Kellow Falkiner motor showrooms, 196-220 Russell Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme01/07/1989
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Title:
Kellow Falkiner motor showrooms, 196-220 Russell Street, Melbourne
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Date of work:
01/07/1989
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 108583
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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RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2023:__________________________________________________Reconstruction date: 1938-;ASSOCIATIONS: Kellow Falkiner Pty Ltd;DESIGNER: Harry A. Norris ?;.GRAEME BUTLER 1989, LITTLE BOURKE STREET PRECINCT CONSERVATION STUDYKellow Falkiner Motor Showrooms and196·220 Russell StreetRenovated: 1938, 1946HistoryEncircling the extensive Alcock & Co timber yards and saw mill, part of this one, two and three-storey row of shops served as Alcock's retail showroom (206-212), while the rest housed chemists, tailors. fruiterers and grocers. This was in the 1880s. Hence, Cohen's fruit and pawn shops near the Little Bourke corner were still there as was Alcock's., in c1906, when some of the retail frontage had been taken over by industry (mainly electroplaters, presumably to serve the motor industry), as had the area generally. Alcock's now owned 149-153 Lonsdale Street (then two-storey) as their wood bending works. On the opposite Little Bourke corner was the Golden Fleece Hotel and, further south, the Protestant Hall (170-172), both demolished for the Total Carpark.By the 1920s, even Cohen's corner shops were owned and renovated by Kellow Falkiner P/L, although still occupied by Cohen until the 1950s.By 1938 the strip, 196-212 Russell Street, was nearly all theirs, along with Alcock's old saw mill and showrooms. The whole was eventually incorporated into the one streamlined facade representing the motor car retailers, Kellow Falkiner. However, the firm itself occupied only 206-212 Russell Street (formerly Kell & Goddard Motors) until the 1950s when they took in 200-218.In the same era, Preston Motors occupied 104 Russell Street (demolished 1974) and around the corner in Lonsdale Street, the motor trade had even established itself at the foot of Wesley Church (Princess Mary Club). Each of the shops was absorbed into the complex by removal of internal walls and insertion of concrete and steel structure to create office and workshop areas, ancillary to those already existing from Alcock's complex. In time, even the Clarence Castle Hotel, (q.v.) formed part of their operation, by the late 1930s.C.B. Kellow had entrepreneured taxi or motor cabs in Australia in conjunction with the Taxi Cab Corporation (see 117-121 Lonsdale Street) in 1908. At the same time motor vehicle sales began to increase. In 1911 there were 2722 cars and 2122 motor cycles in the State Australia's car population increasing in the First War years (1914-18) from 37,000 to 55,596. This had near doubled in the following three years and after .ten years II was near ten times that figure. American cars gained most of the market because of their greater body and engine size (even then) but after the First War, Commonwealth loyalties prevailed and British cars gained ground, mainly because of lower import duties on car chassis. Ford established the first body building plant in Australia (Geelong, 1925), followed one year later by General Motors (Adelaide).Imported car bodies were made locally, initially, and hence the link with the cabinetmaking industry and its gradual replacement by motor services in the precinct.Kellow Falkiner imported British vehicles such as the Rootes group, Morris and Rolls Royce. Alterations and additions to showrooms, costing around £1600, were carried out in 1924-5 on 206-212 Russell Street, after previous new shopfronts in 1923. Similarly, a petrol pump was installed outside in 1926. Major alterations and additions followed in 1938 (estimated at £3000) to be eclipsed in 1946 by a further £8500 expenditure. However, their main showroom was built in SI. Kilda Road (1928) to a Harry A. Norris design, using the new Spanish Mission style, popular among the rising numbers of service stations. It is probable that Norris also designed the renovated facade of this building in 1938.DescriptionShowing traces of many former eras, the cement facade of 196-218 is nevertheless unified into an austere streamlined Moderne style, where upper level windows have been mainly closed in and the remaining openings squared off and fitted with steel framed windows. Number 214 has the major stylistic motifs (streamlined hoods, remnant cylindrical window brackets), but otherwise upper walls are bare except for a continuous string mould at first floor level. Shopfronts are metal-framed, but from different eras. The dominant character is from the late 1930s (1938?).Internally, the original 19th century shop dividing walls can still be seen, albeit much altered. Similarly the remnants of Alcock's works are also integrated into the property, requiring further investigation to separatethem.External Integrity(To c1938 era)Shopfronts painted over and altered, signs added and wall paint colours offset any period character.StreetscapeUnrelated to surviving 19th and early 20th century commercial buildings to north.SignificanceA much altered amalgamation of differing uses and historical themes although, in its present form, linked to the State's major importer of British cars and the precinct's gradual change from cabinetmaking and ironmongery to motor car servicing..GRAEME BUTLER 1989, LITTLE BOURKE STREET PRECINCT CONSERVATION STUDYsee https://issuu.com/graemebutler21/docs/little_bourke_st_precinct_conservatBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM_________________________________________NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)1924https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/67137662Ten Motors Burnt.A MELBOURNE; BLAZE.MELBOURNE, Wednesday.-A fire broke out to-night at Kellow, Falkiner Propy's motor garage, Russell st.A-man passing at the rear of the building noticed smoke. A street alarm was broken and when the brigade reached the place the fire had a good hold. The varnish room in which were ten motors, was gutted, about 30 motors in an adjoining room were saved also a. number of cars belonging to patrons who were at the theatres.1926https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/64734877The Reward of Faithful WorkOne of the oldest and most honored names in the Motor Car World is that of Hupmobile. More than seventeen years ago the first Hupmobile was built and a year later a sturdy little Hupp set out upon its famous tour round the world, covering 77,000 miles, and visiting 23 countries.….Catalogues and full information as to the various models, open and closed, with their prices can he had from Messrs. Kellow Falkiner Pty. Ltd. 206 Russell St., Melbourne.1946First postwar models of the new Packard Clipper Six and Eight are due to land in Melbourne at the end of the week.….Kellow-Falkiner Pty Ltd, of Russell st, Melbourne are sole distributors.https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/223343141946 'SILVER WRAITH' ROLLS-ROYCEDesigned to run with all the silence associated with Rolls-Royce cars, the first post-war "Silver Wraith" model has been received in Melbourne. ...Victorian distributors are MessrsKellow, Falkiner Pty Ltd, of Russell st, Melbourne..1957https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/265705539After an absence of some considerable time, Kellow Falkiner Pty. Ltd. announce the reintroduction of the Wolseley 6/90 to the Australian market. The first of the new Series III Wolseley 6/90’s willbe on view in their Russell St. Showrooms (also at the Agricultural Show) and they extend a cordial invitation to inspect the new Wolseley 6/90…
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1262808
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 108583 | 1 JPEG : 646 KB ; A4 | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |