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Victoria Club Building, 131-141 Queen Street, Melbourne

Butler, Graeme1985

Record details

Title:

Creator:

Butler, Graeme (Name details)

Date of work:

1985

Reference number:

BIF-CITY 108069

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:__________________________________________________DATE: 1927, 1954-6;ASSOCIATIONS: Victoria Club;DESIGNER: Plottel, Bunnett, & AlsopPeriod: Inter-WarConstruction date: 1959-1961IMAGE: https://flic.kr/p/2nV3t49.CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceWhat is significant?The former Victoria Club at 131-141 Queen Street, built as a three-storey building in 1927 and extended in 1956 with an additional seven storeys.Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):• The building’s original external form, materials and detailing;• The building’s high level of integrity to its original design;• The original pattern and size of fenestration; arch head openings and blind arches• The entrance door surrounds, entablature, scrolled egg and dart stone relief, double timber doors with medallion motif;• The granite cladding, balconette, columns, wreath motifs and cornice on the Queen Street elevation; and• Original decorative interior features in the barrel-vaulted lobby, the ground floor chamber, and the boardroom.Any later alterations are not significant.How it is significant?131-141 Queen Street is of local historic, representative, aesthetic and associative significance.Why it is significant?Historically the Victoria Club demonstrates the tradition of private member clubs in the central city. 131-141 Queen Street is of historic significance for its association with the Victoria Club and with the history of horse racing in Victoria. The Victoria Club, founded in 1880 by a group of bookmakers who split away from Tattersalls Subscription Betting Rooms, was set up for the purpose of calling cards and settling bets. A seven-storey addition to the building in 1956 demonstrates the growth of the club after World War Two. 131-141 Queen Street is of historical significance as the clubrooms, from 1927 to 1986, of one of the earliest and longest running clubs in the state. It is of historical significance as the location in 1976 of the ‘great bookie robbery’, an event which attracted widespread public attention and ultimately contributed to the demise of the Victoria Club. (Criterion A)131-141 Queen Street is a notable example of interwar neo-Classicism. This is evident in the highly elaborate first three levels that are articulated through manipulating floor to ceiling heights and giving importance to the first floor in the form of a ‘piano nobile’. The building also demonstrates the practice of extending low rise buildings of two or three storeys to meet the 40-metre height limit, once this became possible in the 1950s. (Criterion D)The Victoria Club is aesthetically significant for its exterior and interior to the extent of its 1920s features designed by Joseph Plottel, Ernest Bunett & George Alsop. Attributes of aesthetic significance include the first three floors as expressed on the exterior and the interior spaces of the entrance with its barrel-vaulted ceiling, ground floor chamber and first floor board room. The granite half basement and grey and red granite surrounds to the entrance doorways are highly decorative as are the timber double doors to the northernmost entrance. Other attributes include the windows, doors and balconette to the Queen Street elevation. (Criterion E)The Victoria Club Building is of significance for its long association with the Victoria Club, an organisation established by and for bookmakers, and an important part of Victoria’s racing history. The Victoria Club building was designed for and built by the Victoria Club and was ‘home’ to club members – bookmakers – for nearly 60 years; it was their first permanent clubrooms and the location of the event that brought them notoriety, and that may have ultimately impacted the ability of the club to survive. (Criterion H)Primary sourceHoddle Grid Heritage Review (Context & GJM Heritage, 2020).GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM_________________________________________Open House Melbourne 2014:b 1896, extended and refurbished 1921, 1955, 1988, 1998, 2010 (roof garden)Architect: L. M. Perrott, Bent Architecture (Garden)_________________________________________CONTEXT (WITH GJM HERITAGE) 2020, HODDLE GRID HERITAGE REVIEWHO1258Victoria Club building131-141 Queen Street(1927)Architect: Plottel, Bunnett, & Alsop.· Historically significant for association with the VictoriaClub, horse racing, and location of the Great Bookie Robbery of 1976.· Significant as a representative example of interwar Neo-Classicism with sensitively designed additions by the same architects in 1957.· Aesthetically significant for its 1920s exterior and interior features.· Significant for association with the Victoria Club an organisation for bookmakers central to Victoria’s racing history.,SITE HISTORYThe land comprising the subject property at 131-141 Queen Street was first purchased by George Mercer as part of Crown Allotment 31, Block 14, in the City of Melbourne (CoM Maps). Before 1895, the buildings on the subject site were previously numbered 61-69 (Figure 1).The listing of occupants in the Sands and McDougall street directory indicates that buildings existed on the subject site by 1861 (S&Mc 1861). In 1888, three, two-storey structures existed on the subject site for commercial and possibly residential purposes (Mahlstedt Map no 14, 1888).It appears that the former buildings were demolished between late 1926 and 1927, as, by 1927, a new building was being erected on the site for the Victoria Club (S&Mc 1926,1927). A group of bookmakers who had split away from Tattersalls Subscription Betting Rooms founded the Victoria Club in 1880 for the purpose of calling cards and settling bets in a social, club environment (de Serville 2008). The Victoria Club, alternatively known as the Victorian Club, flourished, and, with increasing membership figures, its needs outgrew the old club premises on Bourke Street (Argus 8 March 1927:13). At a council meeting in 1923, the Victoria Club made the decision to purchase the land and buildings at Queen Street for £37,000 with further plans to borrow money for the purchase of the adjoining land (Sporting Globe, 3 October 1923:5). Similar clubs were in the process of expansion in the mid-to-late 1920s; Tattersalls clubs in Sydney and Brisbane had recently moved into elaborate new buildings and the design for the Victoria Club was developed to compare favourably with these buildings (Argus 8 March 1927:13).Architects J Plottel, Bunnett, and Alsop prepared the plans for the new club in 1927 after engaging, at the club committee’s request, in a thorough study of club architecture in England and America (Argus 8 March 1927:13). Plans were drawn for a 10-storey building with the intention to start works on the first three storeys immediately and the remainder to be built once the club had secured occupancy of the entire building (Argus 8 March 1927:13). The contract for the works was for £90,000 and construction completed by 1928 (MBAI 9615).The design for the building was elaborate, featuring a façade modelled on Italian lines (Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6) and an interior replete with dining, reading and card rooms, a bar and buffet service, a barrel-vaulted lobby (Figure 11), mezzanine floor and marble stair-case (Argus 8 March 1927:13). H Oliver and Sons were the decoration contractors for the club; contemporaneous media described their use of freestone walls, oak panelling and the chosen colour scheme of cerulean blue, gold and vermillion, as unusual decorative features (Real Property and Architecture 18 July 1928:11).Postwar additionsIn 1954, Plottel Bunnett & Alsop Partners Architects invited tenders on behalf of the Trustees of the Victoria Club for the construction of a seven-storey addition to the building (Argus 11 December 1954:13). The Commonwealth Oil Refineries planned to lease the seven-storey extension, which was expected to be completed before the 1956 Olympic Games, at an estimated cost of £500,000 (Argus 23 August 1955:6).Queen Street was undergoing significant transformation in the 1950s and the Victoria Club was one of three buildings on the street that was built to the existing 40 m (132 ft) height limit level (set by the planning regulations) at the time of its construction (Argus 6 April 1956: 19). Works were delayed in March 1956, by a building stoppage involving 75 workers walking off site work in protest against the failure of master builders to implement an agreement giving the workers an increase of 36 shillings per week (Age 14 March 1956: 3). However, it appears the matter was resolved as the additions were completed by 1956. By 1958, BP Australia were occupying the new seven-floor extension. Before the relocation, COR/BP head office was based at 90 William Street, Melbourne (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 20 April 1950:891). The company continued to sell fuel under the COR brand until 1959 (BP Australia 2016). A photograph of the building from 1958 shows the building displaying both the BP and COR logos on its northern façade (Figure 8). During BP's occupation of the subject site, several reconfigurations of the interior took place via the instalment of partitions on the third, fourth and eighth floors in 1969, 1970 and 1973 respectively (MBAI).Victoria Club robberyOn 21 April 1976 at the Victoria Club which had been founded as a breakaway social betting club, six masked gunmen invaded the club premises and made off with the takings from the Easter Racing Carnival (McConville 2008). The robbery, dubbed the ‘great bookie robbery’, drew significant media attention both in Australia and overseas (Chicago Tribune 22 April 1976:12). Following the robbery new windows and a mechanical door were installed in the building in 1977 and alterations to the staircases were made in 1978 (MBAI 49259). The Amateur Sports Club moved into the building in 1978, sharing premises with the Victoria Club who had been experiencing financial difficulty since the robbery (Age 7 February 1978:32). Internal alterations continued into the 1980s with partitions being erected in the fourth and eighth floors (MBAI). The robbery continues to be a subject of interest to Victorians; in 1986 a television miniseries dramatising the event was made and in June 2018 a segment on the robbery aired on the ABC’s Nightlife radio program (IMDb 2018; ABC 2018).In 1986 the Victoria Club sold their headquarters, moving the club premises to the 41st level of the Rialto Towers in 1987, again moving several times before the organisation folded between 2008 and 2012 (de Serville 2008; Age 4 April 2012).Other associationsThe Commercial Banking Company of Sydney moved into the building in 1928, the same year the basement was subdivided (S&Mc 1928; MBAI 10905). The following year Mrs R Rolls opened a café on the subject site and further additions were made in 1929 and 1930 (S&Mc 1929; MBAI). Between 1931-1938, the Victoria Club shared the premises with R Rolls Café (which became Rosa Café in 1935), the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, and the Typewriter Service Company, later Sydney Pincombe Ltd Typewriter Imports. By 1942 the Victoria Club and the Commercial Bank of Sydney were the only listed occupants for the address (S&Mc 1942). Little building activity occurred in the 1930s-1940s except for partitions erected in 1946 (MBAI).The subject site presently hosts a variety of occupants, including the Turf Sports Bar; the Universal Institute of Technology; and offices providing professional services. In early 2009 the Growing Up competition, initiated by the Committee for Melbourne’s Future Focus Group, called for design submissions for a roof top garden on the subject site; the Committee received 32 submissions, awarding first place to ‘Head for the Hill’ by Bent Architecture (Ehrmann 2011). The roof top garden was officially opened in July 2010.Figure 1. An extract from 1888 Mahlstedt Map showing the subject site numbered 61-69. (Source: Mahlstedt & Gee, no 14, 1888). Figure 2. An extract from 1895 Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works detail plan showing subject site numbered 131-141. (Source: CoMMaps).Figure 3. An extract from a 1948 Mahlstedt Map. Note that the map has been amended and shows the building post-1956 extensions. (Source: Mahlstedt Map Section 1, no 17, 1948). Figure 4. Extract from 1927 building plans showing elevation and section of 131-141 Queen Street. (Source: PROV VPRS 11200/P1, unit 1175, item 9615)Figure 5. Elevation of the Victorian Club building’s first three storeys. (Source: Herald 1 June 1927:13).Figure 6. Victorian Club’s new building. (Source: Herald 18 July 1928:11).Figure 7. Victorian Club building as it will appear when the whole of the plans have been carried out (Source: Herald 1 June 1927:13).Figure 8. BP Australia 131-141 Queens Street, showing BP and COR signage on the northern façade. (Source: Sievers 1958, STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA ).Plottell, Ernest Bunett & George Alsop, architectsThere is little information available about Plottell, Ernest Bunett & George Alsop’s partnership. It appears, from advertisements, that they commenced practice in the early 1920s working in both Canberra and Melbourne. During their brief partnership, the architects’ works included the Golf Club House, Melbourne (Herald 14 September 1927:15); Barnet Glass Rubber Co Ltd factory, Footscray (Construction and Local Government Journal 26 June 1929:15); and major extensions to the RiverineClub, Wagga Wagga (Daily Advertiser 21 September 1929:9). A notice in the Canberra Times in 1930, announced that the partnership had been dissolved by mutual consent on the 29 December 1929 (Canberra Times 10 February 1930:3).Joseph Plottel, the most well-known of the partners, was born in Yorkshire in 1883. Plottel received his architectural training in London before moving to South Africa in 1903. In 1906, Plottel moved to Melbourne and worked for the railways, then in the office of Nahum Barnett before opening his own office in 1911. Plottel produced designs for a range of building types, including industrial, residential and commercial. His architectural style combined a Mediterranean influence with Moderne aesthetics. Plottel's works include the St Kilda Synagogue (1926) and the Beehive Building, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne (1935) (Grow 2012:545)..REFERENCESAustralian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) 2018, Nightlife – True Crime, the Great Bookie Robbery, http://www.abc.net.au/, accessed 20 June 2018.Age, as cited.Argus, as cited.Bendigo Advertiser, as cited.BP Australia 2016, BP’s Contribution to Australia, https://www.bp.com/en_au/australia.html, accessed 20 June 2018.Building Permit 9615 for 131-141 Queen Street, Melbourne, dated 23 April 1927 (MBAI).Building Permit 49259 for 131-141 Queen Street, Melbourne, dated 10 July 1978 (MBAI).Canberra Times, as cited.Chicago Tribune, as cited.City of Melbourne Interactive Maps (CoMMaps) 2017, http://maps.melbourne.vic.gov.au/, accessed 13 April 2018.Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, as cited.Commonwealth Oil Refineries (Australia) 1938, ‘The romance of the C.O.R.: a great national institution’, Melbourne: COR, http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/127517, accessed 26 April 2018.Construction and Local Government Journal (Sydney NSW), as cited.Context 2012, Thematic History: A History of the City of Melbourne’s Urban Environment, prepared for the City of Melbourne.Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga NSW), as cited.De Serville, Paul 2008, ‘Victoria Club’, in eMelbourne, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne, http://www.emelbourne.net.au/, accessed 23 April 2018.Ehrmann, Sigrid 2011, ‘131 Queen Street rooftop by Bent Architecture’, in ArchitectureAU, https://architectureau.com/, accessed 27 April 2018.Fitzhardinge, L F 1983, ‘Hughes, William Morris (Billy) (1862-1952)’, in eMelbourne, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne, http://www.emelbourne.net.au/, accessed 27 April 2018.Grow, Robin ‘Plottel, Joseph’ in Goad, Philip & Willis, Julie (eds) 2012, The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Herald, as cited.IMDb 2018, the Great Bookie Robbery [1986-], https://www.imdb.com/?ref_=nv_home, accessed 20 June 2018.Mahlstedt and Gee 1888, Standard plans of the city of Melbourne, Mahlstedt and Gee, Melbourne.Mahlstedt’s Pty Ltd 1925 City of Melbourne detail fire survey. Section 1, Mahlstedt Pty Ltd, Melbourne.Mahlstedt’s Pty Ltd 1948 City of Melbourne detail fire survey. Section 1, Mahlstedt Pty Ltd, Melbourne.McConville, Chris 2008, in eMelbourne¸ School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne, http://www.emelbourne.net.au/, accessed 27 April 2018.Melbourne Building Application Index (MBAI), retrieved from Ancestry.com 2015, Victoria, Australia, Selected Trial Brief and Correspondence Registers and Other Images, 1837-1993 [database on-line], http://ancestry.com.au, accessed online March-April 2018.National Trust of Victoria, Australia, 2014, Melbourne’s Marvellous Modernism, A Comparative Analysis of Post-War Modern Architecture in Melbourne’s CBD 1955 -1975, Melbourne.Priestley, Susan 2008, ‘Altona’, in eMelbourne¸ School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne, http://www.emelbourne.net.au/, accessed 27 April 2018.Public Records Office Victoria (PROV) City of Melbourne building plans and permits (1916-1960), as cited.Real Property and Architecture, as cited.Sands & McDougall, Melbourne and Suburban Directories (S&Mc), as cited.Senyard, June 2008, ‘Horseracing', in eMelbourne¸ School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne, http://www.emelbourne.net.au/, accessed 27 May 2018.Sievers, Wolfgang 1958, ‘Buildings in Queen Street, between Little Collins and Bourke Streets, Melbourne’, Melbourne SLV: Wolfgang Sievers collection, https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/, accessed 20 April 2018.Smith, Ailie 2001, ‘Commonwealth Oil Refineries Ltd 1920-c1952’, in Encyclopedia of Australian Science, http://www.eoas.info/, accessed 27 April 2018.Sporting Globe, as cited.Sydney Morning Herald, as cited._________________________________________DIRECTORIES OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE-SANDS AND KENNY, SANDS & MCDOUGALL1930 131-141 Victorian Club 131-141 Rolls, Mrs R., café COMMERCIAL BANKING CO OF SYDNEY LIMITED (The) 131-141 With which is amalgamated The Bank of Victoria Limited. Branch Manager: W. H. G. Cox; Head Office: 257 Collins-st.

Names:

City of Melbourne

Topics:

Central Activities District Conservation Study 1985Conservation studiesInterwar period1960-1969Twentieth Century Architecture Register (RAIA)

Places:

Melbourne (Vic.)

Form/Genre:

Building Identification Forms (BIFs)

Record types:

Research and reports

Record number:

1261296