site: Warburton Lane`Located between Queen and Elizabeth streets, Warburton Lane extends south from Little Bourke Street. It was named pre-1895 after Thomas Warburton, a galvanised iron merchant who traded from this lane. In 2007, Warburton Lane was host to the City of Melbourne's Laneway Commissions art installation 'Chandelier', created by Angela Morgan, Isla Shaw and Kylie Mitchell. '_______________________________________NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)`The Argus':Thursday 20 October 1887 : Thomas Warburton advert for iron pipes, water meters, copper sheet, brass tube 23 Bourke St WestSaturday 9 July 1898 Thomas Warburton and others convene a meeting to support Jacob Marks in bid for Council post. Edward Keep in the chair.Thursday 2 July 1896Death of Martha widow of Thomas, aged 67 `a colonist of 42 years'_______________________________________Museum Victoria website:http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/themes/2500/thomas-warburton-iron-zinc-spouting-works-melbourne-victoria`Thomas Warburton, Iron & Zinc Spouting Works,Gardner opens his biography of this hardware manufacturer with the comment that 'The success that has attended the iron and zinc spouting business of Thomas Warburton, 384 Bourke-street, Melbourne, has been perhaps due as much to the enterprise and energy and devotion of his wife, as to the enterprise and push of the man who established it, and I regret that space forbids the inclusion of much that goes to show what a woman imbued with the spirit of independence and determination to reap success and devoted to her husband and children can accomplish'.The recently married Mr & Mrs Warburton arrived in Melbourne on New Year's Day 1853 on the Birmingham, according to Gardner. Warburton came to Australia on the same ship as Thomas Stokes, the diesinker who struck tokens for him and many other Australian businesses. This is supported by the PROV Index of Immigrants to Victoria, which records that a vessel of that name brought a Mr and Mrs Thos Warburton and a Thomas Stokes to Victoria in January 1854. Gardner states that they came from Altrincham, near Manchester in England.In the booming times of early 1854 Thomas initially found it hard to get work as an Engineer. Mrs. Warburton, however, was able to earn around a pound a day by making tents, which were then in huge demand because of the gold rush. He soon found work, and entered into a unsuccessful partnership that was soon dissolved, 'Mrs Warburton declaring that there should be no more partnerships, that she alone would be her husband's partner, and she was until his death,' (Gardner).The first sign of the business that the couple founded comes from the early 1860s. Warburton advertised in the Argus' 'Building Materials' column. His standard text in 1861 was 'Corrugated and Plain Iron all lengths and gauges, zinc 8, 9. Warburton's 11 Little Bourke street west.' Warburton built a machine for producing spouting based on an American design and the company soon became the major supplier of these products for the colonies of Australia and New Zealand. By 1866 they moved into larger premises, buying up the block at 23 Bourke Street West, running from Bourke Street right through to Little Bourke Street. In the Sands and McDougall Melbourne Directory for 1867 he took a quarter page advertisement, describing his business as 'Galvanised Iron and Zinc Spouting Manufacturer, Importer of Plain and Corrugated Iron, Cast Iron, OG, and Ornamental Gutters, &c.'.About this time Warburton began speculating in salvaged goods obtained from wrecks he purchased, sometimes in combination with other investors. He also began sending ships he had purchased out to Fiji, and when he was informed that one of the Captains had taken a ship as his own, followed him to reclaim it. He traded in the Pacific Islands until 1871. (Gardner)In that year he was returning to Australia via the Samoan Islands with a number of other traders on a 'blackbirding' ship, the Meva, a vessel bringing Island labourers to Queensland. The labourers mutinied and killed the five Europeans on board and one Fijian man. Gardner records that Mrs. Warburton saw the mutiny in a dream. (Gardner)Mrs. Warburton managed the business until 1886 when she handed it over to Thomas H. and Ada Warburton. They administered the business until roughly 1908, when Alfred E. Warburton assumed control of it. Mrs. Warburton died in 1896. In the 1880s, when the street numbers were brought into a single sequence rather than being divide' in t' 'Ea't' and 'West' sections at Elizabeth Street, 23 Bourke Street West became 384 Bourke Street. John Hope notes that Warburton Lane and Warburton Alley, running off Little Bourke Street, still exist in 2005.John Hope points out that the business still exists today as Thomas Warburton Pty. Ltd., and is now owned by the multinational Wurth Group. The company is based in Mulgrave, with branches at Sunshine, Kilsyth, Ballarat and Campbellfield. The company's website gives the following description of their history and current business:'Thomas Warburton Pty. Ltd. was founded in 1858 at 384 Bourke Street, Melbourne where it remained for 108 years. In 1966 the business relocated to Kavanagh Street, Southbank and in 1998 the head office and main warehouse functions were moved to 16-26 Dunlop Road, Mulgrave.'The company's website describes their current business in the following terms:'Constant expansion and continuing growth provides greater service to our customers. We now have four branches in Victoria, all connected by one of the most advanced computer systems available. With over 70,000 lines on the shelf at any one time ranging from the smallest screw to the largest ladder available we have everything to cover your industrial needs.' (from Warburton's website 'Company Profile' page)The seven tokens struck for Thomas Warburton were all issued in 1862, bearing on the obverse his address, 11 Little Bourke Street, and the name of the business. The reverse was a stock reverse made by Thomas Stokes, featuring the Australian arms and the motto 'Advance Victoria/1862.'.References:Gardner, F. (1910). 'Trade tokens and the firms who issued them.' The Australian Storekeepers and Traders Journal. 30 June, pp.9-10Public Records Office of Victoria. Internet index to Unassisted Immigrants to Victoria, 1852-1923. VPRS series 7666Sharples, J.(1993). 'Catalogue of Victorian Trade Tokens.' Journal of the Numismatic Association of Australia. Vol. 7. December, pp.67-68.Advertisement. The Argus. 9 December 1861: p.7Advertisement. Sands and McDougall Melbourne Directory for 1867. Advertisements section: p. 62Thomas Warburton Pty. Ltd.. Company website. Http://www.warburtons.com.au/. [accessed 2005]Hope, John. 'Warburton, T.' (2005). Unpublished MSS, 3pps.'________________________DIRECTORIES OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE-SANDS AND KENNY, SANDS & MCDOUGALL1904:(363 Morris, Frederick B.. gun maker)365 Pownceby, John, bookbinder367 White, David, Topic cycle worksWarburton la—(307a Tytherleigh…)1893:(363 Morris, F. B., gun maker)367 Day, William, & Son, saddlers' ironmongers(Warburton la-367A Hiscoke Bros,)1880: Little Bourke st W-S side(Rankin's alleyReady, MrsKeeley, Mrs12 Richardson, Samuel S, hairdresser14 Coleman, J.16 Baynes, Mrs Margaret, grocerCrystal alleyAltson,…)
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| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 110727 | 1 JPEG : 276 KB ; A4 | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |