BIOSIS RESEARCH

Cross Street Electrical Substation. Footscray

Report for City of Maribyrnong July 2007

Biosis Research Pty Ltd. Project no: 6388

Author: Gary Vines

Ballarat: 449 Doveton Street North Ballarat3350 Ph: (03) 5331 7000 Fax: (03) 5331 7033 email: [email protected]

Melbourne: 38 Bertie Street Port Melbourne 3207 Ph: (03) 9646 9499 Fax: (03) 9646 9242 email: [email protected]

Queanbeyan: 55 Lorn Road Queanbeyan 2620 Ph: (02) 6284 4633 Fax: (02) 6284 4699 email: [email protected]

Sydney: 15 – 17 Henrietta Street Chippendale 2008 Ph: (02) 9690 2777 Fax: (02) 9690 2577 email: [email protected]

Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Biosis Research acknowledges the contribution of the following people and organisations in preparing this report:

• Kerryn O’Keeffe, (City of Maribyrnong)

• David Moloney (National Trust of Australia (Victoria)

ABBREVIATIONS

AHC Australian Heritage Commission AMG Australian Map Grid ARC Australian Research Council DSE Department of Sustainability and Environment DOI Department of Infrastructure DPI Department of Primary Industries HO Heritage Overlay HPA 1995 Heritage Protection Act 1995 HV Heritage Victoria (DSE) HVI Heritage Victoria Inventory ICOMOS International Council on Monuments and Sites NT National Trust of Australia (Victoria) PEA 1987 Planning and Environment Act 1987 PROV Public Records Office of Victoria RNE Register of the National Estate SLV State Library of Victoria VHR Victorian Heritage Register

BIOSIS RESEARCH i Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

CONTENTS

1.0 PROJECT BACKGROUND...... 3

2.0 LOCATION...... 3

3.0 DESCRIPTION ...... 4

4.0 CONDITION ...... 5

5.0 HISTORY ...... 10

5.1 BACKGROUND AND USE OF ELECTRICITY SUBSTATIONS ...... 10 5.2 FOOTSCRAY ELECTRICITY SUPPLY DEPARTMENT ...... 11 5.3 ARCHITECT JOSEPH PLOTTELL...... 12 5.4 FOOTSCRAY SUBSTATIONS ...... 18 5.5 COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT ...... 20

6.0 SIGNIFICANCE ...... 30

REFERENCES ...... 34

BIOSIS RESEARCH ii Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

1.0 PROJECT BACKGROUND

The City of Maribyrnong has undertaken a series of Heritage Studies in the past decade to document heritage places in the municipality. These studies have been thorough, but not entirely comprehensive, as new heritage places can still be uncovered. One of these is the Cross Street electricity substation. This place has been identified through the interest of the Art Deco Society, which included it in an article on the architectural of Joseph Plottel in their journal Spirit of Progress.1

Kerryn O’Keeffe of the City of Maribyrnong subsequently commissioned an assessment to determine the cultural heritage significance of the site. 2.0 LOCATION

The Cross Street electricity substation is located on the south side of Cross Street, West Footscray, immediately west of the Geelong road overpass and north of the Footscray railway line. The land is owned by VicTrack as part of the Melbourne suburban rail network and comprises part of Lot 9 Section 13 in the Parish of Cut Paw Paw.

Substation and switch yard

Figure 1: Location of Cross Street Substation

1 Robin Grow, 2005, Joseph Plottel, A Man Ahead of his Time, Spirit of Progress Vol 6 No 3, 2005, pp.9-11.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 3 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

3.0 DESCRIPTION

The Cross Street substation comprises a tall brick structure with a duplicate facade featuring twin large timber doors and a pattern of tall vertical openings either side of a wide horizontal rectangular window above the doorways. Each of these compositions is flanked by pilasters with streamlined rain heads and downspouts completing the design symmetry.

In plan the building is square, with an internal dividing wall extending through the flat roof and an adjoining switch yard to the west enclosed by tall concrete walls. These are evidently freestanding reinforced concrete with recessed horizontal lines spaced about 1 metre intervals. The shaping of mortar courses and brickwork at the junction with the concrete wall indicate that the concrete wall was erected at the same time or prior to the substation.

The design is balanced with a tripartite elevation through use of a clinker brick plinth with cream rendered top, red brick walls and clinker frieze to the parapet above. The frieze comprises alternate double rows of expressed and recessed brick courses and has cream cement-rendered lines in the two recesses and top of the wall. The plinth on the eastern half of the building projects about a foot (300mm), although it would appear that both parts of the structure were erected at the same time. This subtle difference in the design may relate to the difference in function of the two halves of the building, with the larger foundation slab needed at the east end to accommodate the transformers.

The doorway is framed by projecting brick pilaster and soldier course lintel, which extends through to the horizontal window above. The red painted steel-framed windows and the lights above the doors have galvanised pipe framed Cyclone mesh panels to prevent access. Steps at the doorways are also of clinker bricks, continuing the plinth line, with a slight slope in ground level and the projecting plinth at the eastern end reflected in an additional step on the eastern door, while the western lower steps protrude beyond the building line.

Other details include the terracotta vents (in the western half of the facade and end walls), a flat projecting concrete shade over the east facing windows, rendered window sills, the streamlined rain heads (originally painted a red-brown colour along with the down spouts) and eight roof ventilators. These last are obscured from view by the parapet, but can be seen from the adjoining (and later) pedestrian bridge at West Footscray Station and Geelong Road overpass.

Nearby contemporary industries such as Olympic Tyres, textile mills, margarine factory, canning works, foundries, wool stores, Olex Cables, Wiltshire files and oat mills provide the industrial context for the substation. Factories on both sides of the railway built in the 1900- 1940s period were part of a major expansion of industry in the West Footscray and Tottenham ares.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 4 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

4.0 CONDITION

The building appears structurally sound with no evidence of cracking, as would be expected of a building designed to hold transformers and other equipment weighing many tons. Render has flaked off the plinth and string courses and the down spouts are rusted and decayed. There are no remaining switchgear or supporting frames in the switchyard and it would appear that the substation has been disconnected from the grid for some time.

One of the rain heads on the façade is missing and another at the back of the building has been repaired, therefore losing part of its streamlined profile. One down spout is totally missing (in NE corner), while most of the others are damaged and perforated.

Figure 2: View from north west

BIOSIS RESEARCH 5 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Figure 3: View from east showing large eastern windows.

Figure 4: View from south east showing roof vents

BIOSIS RESEARCH 6 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Figure 5: View from north west looking over concrete walled switch yard

Figure 6: View from east showing concrete wall around switch yard.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 7 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Figure 7: Detail of windows and frieze

Figure 8: Detail of rain head

BIOSIS RESEARCH 8 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Figure 9: Detail of junction between brickworks and concrete switch yard wall

.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 9 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

5.0 HISTORY

5.1 Background and use of Electricity substations

A substation is a high-voltage electric system facility used to switch generators, equipment and circuits or lines in and out of a system. It also is used to change AC voltages from one level to another and/or change alternating current to direct current or direct current to alternating current. Some substations are small with little more than a transformer and associated switches. Others are very large with several transformers and dozens of switches and other equipment. There are three main types of substation, being step up substations, step down substations and distribution substations.

The first two are used as part of the high voltage distribution system and are not particularly relevant in the current context as they usually comprise large open switching yards rather than equipment enclosed in permanent buildings.

A distribution substation transfers power from the transmission system to the distribution system of an area. It is uneconomical to directly connect electricity consumers to the high- voltage main transmission network, unless they use large amounts of energy; so the distribution station reduces voltage to a value suitable for local distribution.

The input for a distribution substation is typically at least two transmission or subtransmission lines. Input voltage may be, for example, 120 kV fed into the Yarraville terminal substation from transmission lines running from Yallourn around Melbourne’s north and west, where it was reduced to 22kv and 6.6kv for the output feeders.2

Besides changing the voltage, the job of the distribution substation is to isolate faults in either the transmission or distribution systems. Distribution substations may also be the points of voltage regulation, although on long distribution circuits (several km/miles), voltage regulation equipment may also be installed along the line.

The first power supplies did experience considerable current loss in their distribution systems, leading initially to the shift from direct to alternating current and increasingly sophisticated switching and control systems. Substations became regular features of the streetscape by the early 20th century with a diverse variety such as small pole mounted structures along the distribution lines and purpose built brick enclosed buildings, often incorporated into large factory complexes where a single large power user demanded their own substation. 3

2 US Department of Agriculture engineering design manual for rural substations, RUS Bulletin 1724E- 300 3 Brief history of electricity undertakings in Victoria prior to 1918. State Electricity Commission of Victoria, 1969; SEC, 1949, Three decades: the story of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria from its inception to December 1948; Electricity Supply Department Melbourne: Electrical Development Branch, 1936, Electricity: the electricity supply system of Victoria

BIOSIS RESEARCH 10 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

The development of large stand-alone substations came as a consequence of the shift in industrial motive power from internally generated power systems such as steam engines driving line shafts of factory based generators, to the use of centrally generated electricity powering separate electric motors and lighting throughout the factory. It would appear that the scale of substation demonstrated by examples such as Cross Street, generally reflect high power use in small areas such as inner city and industrial areas.

5.2 Footscray Electricity Supply Department

Footscray’s electricity supply can be traced back to the 1890s when the A. U. Alcock Electric Light and Motive Power Co. extended its lines into the suburb from its power station in Coors Lane, Melbourne and later augmenting this with a larger station in Burnley Street, Richmond. Under the provisions of the Electric Light and Power Act 1896, Alcock's company was granted an Order in Council which gave permission to continue its works in Melbourne, Richmond, Fitzroy, Collingwood, Kew and South Melbourne but not permitted to extend any further. In 1899 the firm was taken over by the Brush Electrical Engineering Co. of England and a new venture, the Electric Light and Traction Co. was formed, with Alcock a director. This supplied electricity throughout many Melbourne suburbs and later formed the basis of the retail distribution system of the State Electricity Commission.4

Plans to electrify the suburban railways were mooted in the 1900s but put on hold due to World War I. The idea was revived after the war with the passing of the Electricity Commissioners Act of December 1918. The members of the State Electricity Commission (SEC) were appointed in 1921, with John Monash as their first Chairman with a mandate to “electrify” Victoria.5

In the next five years the Yallourn brown coal power station was constructed and transmission lines completed to the main terminal station at Yarraville and sub-terminals at Richmond and Thomastown, while a network of distributor and step-down substations were built around Melbourne. These included, (roughly in order of construction), the MCC Spencer Street ‘J’, a substation on the boundary of Melbourne and Brunswick ‘C’, Ascot Vale ‘D’, Collingwood ‘B’ and outdoor substations for country distribution at Ringwood, Preston and Sunshine. In the 1920s, new substations were also constructed at South Melbourne ‘G’, Richmond ‘R’, Camberwell ‘K’, St Kilda ‘H’, Oakleigh ‘O’ and Mentone ‘M’.6

Footscray also had an electricity supply system for the suburb’s tramways, which were initially constituted in 1915 as a local venture by the Footscray Tramway Trust and opened in 1921, but by this time had already been absorbed into the MMTB. While excess capacity of the Railways

4 G. B. Lincolne, 'Alcock, Alfred Upton (1865 - 1962)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, pp 30-31. 5 Allom Lovell & Associates, Yarraville Terminal Station, pp 6-9. 6 Allom Lovell & Associates, Yarraville Terminal Station, pp 6-9

BIOSIS RESEARCH 11 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray power system was tapped for domestic supply, for example through use of the Newport Power Station, the tramway systems were generally under powered, so drew on SEC supplies.7

The Footscray Council was progressive in many ways during the early 20th century, sponsoring infant crèches, employment programs, the Footscray Technical School and the more common libraries, community halls, swimming pool and the like. It is no surprise then that a Council committee decided in 1910 in favour of the bulk purchase and retailing of electricity generated by the Melbourne City Council and negotiated special rates with the view or selling to industry as well as supplying power for domestic use and street lighting.8

One of the most enthusiastic proponents of municipal power was councilor Frank Shillabeer, who having traveled through his English homeland in 1906, returned to extol the virtues of municipal enterprises, including an electric power house, street lighting and trams and declaring himself a socialist, despite his strong business background. Funds were duly borrowed for installing plant and street poles and the street lighting was turned on at 7.30 on the evening of Saturday 16 December 1911. Footscray became the first municipality outside the City of Melbourne with its own municipal lighting system. The massive industrial expansion and housing boom of the period resulted in the council power scheme proving very profitable, while at the same time encouraging even more development as the modern service attracted more builders and residents.

The municipal supply initially depended on the supply from the Melbourne City Council power station and the private venture begun by Alcock’s company. But due to the competition between consumers, the Footscray Council found its own Electricity Supply Department and became a major player such that, with the formation of the State Electricity Commission, the municipal electricity departments including Brunswick, Box Hill, Doncaster, Williamstown and Footscray continued as power retailers and distributors, purchasing power from the SEC.9

In May 1973 the Footscray City Electricity supply moved out of its Buckley Street office, which was subsequently taken over by the SES. The Footscray Electricity Supply Department was ultimately amalgamated into the corporatised electricity companies in the 1990s, initially under the trading name Solaris Energy.

5.3 Architect Joseph Plottel

Joseph Plottel was born in Yorkshire in 1883 and came to Australia with his family in 1895. However he returned to England soon after when his father died. He trained as a draftsman with a London architect, where he was advised to head for the colonies for advancement. He moved

7 Victorian Municipal Directory ; VPRS 8291 General Correspondence Files Footscray (Municipal District 1859 - 1863; Borough 1863-1887; Town 1887-1891; City 1891-1994); VA 2973 Footscray Tramway Trust, correspondence files. 8 Lack, John, 1991 A History of Footscray, Hargreen Publishing and City of Footscray. Pp196-7. 9 Edwards, Cecil (1969). Brown Power. A jubilee history of the SECV. State Electricity Commission of Victoria.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 12 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray to South Africa in 1903, working in Pretoria, Capetown and Johannesburg. Then he took passage to the United States where he saw prospects for architects after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but when he ran out of money en route, he decided to stay in Melbourne. Here he was embraced by the local Jewish community and soon found his feet, initially taking up a position with the Railway’s Engineering Department. He obtained work as a draftsman with the noted Federation-style architect Nahum Burnett and then set up his own office in 1911.10

He enjoyed a very diverse architectural practice with commercial and residential commissions in an eclectic modern style drawing on the American Romanesque and Arts and Craft movement. Among Plottel’s early commissions were Embank House at 325 Collins St in 1911, the Williamstown Municipal Buildings in 1914 and several flat projects such as ‘Chilterns’, Glenferrie Road, 1917 ‘Garden Court’ of 1918 in Marne St South Yarra and ‘Waverly’ at 115-119 Grey Street St. Kilda from 1920. These designs tended to fine detailing in brick, but in a restrained manner characteristic of the romantic movement of the Arts Crafts. The prominent use of rain heads and down spouts in the composition is an interesting pointer to Plottel’s later work.11

Figure 10: Garden Courte 61 to 67 Marne Street South Yarra. 1918

The Jewish community provided many commissions, as he became close to several business people who had factories in Melbourne’s Western Suburbs including Footscray and Yarraville. Plottel’s wife Rachel was a doctor specialising in skin conditions. Their daughter, Philippa,

10 Grow, Robin and Scott, Brian, 2005, ‘Joseph Plottel, A man ahead of his time’, Spirit of Progress, journal of the Art Deco Society of Australia, Vol 6 No 3, 2005, pp.9-11. 11 South Yarra Conservation Study - Meredith Gould, 1984; MCC Heritage Building Identification Sheet.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 13 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray married into the Hallenstein family (the brothers Isaac and Michael Hallenstein having established the vast tannery of Michaelis Hallenstein in Footscray with their cousin Moritz Michaelis) and obtained a Master of Laws at the University of Melbourne then went on to a prominent role in women’s affairs and law, as a member of the National Council of Women of Victoria, the Victorian Women Lawyers Society, the Australian Local Government Women's Association Victoria and many other organisations.12

1924 was a significant year for Plottel, as he married that year and also was appointed to design the new St Kilda Synagogue, as the congregation had outgrown the 1872 building. As inspiration he presented a photo of the Temple Isaiah in Chicago, adapting the exterior to a ‘Byzantine Revival style with an octagonal base and dome roof clad in Wunderlich tiles, while the interior was finished in what was to become Plottel’s trademark finely crafted woodwork.13 The foundation stone of the new synagogue was laid 28 February 1926 (the contractor being H H Eilenberg) and the synagogue was consecrated on 13 March 1927. The Ladies` Gallery was also extended in 1957-58 to designs by Plottel.14

The Masonic Club, 164 to 170 Flinders Street Melbourne. 1926 - 1927 again featured the extensive use of decorative brickwork, this time in a variation of the Neo - Grec theme, showing the style's usual chaste ornament, formed by swags, antefixes and a shallow pediment.15

Plottel established a brief practice in Canberra in the partnership of Plottel Burnett & Alsop, who were commissioned to design a number of residential housing projects for the Capital Territory, one example of which survives at 5 Baudin Street dated to 1928 and showing a Mediterranean influence.16 The Canberra Electoral role for 1929 lists ‘Plottel, Joseph architect 31 Queen St, Melbourne’ by dint of his having purchased property in the territory.17

Further commissions then came in a series of factories, shops and commercial buildings in Melbourne and the inner suburbs, including Brash’s at 108 Elizabeth Street and the Masonic Club Building in Flinders Street, both in the late 1920s, while two Footscray factories fro Maize Products in 1933 and Bradmills in 1934 cemented his reputation in that suburb. Bradmill’s had previously been McPhersons Jute Works and Barnett Glass Rubber, but under the ownership of

12 Australian Women Biographical entry Hallenstein, Phillipa May (1918 - ) 13 Grow and Scott, ‘Joseph Plottel, A man ahead of his time’, Spirit of Progress, , 2005, p.9 14 Allom Lovell & Associates, 2000 Conservation Management Plan for the St Kilda Hebrew Congregational Synagogue. Victorian Heritage Register (VHR 1968). 15 Central Activities District Conservation Study - Graeme Butler, 1984 16 Cornerstone of the Capital: A history of public housing in Canberra / Bruce Wright, ACT Housing, 2000. Australian Capital Territory Heritage (Decision about Registration of the Blandforida 4 Housing Precinct Forrest) Notice 2007 (No 1) http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/ni/2007-66/current/rtf/2007-66.rtf. 17 1929 Electoral Roll - Election For The Third Commissioner 26 March, 1929 Memorandum for- The Commonwealth Chief Electoral Officer, Canberra (Australian Archives A6266/1 G29/1223) http://hotkey.net.au/~jwilliams4/1929_06.htm;

BIOSIS RESEARCH 14 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Bradford Cotton Mills the site was greatly extended with "Factory block No. 1" extensively reconstructed , in 1926-7 according to Plottel’s designs for a then massive £53,399.18

He also carried out work on the Kayser Knitting Mill in 1933 and 1936 and Lamson Paragon’s paper mill in Richmond in 1937, extending his repertoire with functional industrial buildings, still exhibiting finely executed decorative effects such as the use of coloured brickwork and terra cotta.

Figure 11: Julius Kayser (Aust.) Pty. Ltd. Kniting Mills Richmond, (Photo State Library Victoria)

The Footscray connections came to fruition in the commission for the new Footscray Town Hall for the municipality. The two storey building was designed in an erected by day labour under supervising contractors ARP Crow & Sons in 1936, to replace the first town hall built in 1875. It adopts the American Romanesque style reflecting the Chicago school, which had previously influenced Plottel for his St Kilda Synagogue. It is the only example of this style applied to a town hall in Victoria. The exterior incorporates a finely detailed entrance loggia with Corinthian columns, variegated brown brickwork highlighted with intricately modelled buff faience work and a terracotta tile mansard roof. It contains offices on the ground floor and

18 Jill Barnard Graeme Butler Francine Gilfedder & Gary Vines, 2000, Maribyrnong Heritage Review, Volume 5, Historic Places - Urban Conservation Areas & Individual Places in the former City of Footscray

BIOSIS RESEARCH 15 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray the council chamber and reception hall on the upper level. The interior is designed in a contrasting Streamlined Modernist manner.19

Figure 12: Footscray Town Hall.

In the later 1930s, Plottel’s work became increasingly modern, with examples such as the 1935 Beehive Building (92 to 94 Elizabeth Street Melbourne) and 1937 Yoffa House (187 Flinders Lane Melbourne) reflecting the Functionalist/Moderne style of the Interwar period. The Beehive building has been described as ‘one of the most distinctive buildings in Melbourne’, while Yoffa House is ‘almost modern in concept, the Moderne note is sounded by the 'architectural terracotta' applied to the facade and the portholes intended for its walls’

Further flat designs also came in the 1930s such ‘Clovelly’ at 136 Alma Road, St Kilda of 1938, featuring the Old English style which was a fashionable and romantic style for flats in the period 1919-41, described as ‘a cheery tonic after the rigours of the Great War.’ 20

In 1937 Plottel was again engaged by the Jewish community to design the Temple Beth Israel in Alma Road, St Kilda. This building points to his work on the Footscray substations in its highly modernistic design.

19 Heritage Victoria Citation, H1218, Maribyrnong Town Hall; Butler, G. (1989) Footscray Conservation Study. City of Footscray. 20 St Kilda Historical Society Inc. © 2005 http://www.skhs.org.au/SKHSbuildings/41.htm, buildings of St Kilda and their people. Malvern historical Society building plans.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 16 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Figure 13: Temple Beth Israel c 1945 (National Archives of Aust. Image A1200, L3051)

Other Plottel buildings

Other Plottel designs have been identified from the work of the Art Deco Society and architectural indexes. Some of his original drawings are in the Latrobe Library collection on loan from the Melbourne University Architecture School.21

586 Bourke Street Melbourne 1911

Kozminsky's Building Grime's Lane, Melbourne, 1913, alterations by Plottel with Reinforced Concrete and Monier Pipe Construction Co added floors.22

Victoria Club 141 Queen Street. Melbourne, late 1920s

H V Nathan House Trawalla Avenue Toorak, 1932

Venetian Court dining room, Hotel Australia Flinders Street. Melbourne, 1933

Bathurst Apartments, 24 Queens Road Melbourne (remodelling) 1934

21 Miles Lewis, 1077, Architectural Drawings As Historical Sources, The LaTrobe Journal No 20 December 1977. 22 Correspondence in RCMPC's Quotation Files shows the architect was J Plottel and the builder T McLean. An account for construction of the "first floor" was issued on 1 April 1913 for £131-10-0. Alan Holgate, John Monash: Engineering enterprise prior to World War 1 Notes on Building Projects http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aholgate/jm/bldgtext/bldgs19.html#kozminsky

BIOSIS RESEARCH 17 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Flats, 5 Moorakyn Avenue Malvern, elegant Arts & Crafts design, 1934.

House and Flats, cnr Toorak road and Evans Court Toorak (Plottel private residence) 1934

House Palm Grove Deepdene, 1937

Boys Home, Burwood, 1937, brick and cement render of four wings from an octagonal entrance hall.23

Female block, Mount Royal Hospital Parkville, 1938.

Brighton Theatre Bay Street Brighton, (alterations), 1940

122-128 Flinders Street Melbourne n.d.

A W Allen’s Factory, 2 Byrne Street South Melbourne, n.d.

Freemasons Club, Flinders Street Melbourne. n.d.24

5.4 Footscray Substations

Plottel was commissioned by the Footscray Electricity Supply Department to design a series of substations in 1937. This was a period of recovery for Footscray and while the depression had stifled development, the Council was progressive in undertaking a range of employment schemes to boost resident’s incomes. It was also actively promoting industrial development and on the eve of the Second World War, was poised for one of the greatest industrial booms. All this required a significant increase in power capacity, particularly as more industries were switching from their own steam generation plant to the reticulated electricity supply.

Footscray council decided that ‘…electric current shall be distributed from ornamental little buildings instead of from box-like structures that raise their ugly shapes in many suburbs’.25

It is apparent that Plottel applied his modernist design ideas to these buildings, as would have been appropriate for the electricity age. According to Grow, these were ‘solidly constructed, with brick walls and concrete roofs and floors and in a Moderne style, each was finished in different colours with cream and blue glazed bricks and individual touches to harmonise with the surroundings.’26

In addition to the Cross Street Substation, at least two other substations designed by Plottel have been identified. One is a much smaller building located in Yarraville, at the corner of Harris Street and Whitehall Street. In this instance clinker bricks with tones ranging from grey/blue to deep red are used for the main walls, with dark brown bricks on the plinth and pilasters either side of the two main openings supporting a concrete sill. Identical rainheads are used, while the

23 Grow, Robin and Scott, Brian, 2005, ‘Joseph Plottel, A man ahead of his time’, Spirit of Progress 24 Grow, Robin and Scott, Brian, 2005, ‘Joseph Plottel, A man ahead of his time’, Spirit of Progress p.11 25 The Age 13/7/1937, quoted in Grow, Robin and Scott, Brian, 2005, ‘Joseph Plottel, A man ahead of his time’, Spirit of Progress 26 Grow, Robin and Scott, Brian, 2005, ‘Joseph Plottel, A man ahead of his time’, Spirit of Progress p.11

BIOSIS RESEARCH 18 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray frieze atop the parapet wall has been reduced to a double cement rendered course with a deeply recessed horizontal line. The other is a somewhat different design originally in an Arts and Craft or Edwardian style, but greatly altered (see below).

Figure 14: Harris Street Substation from the south

Figure 15: Harris Street Substation from the south east

BIOSIS RESEARCH 19 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

5.5 Comparative Assessment

Electrical substations around Melbourne show a variety of architectural treatments, generally reflecting the civic and urban design concerns of the municipal based electricity supply departments, rather than the earlier commercial electric companies or the role of the SEC.

The City of Melbourne in particular has some fine pavilion style substations, located in or adjacent to parkland, where the landscape required a sensitive treatment as a concession to placing such an industrial structure in these locations.

Examples of such pavilion styles are located in Fitzroy Gardens and Royal Park, where a steeply pitched hipped roof with wide eave overhangs has been used to create the impression of a picnic shelter and provide some amenity through provision of bench seats.27

Like Plottel’s substations, these use coloured bricks in bold rectangular panels for effect. They are also from a similar period. Designed by the Melbourne City Council, City Architect, there are similar substations in South Yarra, Parkville and East Melbourne.28

Figure 16: MCC substation Clarendon Street, Fitzroy Gardens.

27 Fitzroy gardens substation, Australian Heritage Database, former RNE place 17005. 28 East Melbourne Conservation Study - Meredith Gould, 1985, City of Melbourne

BIOSIS RESEARCH 20 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Figure 17: MCC Substation 10, Opposite 50 Jolimont Street, Jolimont 1938.

Figure 18: MCC Substation, Royal Park at corner of Royal Parade and the Avenue, Parkville.

A somewhat different Melbourne example is in Therry Street, North Melbourne and dates to 1928 (1935). This has simple exposed brickwork, with a heavy moulded cornice above false moulded and keystoned arch openings executed in render.29

29 MCC Elec. Dept. Buildings Drawing Index; MCC Heritage Building Identification Sheet.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 21 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Figure 19: Substation, Substation, 70 to 74 Therry Street Melbourne

The pavilion types are perhaps atypical because of their parkland settings. Other contemporary substations in urban streetscapes tend to more austere modernism, such as an example in Nottingham Street, Kensington, built around the 1920s. This displays all over red brick, but with details such as a projecting cornice and string courses and soldier courses over the doorways and vents. Interestingly the rainheads and down spouts are prominent symmetrical features to the facade.

Figure 20: MCC substation Nottingham Street, south of Racecourse Road, Flemington.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 22 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

The more common substations of the period are more likely to be quite plain red brick structures with gabled or hipped roofs rarely with decorative treatments. Some examples are illustrated below.

Figure 21: Substation in Reynard Street, Coburg

Figure 22: Bradmill substation, Parker Street Footscray.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 23 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Figure 23: MCC substation, Substation, 10 to 14 Park Street Melbourne 1926-3930

In some earlier examples, while still unadorned, the substations may still be quite interesting in their scaling and proportions. A number of them feature elaborate roof vents which are functional, but distinguish the buildings from their usually industrial surrounds. The hipped and gambrel rooflines with projecting eaves also distinguish the buildings.

Figure 24: Substation, corner Munro St. and Johnston St, South Melbourne

30 MCC Heritage Building Identification Sheet

BIOSIS RESEARCH 24 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Figure 25: Substation Hyde Street Yarraville.

The Hyde Street Substation, also designed by Plottel, follows this more simple pavilion design, but has lost much of its integrity due to alterations and refinishing.31 Occasionally more elaborate architectural treatments have been used by the SEC. One of the most striking is the streamlined modern substation at Gaffney Street, Coburg, which was built to replace the Lincoln Mills substation in 1934. This has an asymmetrical plan and facade, deeply articulated elevations and recessed string courses around the parapets. It helps provide further context for the use of modernist motifs in these building types, perhaps also showing how the larger of the installations tend to get the more elaborate architectural treatment.

Figure 26: SEC substation at corner of Cope St and Gaffney St (Coburg historical Soc. ID 16963)

31 Building Plans in possession of City of Maribyrnong. (pers com, Kerryn O’Keeffe, 23/6/08).

BIOSIS RESEARCH 25 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Interstate, a similar pattern of elaborate modernist interwar substations can be identified. The similarity of treatments extends to the coloured brickwork and geometric forms. While further architectural styles such as Spanish Mission can also be found. It is apparent that the interwar expansion of electricity supply saw these structures built as an outward expression of civic pride and progress. Overseas examples also show architectural diversity and distinction.

The earliest substations were either of such small scale, or their symbolism was unrecognised so that they did not get such prominent treatment. Following World War Two and the post war austerity measures, few elaborate substations were built and by the post war boom and later 20th century, utilitarianism seems to have taken hold.

Today, distribution substations are most likely to be delivered in a steel box and installed in a hidden corner of a new development. Many of the old substations have become redundant as the old industrial areas are converted to other uses and new technology has reduced the space needed for current control and conversion equipment.

Figure 27: 1930s substation in Brisbane, converted to residence.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 26 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Figure 28: 1930s Coorparoo Substation No. 210, Queensland, (Qld Heritage Register)

Figure 29: Flood Street Substation, Randwick NSW (City of Sydney Archives CRS 43:1930 p256)

BIOSIS RESEARCH 27 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Figure 30: Unidentified substation, c1960, Melbourne (Museum of Victoria)

Figure 31: Ashgrove substation, c1948, Waterworks Rd, Ashgrove, QLD (RNE 17486)

BIOSIS RESEARCH 28 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Figure 32: Consumers Power Building, Albion Michigan32

32 Frank Passic An Historical Review of the Use and Development of the Kalamazoo River Through Albion, 1990.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 29 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

6.0 SIGNIFICANCE

What is significant?

The Cross Street Substation is a large distribution substation designed by Joseph Plottel in 1937 for the Footscray Electricity Supply Department. It is executed in clinker and dark brown bricks in a functional modernist style. A reinforced concrete wall encloses the adjoining switch yard. The building is out of use and while derelict, is in sound structural condition.

How is it significant?

The Cross Street substation is significant at the State Level for historical, technical ad architectural reasons.

Why is it significant?

The Cross Street substation is of historical significance as a demonstration of the role of the City of Footscray in the provision of utility services in the early twentieth century. As such it is also representative of the wider role of a number of municipalities in Victoria in delivering electricity to residential, commercial, industrial and civic users. Constructed as part of a major upgrade for the distribution system, the substation is indirectly associated with the expansion of manufacturing and residential development in Footscray and the Western Suburbs more generally in the interwar period. As the largest known municipal substation, it demonstrates the much greater power required by industrial uses in this area and time.

The building is also significant for its association with Joseph Plottel, a prolific architect known for his unusual and distinctive style and also for the range of his work over domestic, commercial, civic, religious and industrial commissions.

The building is also of historical significance as a distinctive building form which expresses its functional role in supplying electricity to the expanding industrial area of West Footscray and Tottenham, which despite the depression, proved to be the site of a number of prosperous manufacturers in the interwar and post World War Two period. For example the elaborate Olympic Tyre Factory also in Cross Street was built in 1934-40.

The substation is of architectural and aesthetic significance as an important example of the Moderne style in Melbourne as applied to a very utilitarian structure. While earlier examples of the ‘streamlined modern’ are found in Melbourne, such as McPherson's Building of 1934, the application of this style to utilitarian buildings such as this, shows a level of civic pride and concern for streetscape design generally. The Moderne style was derived from European architecture of the 1920s and 1930s, particularly the Bauhaus School and emphasised clean lines, functionalism and a detachment from previous styles. These characteristics are easily recognised in the streamlined horizontal banding and choice of building materials. The building suggests an interest in more dynamic design and use of materials and reflects the machine age exemplified by the building’s function. The use of coloured brickwork in large flat rectangular

BIOSIS RESEARCH 30 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray forms, streamlining along the parapet and recessed and projecting volumes combines both modern and international modernist elements.

The Cross Street substation is of technical significance for its association with the development of electric power and light and its wide spread application occurred in the preceding decades. At the time when the Cross Street substation was built, this technical innovation was having its most dramatic effect on Melbourne’s planning and economy. The Cross Street Substation reflects the technological take-up of industries, which by the 1930s, were converting en mass to electric motive power for machinery, using centrally generated and distributed power, rather than the factory based steam driven plants that were universal in the nineteenth century and well into the 1920s.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 31 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

ASSESSMENT AGAINST HERITAGE VICTORIA CRITERIA: a. The historical importance, association with or relationship to Victoria's history of the place or object Cross Street electricity substation is significant for its association with the development of public utilities under municipal control and the associated expansion of manufacturing in Melbourne’s Western Suburbs in the inter-war period. As the largest known municipal substation in Maribyrnong, it demonstrates the much greater power required by industrial uses in this area and time.

The building is also significant for its association with Joseph Plottel, a prolific architect known for his unusual and distinctive style and also for the range of his work over domestic, commercial, civic, religious and industrial commissions. b. The importance of a place or object in demonstrating rarity or uniqueness The building is a rare example of an elaborately designed utilitarian electricity substation and one of the largest distribution substations in Melbourne. It is one of a small number of highly refined Moderne styled substations, contrasting with the larger group of “Pavilion” designs and even greater number of very plain unadorned structures. c. The place or object’s potential to educate, illustrate or provide further scientific investigation in relation to Victoria's cultural heritage

Potential educational value as yet unrealised. d. The importance of a place or object in exhibiting the principal characteristics or the representative nature of a place or object as part of a class or type of places or objects

The substation is an excellent representative of the larger buildings of this type demonstrating the characteristics of the building form in the particular period. In its scale it reflects the amount of power required by the concentrated industrial and manufacturing users in the West Footscray area and therefore demonstrating the importance of this region as a major centre of manufacturing in Victoria in the interwar period. e. The importance of the place or object in exhibiting good design or aesthetic characteristics and/or in exhibiting a richness, diversity or unusual integration of features

The substation is of architectural and aesthetic significance as an important example of the Moderne style in Melbourne as applied to a very utilitarian structure. The use of coloured brickwork in large flat rectangular forms, streamlining along the parapet and recessed and projecting volumes combines both modern and international modernist elements. The building expresses clean lines, functionalism and a detachment from previous styles. The building suggests an interest in more dynamic design and use of materials and reflects the machine age exemplified by the buildings function.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 32 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray f. The importance of the place or object in demonstrating or being associated with scientific or technical innovations or achievements

The development of electric power and light and its wide spread application occurred in the preceding decades, but at the time the Cross Street substation was built this technical innovation was having its most dramatic effect on Melbourne’s planning and economy. The Cross Street Substation reflects the technological take-up of industries, which by the 1930s were converting en mass to electric motive power for its machinery, using centrally generated and distributed power, rather than the factory based steam driven plants that were universal in the nineteenth century and well into the 1920s. g. The importance of the place or object in demonstrating social or cultural associations

Not applicable at this time. h. Any other matter which the Council deems relevant to the determination of cultural heritage significance

Not applicable at this time.

BIOSIS RESEARCH 33 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

REFERENCES

Australia ICOMOS Marquis-Kyle, P. and Walker, M. 1999, The Illustrated Burra Charter, The Australia ICOMOS Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Significance (the Burra Charter), revised edition.

Barnard Jill, Graeme Butler Francine Gilfedder & Gary Vines, 2000, Maribyrnong Heritage Review, Volume 5, Historic Places - Urban Conservation Areas & Individual Places in the former City of Footscray

Butler, G. (1989) Footscray Conservation Study. City of Footscray.

Butler, G. (1993) The Footscray Urban Conservation Area Review City of Footscray.

Butler, G. Footscray Conservation Study, 1989, City of Footscray

Dixon, Roger & Muthesius, Stefan. Victorian Architecture. Thames & Hudson. (1985) 1991. pp 53 & 54.

Electricity Supply Department Melbourne: Electrical Development Branch, 1936, Electricity : the electricity supply system of Victoria / [prepared by the Electrical Development Branch, State Electricity Commission of Victoria,

Electricity Supply Department Melbourne: Electrical Development Branch, 1936, Electricity: the electricity supply system of Victoria / [prepared by the Electrical Development Branch, State Electricity Commission of Victoria,

Footscray (Municipal District 1859 - 1863; Borough 1863-1887; Town 1887-1891; City 1891- 1994) General Correspondence Files P/13 , Plottel J. 1943 – 1945, VPRS 8291/P0001/153, Public Records Office Victoria.

Footscray Advertiser 27/10/06.

Footscray's First Fifty Years,

Footscray's First Hundred Years,

Gary Pence, Darin K. Penner and Steven M. Carringer 2000, The Art and Science of Substation Design http://tdworld.com/mag/power_art_science_substation

Goad, Philip, Melbourne Architecture. The Watermark Press. Sydney 1999. pp115, 146 & 273.

Gould, Meredith, 1985, East Melbourne Conservation Study - City of Melbourne

Grow, Robin and Scott, Brian, 2005, ‘Joseph Plottel, A man ahead of his time’, Spirit of Progress, journal of the Art Deco Society of Australia, Vol 6 No 3, 2005, pp.9-11.

Harrigan, L, 1962, Victorian Railways to ’62, Railway History in Victoria from 1839 through to 1900, ARHS http://www.railwaymuseum.org.au/history.html

BIOSIS RESEARCH 34 Cross Street electricity substation, West Footscray

Lewis, Miles, 1977, Architectural Drawings As Historical Sources, The LaTrobe Journal No 20 December 1977.

McCredden, Terry C. 1977.The impact of electricity on Victoria : its introduction and development 1880-1920 Published by the author.

Osford-Jordan, C.W., A Study of the Architectural History of Brisbane Electricity Sub Stations Before 1953, Thesis B.Arch, University Of Queensland, 1984.

Pearson, M. and Sullivan, S. 1995, Looking After Heritage Places, Melbourne University Press.

Peck, Robert. von Hartel. Trethowan & Henshall Hansen Associates. City of St Kilda Twentieth Century Architectural Study. St Kilda. May 1992.

Publication Number: M1085 Publication Title: Investigative Case Files of the Bureau of Investigation 1908-1922 Publisher: NARA Series: Old German Files, 1909-21 Case Number: 8000-74710 Case Title: Neutrality Matter Suspect Name: Joseph Plottel Page: 2 Collection Title: Investigative Reports of the Bureau of Investigation 1908-1922

Raworth, Bryce. ‘A Question of Style. Inter-War Domestic Architecture in Melbourne’. Master of Architecture Thesis, University of Melbourne. 1993.

Sawyer, Terry. Residential Flats in Melbourne. The Development of a Building Type. Research Report, 5th Year Architecture. University of Melbourne. 1982.

SEC, 1949, Three decades : the story of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria from its inception to December 1948. Melbourne, Hutchinson.

State Electricity Commission of Victoria, 1969, Brief history of electricity undertakings in Victoria prior to 1918.

State Library Victoria, biographical files, Call number: SF 720.5 D35 [Mr J. Plottel] Architect. Biographical note Source: Decoration and glass, Vol. 2, No. 11, March 1937. Page no(s): p. 56 Imprint: Waterloo, N.S.W.

Storey, Rohan. ‘Significant Flats in Melbourne,’ Trust News. May 1989. pp 18 & 19.

Wright, Bruce, 2000.Cornerstone of the Capital: A history of public housing in Canberra /, ACT Housing

BIOSIS RESEARCH 35