Clarke's shops & dwellings, 203-205 Queen Street & 420 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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Total copies: 1
Title:
Clarke's shops & dwellings, 203-205 Queen Street & 420 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
Creator:
Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 108075
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: 1869-1870;ASSOCIATIONS: Clarke, W.J.T;DESIGNER: Browne & Howitz;BUILDER: Brown, CharlesPeriod: Early Victorian.GRAEME BUTLER & ASSOCIATES 2011, CENTRAL CITY (HODDLE GRID) HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceWhat is significant?Williams John Turner (Big) Clarke, the colony's most prominent pastoralist and landowner, commissioned architects Browne & Howitz to design this pair of shops and dwellings in 1869, a few years before his death. The builder was Charles Brown. Long term occupiers were the saddlery supplier, Thomas Eyton, and a variety of other small business, including drapers, dressmakers, a poultry exchange and a patent medicine vendor.This parapeted two-storey pair of rendered shops and dwellings is designed in the Italian Renaissance style for a corner site with a splayed corner entry. The two street facades are trabeated, with stone pilasters, string and cornice moulds, dentils, and the upper-level double-hung sash windows have moulded cement architraves and bracketed and moulded sills. The timber-framed display windows appear to be of an early design and have stone plinths. Chimneys have moulded cement cornices with at least one terracotta chimney pot and the rear walls are typically of face brick. Stone-bordered basement lights or vents are set into the pavement. The rear fence is of early bricks and basalt but has been changed with openings infilled. The designer, George Browne, is responsible for a number of significant structures, many linked with Clarke.One display window (205) and two doors (203, 205) have been replaced; the stone has been painted; and changes have been made to the single storey rear wing and fence. A canopy has been added to 205. Many intrusive services have been added to the rear upper-level.How is it significant?Clarke's Shops & Dwellings are significant historically and aesthetically to the Melbourne Capital City ZoneWhy is it significant?Clarke's Victorian-era shops & dwellings are significant historically as well preserved example of their type within the Capital City Zone context, as distinguished by the survival of the shopfronts and stonework; they are also linked with the highly significant WJT Clarke. Aesthetically the pair is a good and early example of trabeated Italian renaissance style applied to a medium sized Victorian-era building in the Capital City Zone and designed by a locally prominent architect of the era, George Browne..GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites Keith and John Reid, CBD Study Area 7 Historic Buildings Preservation Council, 1976: page 169: cites rate books, not Recommended to Historic Buildings Register - notes `historical interest' of Clarke ownership_________________________________________City of Melbourne i-Heritage:Central Activities District Conservation Study - Graeme Butler, 1984 Building Identification Form (BIF): Notable features include shopfront. Alterations / Recommendations: Shopfronts altered and parapet urns gone (both inappropriate - reinstate original design or sympathetic alternative), awnings added and roof sign new (both inappropriate - remove or reinstate sympathetic alternative [awnings - skillion profile]).Other Comments 1880 panorama - shown; v1 p.106 (1869) shown._________________________________________CITY OF MELBOURNE BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONSBuilding Permit Application 1869,3334_________________________________________Mahlstedt Fire Insurance Plan Series:Mahlstedt & Gee, 1888, plan 16:shown as two 2-stroey shops 95, 95A: T Eyton, saddler..Mahlstedt (MUA) c1910-1923:203 S Reid, bootmaker205 Cox & Sons, poultry exchange_________________________________________STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIAAC Cooke Melbourne panorama 1871:shown_________________________________________LEWIS, M- AUSTRALIAN ARCHITECTURE INDEX:Browne & Howitz (combine)Argus 3.2.1869, p 3Tenders wanted - erection of 2 shops and dwellings in Queen St. for the Hon. W J T Clarke.Argus 3.6.1869, p 3Mr Brown, Architect.Saves a grocer named Hall, of S. Yarra, from drowning at Sorrento. Argus 30.12.1875 p 5Tenders invited for extension & additions to premises in Post Office Place, the property of W J Clarke. Argus 23.6.1877, p 10George Browne invites tenders for additions to premises Lt Collins St East for F T Wimble Esq. (note F T Wimble were printers) Argus 29.10.1874, p 3Tenders wanted for erection of branch office for the Commercial Bank at Echuca. Argus 24.8.1875 p 3Tenders wanted - erection of new Presbyterian Church, Fitzroy.Argus 1.9.1871, p 2tenders for erection of kitchen & dairy buildings at Berwick on behalf of W.J. Clarke.Argus 24.8.1875 p 3repairs and external painting to hotel, Lancefield Rd. On behalf of W.J. Clarke.Argus, 13.11.74, p 3Tenders wanted - erection of a country residence at Sunbury for W.J. Clarke.Argus 24.3.1874 p 3Fete given by W.J. Clarke at Sunbury to celebrate the completion of 'Rupertswood'.Report of proceedings.Argus 17.3.1876 p 7Invites tenders on behalf of Wm. Ross Esq. for general repairs and painting to Grantown-house, Nicholson Street, Fitzroy. Argus 15.11.1877, p 3Tenders invited for the erection of 5 two storey dwelling houses off Little Bourke Street, for Fong Fat Esq.Argus 30.9.1875 p 3Tenders wanted - erection of 2 private houses, Emerald Hill, for W.J.T. Clarke.Argus 19.1.1871, p 3 etc._________________________________________Victorian Heritage Database (VHD)Browne: Victorian Heritage RegisterRupertswood Mansion built for Sir William Clarke at Sunbury in 1874-76 , designed by BrowneAcademy of Music, in 1898 as Her Majesty's Theatre, BallaratIron Bridge over the Maribyrnong, KeilorEmerald Hall, formerly known as Lauder's Riding School, built in 1873 to a design by George Browne on land owned by Sir William Clarke_________________________________________F. Clarke, The Clarke Clan in Australia (Melb, 1946); M. L. Kiddle, Men of Yesterday (Melb, 1961); C. H. Bertie, ‘The Clarkes of Victoria’, Home (Sydney), 1 Dec. 1931; W. J. T. Clarke, notes and letters (State Library of Victoria); correspondence file under W. J. T. Clarke (Archives Office of Tasmania).`CLARKE, WILLIAM JOHN TURNER (1805-1874), pastoralist and landowner, was born on 20 April 1805 in Somerset, England, the second son of William Clarke of St Botolf, Aldgate, London, and his wife Sarah, née Turner, of Weston Zoyland, near Wells, Somerset. His yeoman father died in 1819 and William was placed under the guardianship of his uncle Joseph. He began to work for a drover taking cattle from Somerset to Smithfield and became a shrewd judge of livestock. At 21 the meat firm he was working with failed and he pledged himself to independence by making money, cautiously investing his savings in cattle and avoiding debt. In May 1829 he married Elizabeth (1801-1878), daughter of George Pyke Dowling, rector of Puckington, Somerset, and his wife Anne, née Biggs, of an old and wealthy Bristol family. A weak chest and a congenitally malformed hip as well as the prospect of new opportunities induced him to emigrate, and he arrived at Hobart Town with his wife in the Deveron on 23 December 1829.He first set up as a butcher and meat contractor to the government in partnership with William Ladds, and for a time lived at the shop in Elizabeth Street, Hobart. Clarke later said that he had brought a capital of more than £3000, but on 11 January 1830 when he applied for a land grant, he declared a capital of £1410 in dollars, a cow that had cost £25 in London, a bull 'not over-valued at £100', and a mare that had been worth £200 in England. Although he explained to the Land Board that he had rented the farm of Captain Briggs at Campbell Town and would have to put an overseer on his grant, he was given 2000 acres (809 ha) which he located in the Campbell Town district and called Windfalls. In November 1831 he claimed to be renting 8000 acres (3238 ha) and depasturing 6000 sheep and 800 cattle; he also had a mortgage of £600 on his Lovely Banks property near Jericho and £200 on a house at Campbell Town and expected £800 for his wool clip. For thus employing his means and time he asked for an extension of his original grant, but was refused. According to a dispatch from Denison in January 1853, Clarke then owned 80,000 acres (32,375 ha) and rented 50,000 (20,235 ha) in Van Diemen's Land.His partnership with Ladds was dissolved in 1834 and next year Clarke bought the rights of Munmurra run near Cassilis, New South Wales, but abandoned it after a few months, finding the drought and heat too severe for his health. In 1837 he shipped 1612 ewes across Bass Strait, and took them first to Station Peak in the You Yangs between Melbourne and Geelong, and then to Dowling Forest near Ballarat. Here he acquired pastoral licences for some 30,000 acres (12,141 ha), and during the depression in 1842 set up a boiling-down works which realized a considerable sum of money. He then had 100,000 sheep in the Port Phillip District and each year extended his landholdings. In 1850, under the special survey clause of the Waste Lands Act, he successfully claimed 31,375 acres (12,697 ha) at 20s. an acre, and located it near Sunbury, twenty-five miles (40 km) from Melbourne. He next obtained the adjoining 31,000 acres (12,545 ha) under the Order-in-Council of 1847, both acquisitions displacing several pastoral licensees, and making a single property that stretched from Sunbury to the Sydney Road.Known generally as 'Big' Clarke and 'Moneyed' Clarke, he was widely feared for his ruthless land hunger, but respected for consummate ability in pursuit of fortune. He never meddled with agriculture but stuck to the 'raising of sheep' as a 'better paying game', and to his great profit he introduced the Leicester breed of sheep into Australia. The gold rush further increased his prosperity; meat sales boomed; money received from his wool clips he lent at high interest to Australian import houses, and in time he acquired the reputation of being the wealthiest man in the country, this being regarded as a consequence of what his obituaries term 'parsimonious habits'.Apart from visiting his mainland stations for shearing, Clarke lived in Tasmania until 1850 and in 1870 he made his home in Melbourne at Roseneath, Essendon. He represented Southern Province in the Victorian Legislative Council from the inauguration of responsible government in 1856 until 1870, except for two years, and was an active member though often absent through travel and ill health. With the years he put on weight and left much of his pastoral management to his sons, William and Joseph, while he gave more attention to money-lending, business investment and landed property in Melbourne. He was a director and substantial shareholder in the Colonial Bank and had large interests in other banks and insurance companies. His health declined and in 1870 he became partially paralysed, but insisted on attending directors' meetings although it took four men to carry him to his carriage. He died at Roseneath on 13 January 1874, leaving an estate of some £2,500,000, besides approximately 215,000 acres (87,008 ha) of freehold throughout Australasia. He bequeathed £800 a year to his wife who lived apart from him, both in Tasmania and Victoria. Money also was left for a great-nephew in Tasmania. His properties in Victoria, worth about £1,500,000, went to his eldest son, William John (1831-1897). The second son, Thomas Bigges (1832-1878), was left out of the business affairs of the estate; his children were left £20,000 each and he received only the rich pastoral property of Quorn Hall and two farms in Tasmania. Joseph (1834-1895), the youngest son, inherited some 750,000 acres (303,518 ha) in South Australia, 50,000 (20,235ha) in New Zealand, 50,000 (20,235 ha) in Tasmania, and a large share of his father's business interests'_________________________________________DIRECTORIES OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE-SANDS AND KENNY, SANDS & MCDOUGALL1904:Little Bourke st203 Cox, M. C. & Sons, poultry, poultry experts203 Cree, J. S., & Co, patent medicine vendorsCree, Mrs Jean, dressmaker205 Reid, Samuel, boot and shoe maker(207 Radam's Microbe Killer—Frey, A. O. B.)1893Little Bourke st205 Eyton, Thos., saddlers' ironmonger(207 Atherton, Frederick, plumber and gasfitter1880Lt Bourke95 & 95.1/2 Eyton , Thomas, saddlers' ironmonger and manufacturer(97 Solomon, Mrs H , draper(99 Jennings , James, spectacle maker187597 Eyeton, T wholesale saddle manuf.Edwards, FW draper;(99 Jennings, James spectacle maker, etc..Municipal rate books [RB]City of Melbourne Rate Books: VPRS 5780 MicroficheQueen Street 203-205 – City of Melbourne – Bourke Ward1870 1054 Morris & McMurray W J Clarke 95 Bk. shop 5 rms. Cellar & stable 1201055 R Gallerby W J Clarke 95 ½ Bk. shop 3 rms. 601869 No listing
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Research and reports
Record number:
1261319
| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 108075 | 1 JPEG : 537 KB ; A4 | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |