ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler Student ID: 1031421 22 June 2020

Boom Mannerism: The Architectural Practice of Gerard Wight and

William Lucas from 1885 to 1894

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Urban and Cultural Heritage, Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne

Frontispiece: Herbert Percival Bennett Photograph of Collins Street looking east towards Elizabeth Street, c.1894, glass lantern slide, Gosbel Collection, State Library of Victoria. Salway, Wight and Lucas’ Mercantile Bank of 1888 with dome at centre above tram. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/54894. Abstract

To date there has been no thorough research into the architectural practice of Wight and Lucas with only a few of their buildings referred to with brevity in histories and articles dealing with late nineteenth-century Melbourne architecture. The Boom era firm of Wight and Lucas from 1885 to 1894 will therefore be investigated in order to expand their catalogue of works based upon primary research and field work. Their designs will be analysed in the context of the historiography of the Boom Style outlined in various secondary sources. The practice designed numerous branches for the Melbourne Savings Bank in the metropolitan area and collaborated with other Melbourne architects when designing a couple of large commercial premises in the City of Melbourne. These Mannerist inspired classical buildings fit the general secondary descriptions of what has been termed the Boom Style of the 1880s and early 1890s. However, Wight and Lucas’ commercial work will be assessed in terms of its style, potential overseas influences and be compared to similar contemporary Melbourne architecture to firstly reveal their design methods and secondly, to attempt to give some clarity to the overall definition of Melbourne’s Boom era architecture and the firm’ place within this period. Wight and Lucas’ other building types such as residences and churches will also be discussed to offer a balanced view of their practice as a whole. Research into the architecture of Wight and Lucas is intended to shed light upon the heritage significance of the firms’ existing body of work.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 2 Declaration of Authorship

I declare that this thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except when due reference is made in the text and footnotes.

22 June 2020

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 3 Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Stuart King, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne, for his support throughout the Master of Urban and Cultural heritage course and for his supervision of my Minor Thesis. Stuart’s keen eye discovered the Wight and Lucas terraces in Parkville, so thank you for extending the Building List and for also drawing my attention to the 1890s Herbert Percival Bennett photograph of Collins Street which includes the Mercantile Bank (Frontispiece). Your expert guidance and continued encouragement is much appreciated.

All the staff in the Architecture Library in the Melbourne School of Design have been extremely helpful in providing access to archival documents. The Herald and Weekly Times Reading Room staff in the State Library of Victoria went beyond the call the duty to supply me with all the material I requested.

David Langdon and Robert Gray of the Richmond and Burnley Historical Society happily answered my queries regarding any relevant material in their collections. The Secretary Mary Cahill and researcher Alex Bragiola, both from the Essendon Historical Society, kindly provided information regarding Gerard Wight’s father, Edward Byam Wight and the image of Wight and Lucas’ former Baptist Church in Moonee Ponds.

Jill Waller of the Cheltenham Local History Society in England promptly responded to my email inquiry, providing references to Victorian architects working in Gloucestershire.

J. F. Richmond

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 4 Table of Contents 1. Introduction

1.1 A Lack of Research 6

1.2 Wight and Lucas Career Overview 8

2. Challenging the Historiography

2.1 Trans Colonialism 15 2.2 The Rule of Taste and Is the Boom Style a Style? 16 2.3 Interpretive Model 20 3. Apprenticeships and University

3.1 Training William Lucas 21

3.2 Training Gerard Wight 23

4. A Boom Practice

4.1 Wight and Lucas, Architects, Market Street 26 4.2 The Boom Banks: Marvellous Mannerism 37 4.3 The Mercantile Bank: Grand Manner Mannerism 73

4.4 The Business Premises: A Boom Statement 82

5. Vernacular Creativity: A House Style

5.1 The Relevance of Overseas Precedents 91

5.2 Local Precedents: The Importance of Colleagues 98

6. Conclusion 113

Bibliography 116

List of Illustrations 127

Appendix 1: Building List 137

Appendix 2: Tibbits Generation List 156

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 5 1. Introduction 1.1 A Lack of Research

‘They who prosper take on airs of vanity.’ Aeschylus, Agamemnon (458 B.C.)1

The modest profiles of Gerard Wight (1860 – 1915) and William Lucas (1860 – 1939) in Australian architecture history create a dilemma; their late nineteenth-century Melbourne practice is variously mentioned in key texts but never examined. The fact there is a thesis by Katharine Williams upon Lucas’ 1920s and 1930s war memorial competition designs but nothing dealing with his earlier work is also curious.2 In his 1976 paper ‘The Classical Tradition’, Tibbits mentions Wight and Lucas’ savings banks but only devotes a sentence to describe the North Fitzroy branch (FIG.58) as containing ‘…exaggerated and distorted motifs…’3 Trethowan, in his 1976 undergraduate thesis, catalogues half a dozen of Wight and Lucas’ banks without providing any stylistic analyses.4 Wight and Lucas only receive acknowledgement as joint architects with William Salway for the Mercantile Bank (FIG.77) of 1888 in the Boom Style entry in The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture5 and in Willis’ article ‘Architectural Movements’ in Fabrications of 2016.6 Kohane’s 1983 article dealing with Melbourne’s Boom architecture entitled ‘Classicism Transformed’, does not credit Wight and Lucas as joint architects of the Mercantile Bank.7

1 Rhoda Thomas Tripp, The International Thesaurus of Quotations, (New York: Harper and Row, 1970), ‘Prosperity’, 513. 2 Katharine Emily Williams, Abstract of Exquisite Joy, Exquisite Privilege: The Unrealised Great War Memorial Designs of Australian Architect William Lucas, (Melbourne University Ph.D. Thesis, 2017). Embargo: not available until 20/10/2019. Williams’ thesis deals with the war memorial competition designs by Lucas (FIGS 1 & 2), executed well after his return to Melbourne from South Africa. 3 George Tibbits, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria: Represented Style’, Paper Delivered to the Annual Conference, Art Association of Australia, (Sydney: 21 August 1976), 100. 4 Bruce Trethowan, A Study of Banks in Victoria 1851 – 1939, (Melbourne: University of Melbourne Thesis, 1976). See pages 9 to 13, 49, 159 and 163, where Wight and Lucas’ suburban savings bank branches are listed. 5 Peter Kohane and Julie Willis, ‘Boom Style’, ed. Philip Goad and Julie Willis, The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, (Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 98. 6 Julie Willis, ‘Architectural Movements: Journeys of an Inter-Colonial Profession’, Fabrications, 2016, vol.26, no.2, 167. URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/10331867.2016.1178622. 7 Peter Kohane, ‘Classicism Transformed: A Study of Façade Composition in Victoria, 1888 - 1892’, Transition, February 1983, 35.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 6 With no biographical or architectural research on Wight and Lucas, no mention is made of them in general architectural histories such as Freeland’s seminal 1968 survey, Apperly, Irving and Reynold’s Identifying Australian Architecture and Goad and Willis’ more recent encyclopedia.8 The paucity of research on Wight and Lucas has meant heritage citations of their buildings are deficient in scope and therefore undervalue their significance. Four of their suburban banks, namely Clifton Hill (FIG.52), Richmond (FIG.56), North Fitzroy (FIG.58), and Williamstown (FIG.68), are given local heritage status on the Victorian Heritage Database, with the Mercantile Bank (FIG.77) receiving state significance.9 Only minimal information is provided and two citations do not mention Wight and Lucas as the architects, illustrating the lack of knowledge regarding the practices’ body of work in heritage circles.

8 John Maxwell Freeland, Architecture in Australia: A History, (Ringwood: Penguin Books, 1982), Richard Apperly, Robert Irving and Peter Reynolds, Identifying Australian Architecture: Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present, (Pymble: Angus and Robertson, 1994) and ed. Philip Goad and Julie Willis, The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture. Wight and Lucas are also excluded from the Boom era section in Philip Goad’s 1999 reference A Guide to Melbourne Architecture, (Melbourne: Watermark Press, 1999). 9 ‘Melbourne Savings Bank, Clifton Hill’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, Updated January 2014. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/93820. ‘Melbourne Savings Bank, North Fitzroy’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, Updated January 2014. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/102213. ‘Melbourne Savings Bank, Richmond’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, Updated January 2014. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/91554. ‘Melbourne Savings Bank, Williamstown, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/15053. ‘Mercantile Bank, 345 – 349 Collins Street’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, 1999. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/732. Of their extant suburban banks included in the Victorian Heritage Database, Clifton Hill, North Fitzroy, Richmond and Williamstown are listed with the two latter branches given no attribution.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 7 1.2 Wight and Lucas Career Overview

FIG.1 William Lucas Victorian War Memorial Competition Design, 1924 in William Lucas, ‘The National War Memorial for Victoria: A Review of the Competition’, 1924, Manuscripts Collection, MS Box 1716/15, State Library of Victoria.

FIG.2 William Lucas Australian National War Memorial Competition Design: Elevation, 1928, for Villers-Bretonneux in William Lucas, Australian National War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France (Melbourne: Argonaut Press, 1919).

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 8

FIG.3 William Lucas Newcastle Town Hall, 1897 - 1899, Scott Street, Newcastle, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. URL: https://pathfinda.com/en/newcastle/gallery#&gid=undefined&pid=1.

FIG.4 William Lucas General Post Office, 1901 - 1903, Longmarket Street, Pietermarizburg, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Original drawing by William Lucas, 1895, Royal Institute of British Architects Collection, RIBA21748. URL: https://www.architecture.com/image-library/RIBApix /image-information/poster/design-for-the-new-general-post-office-pietermaritzburg-perspective- view/posterid/RIBA21748.html?Action=Cookie.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 9

FIG.5 Gerard Wight Former Wight House, 1907, 3 Oak Dene Road, Kyabram, Victoria. URL: https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/22620892.

FIG.6 Gerard Wight Former Champion Hotel, 1911, corner of Brunswick and Gertrude Streets, Fitzroy. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 10

FIG.7 Gerard Wight and Philip Hudson Geelong Grammar School Main Building, 1912 – 1914, 50 Biddlecombe Road, Corio. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.8 Gerard Wight and Philip Hudson Rendered drawing of Geelong Grammar School Main Building and Dining Hall, c.1912 – 1913, Geelong Grammar School Archives.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 11

FIG.9 ‘Advertisement: Wight and Lucas, Architects and Surveyors’, The Record (Emerald Hill), 17 November 1886, 1.

Despite the lack of research surrounding Wight and Lucas, their professional trajectories strongly suggest their architecture is deserving of closer inspection. Lucas’ built works span England, Australia and South Africa.10 As well as his war memorial competition designs (FIGS 1 & 2),11 Lucas had a twenty-year career in South Africa from 1894, designing landmarks such as Newcastle Town Hall (FIG.3) of 1897 - 1899 and the Edwardian Baroque General Post Office (FIG.4) in Pietermaritzburg of 1903 in conjunction with Herbert Baker.12 Lucas was instrumental in establishing the Natal Institute of Architects13 and was an active member of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects (R.I.V.A.).14

Wight became a prominent member of Melbourne’s architectural profession, designing a residence for his brother in 1907 (FIG.5), commercial buildings such as the 1911 former Champion Hotel (FIG.6)

10 ‘Lucas, William, Architect’, Artefacts: South African Built Environment. URL: https://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=1011. This article states Lucas briefly practiced in England and had an address in London as well as Pietermaritzburg. 11 William Lucas, ‘Papers Regarding Architectural Designs for Federal Government Competitions 1916 - 1931’, Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Manuscripts Collection Box 25/3, MS11132 – MS11134 and William Lucas, ‘Papers Regarding Designs for Parliament House and University of Western Australia’, Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Manuscripts Collection Box 25/3, MS11135 – MS11136. Lucas entered a number of high-profile state and Federal architectural competitions in the early twentieth century. 12 ‘List of Heritage Sites in Pietermarizburg’. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heritage_sites_in_Pietermaritzburg. In John Fleming, Hugh Honour and Nikolaus Pevsner, ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1984), 27, Sir Herbert Baker is described as one of the most significant British architects working in South Africa during the late Victorian and Edwardian periods and he also designed major buildings in India alongside Edwin Lutyens. Lucas’ South African work is therefore significant as a collaboration with a leading architect of the period. 13 William Lucas, ‘Presidential Address by William Lucas, Esq., F.R.V.I.A.’, Natal Institute of Architects, 18 May 1906. URL: http://handlel.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/165251. 14 ‘William Lucas Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, vol.37, no.5, July 1939, 154. URL: https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-406679799.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 12 and Geelong Grammar (FIGS 7 & 8) from 1912 – 1914 in collaboration with Philip Hudson. On the council of the R.I.V.A. for many years, Wight was elected President in 1912.15 With extensive careers after their partnership ended in the 1890s, Wight and Lucas’ association was thus an important prelude to their later work. Lucas’ overseas work and association with Baker16 indicates his architecture has significance beyond local boundaries.

With no secondary material outlining their firm in any detail, Wight and Lucas’ obituaries in the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects Journal offer launching points with summaries of their careers.17 Born in Melbourne, Lucas travelled to Cheltenham in England in 1876 where he received his architectural training under the tutelage of a local architect.18 Also born in Melbourne, Wight began his working life as a surveyor in the Engineering Branch of the Victorian Railways,19 completing a Civil Engineering degree at the University of Melbourne in 1886 and he was apprenticed to the Melbourne 20 architectural firm of Smith and Johnson.

By 1883 Lucas was back in Melbourne and embarked upon his practice with Wight,21 working from an office in Market Street (FIG.9).22 The earliest reference to the practice found to date is in The Age in April 1885.23 The earliest known structure erected by the firm was the 1886 Merri Creek Bridge in Fitzroy.24 According to the limited secondary material, they designed a suite of banks in Melbourne’s inner suburbs and collaborated in 1888 with Salway to design the Mercantile Bank (FIG.77).25 By consulting Lewis’ Australian Architectural Index, a wealth of primary references to Wight and Lucas’

15 ‘Gerard Wight Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 1 May 1915, 39. URL: https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-401020818. 16 Clive Aslet, ‘The Architect, the Diamond Magnate and a Grand Design’, The Daily Telegraph (London), 21 January 2017, 10. URL: http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/docview/1860258415?accountid =12372. Like Lucas, Baker worked in South Africa for twenty years. He designed hundreds of public and private buildings across the country, including the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Baker was so prolific in South Africa, Aslet states he virtually built the country for the British. Therefore, Lucas’ association with Baker is an important one. 17 ‘Lucas Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 154 and ‘Wight Obituary’, Royal Institute of Victorian Architects: Journal of Proceedings, May 1915, 39. 18 1881 England Census, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, William Lucas, Folio 75, 19. URL: ancestry.com.au. 19 Miles Lewis, Australian Architectural Index. URL:aai.app.unimelb.edu.au. Record No.4822, Royal Victorian Institute of Architects, Minutes of Council, 1872 – 1890. 20 ‘Wight Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 39. 21 ‘Lucas Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 154. 22 Lewis, Australian Architectural Index. Record No.4829: Wight and Lucas, Architects, Phoenix Chambers, Market Street listed in Australian Federal Directory, 1888. 23 ‘Public Notices: A Card’, The Age, 20 April 1885, 2. 24 ‘Wight and Lucas: tenders wanted for iron girder bridge over Merri Creek, Fitzroy’, Argus, 21 November 1885, 17. 25 Willis, ‘Architectural Movements: Journeys of an Inter-Colonial Profession’, 167.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 13 buildings are revealed.26 As well as their suburban banks, the practice built terrace houses, a coach factory, churches and, with David Askew, a large commercial premises on the corner of Bourke and

Elizabeth Streets.

With the downturn of the economy in the early 1890s, Wight and Lucas’ partnership did not survive. The building industry was immediately curtailed by the severe financial crash.27 Migration was a common occurrence with approximately 56,000 people vacating Melbourne for rural areas or other colonies between 1892 and 1895.28 Gold discoveries were made in 1892 and 1893 in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie respectively, creating employment opportunities in the west, in contrast to the financial devastation experienced on the east coast.29 Wight therefore pursued a career in mining in Western Australia and Victoria and only returned to architectural practice in Melbourne in 1898 after economic 30 conditions improved.

In 1894 Lucas left Australia for South Africa, not returning to Melbourne until 1915.31 South Africa was a popular destination for colonial architects seeking employment opportunities, with a number of Melbourne architects such as Robert Howden (1869 – 1952) and Philip Treeby (1860 – 1937) migrating to Johannesburg in the early 1890s.32 Major gold reefs sixty kilometres wide were discovered around Johannesburg in 1886.33 South African cities such as Pietermaritzburg were therefore expanding rapidly, offering plenty of work for architects such as Lucas. Both architects therefore were following Boom economies.

26 Lewis, Australian Architectural Index. See ‘Wight and Lucas’ for over 60 references to tenders and articles regarding their work in Melbourne from the 1880s and early 1890s. 27 Charles D’Ebro, ‘President’s Retiring Address’, Royal Victorian Institute of Architects: Journal of Proceedings, March 1907, 11. As Charles D’Ebro wrote in 1907, the ‘…architectural profession itself has had a very trying experience in Australia for many years, as there is no occupation which feels the commercial depression sooner, and the tender columns in the papers form a very good indication of the progress of a country.’ 28 Graeme Davison, The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1978), 172. 29 Freeland, Architecture in Australia: A History, 198. 30 ‘Wight Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 39. Interestingly, in 1891 Wight travelled to Europe with Arthur Ebden Johnson, visiting England and Italy. 31 ‘Lucas Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 154. 32 Willis, ‘Architectural Movements: Journeys of an Inter-Colonial Profession’, 168 – 169. 33 ‘South Africa: Gold Mining’, Encyclopedia Britannica. URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa/Gold- Mining. South Africa experienced a Boom kick started by diamond mining and then intensified by huge discoveries of gold.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 14 2. Challenging the Historiography

2.1 Trans Colonialism

The fullness of Wight and Lucas’ careers has not been understood. Certain concepts inherent in Australian architectural discourse has ensured the low stature of late nineteenth-century architects. In- depth analysis has been hampered by two main streams of thought. Firstly, Victorian architecture has been viewed negatively by Australian architectural historians such as Freeland.34 Secondly, the insistence upon what Willis has called the one-way model of influence from Britain to the colonies, does not take inter colonial or overseas movements of architects such as Wight and Lucas into account.

Western canonical architecture history prevented a global awareness of the built environment.35 Over the past twenty years there has been a methodological shift towards understanding colonial history as an intersection of imperial and domestic influences, transcending the traditional Anglo centric view.36 Intercolonial influences are now being studied but architectural history has been slow to adopt this stance.37 Trans colonial migration amongst architects who worked in Australia between 1815 and 1915 was extremely significant.38 In the light of this new approach, it is the mobility of Wight and Lucas’ careers that has meant knowledge of their architecture has remained minimal. Most Australian surveys focused on a place-based narrative which drew attention to prominent architects and monuments in one location.39 Today, historians are viewing colonial architecture as an adaptative process through global networks, inclusive of understudied utilitarian buildings.40

34 Freeland, Architecture in Australia: A History, 161 & 171. Freeland uses words such as florid, extravagant, grotesque and even ‘…bulbous and bloated…’ to describe Victorian architecture. 35 Sibel Zandi-Sayek, ‘The Unsung of the Canon: Does a Global Architectural History Need New Landmarks?’, Architecture Beyond Europe, v.6, (2014), 2. URL: https://journals.openedition.org/abe/1271. 36 G. A. Bremner, Johan Lagae and Mercedes Volait, ‘Intersecting Interests: Developments in Networks and Flow of Information and Expertise in Architectural History’, Fabrications, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand, (2016), v.26, no.2, n.p. URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10331867.2016.1173167. 37 Bremner, Lagae and Volait, ‘Intersecting Interests: Developments in Networks and Flow of Information and Expertise in Architectural History’’, n.p. 38 Willis, ‘Architectural Movements: Journeys of an Inter-Colonial Profession’, 158. 39 Willis, ‘Architectural Movements: Journeys of an Inter-Colonial Profession’, 159 – 160. For instance, Freeland’s Architecture in Australia. 40 G. A. Bremner, ‘‘Architects’ and ‘Architecture’: Realigning the Words of British Architecture’ in Bremner, Lagae and Volait, ‘Intersecting Interests: Developments in Networks and Flow of Information and Expertise in Architectural History’, n.p. Bremner calls such understudied buildings grey architecture.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 15 The careers of Wight and Lucas have been at odds with the concept of nineteenth-century colonial architecture as primarily derivative of British precedents. Secondary texts on Australian architecture are rife with the assumed exclusivity of British precedents. In Early Melbourne Architecture of 1966 the preface announces few public buildings deviated from the British tradition.41 Robin Boyd saw the flow of influence to Australia as being firmly from Britain.42 Twentieth-century historians saw Australia as a passive receiver of overseas trends, with styles arriving fully formed, allowing local architects no creative voice.

Naturally, Australian nineteenth-century architects, many of whom were born and trained in Britain, adopted the styles of their homeland. What is missing from architectural discourse is the acknowledgement of more complex forces at work, such as the journeys of colonial architects between colonies in search of opportunities, the wider exposure to sources that this implies and the notion local architects began to devise their own independent way of working.43 The career patterns of Wight and Lucas do not fit the traditional historiographical models of one-way colonial migration and exclusively British influences. These models artificially simplify the overall picture of our architecture. The multidirectional nature of colonial architects’ careers have thus been ignored44 and for Wight and Lucas these are crucial for an understanding of their 1880s Melbourne practice and valuable to understanding Lucas’s later South African work.

2.2 The Rule of Taste and Is the Boom Style a Style?

When briefly referred to in secondary texts, Wight and Lucas’ suburban banks, such as Hawthorn (FIG.43), have been equated with the lavish Boom Style.45 The Mercantile Bank (FIG.77) is also chosen as representative of the new levels of experimentation and complexity of design stimulated by the soaring land values of the 1880s.46 Prior to analyzing Wight and Lucas’ architectural practice, it is necessary to outline the debate surrounding the Boom Style, as despite being adopted widely in

41 Maie Casey, ed. Early Melbourne Architecture: 1840 to 1888, (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), x. 42 Robin Boyd, Australia’s Home: Its Origins, Builders and Occupiers, (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1987), 12. For example, Freeland in Architecture in Australia: A History, 75 & Preface, saw colonial architecture in New South Wales as an austere version of British Georgian style. 43 Daniel Maudlin, ‘Beginnings: Early Colonial Architecture’, ed., G. A. Bremner, Architecture and Urbanism in the British Empire, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 25. 44 Zandi-Sayek, ‘The Unsung of the Canon: Does a Global Architectural History Need New Landmarks?’, 8. 45 Trethowan, A Study of Banks in Victoria 1851 – 1939, 46 – 49. 46 Stuart King and Julie Willis, ‘Mining Boom Styles’, ed. AnnMarie Brennan and Philip Goad, Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, (Melbourne: S.A.H.A.N.Z. Conference Proceedings, 2016), vol.33, Gold, 340. URL: https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/sahanz-2016.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 16 Australian architectural history, its meaning is still nebulous. Much can be revealed by examining how and why stylistic terms were created.47 The catchphrase Boom Style first appeared in Boyd’s 1952 Australia’s Home to describe domestic architecture of the 1880s and 1890s.48 Since then the 49 label has broadened to include commercial building types such as banks and hotels.

From the perspective of the mid twentieth century, High Victorian architecture was characterized as vulgar and the destruction of much of Melbourne’s Victorian architecture occurred at this time.50 Beginning with the idealistic Neo-Georgianism of Herman in the 1950s,51 Freeland and Caldwell can barely contain their contempt when writing about late nineteenth-century buildings. Freeland described Melbourne’s Boom Style architecture as voluptuous and pompous.52 Caldwell believed Boom era architecture was of ‘…no aesthetic interest…’, warning the wealth of the period resulted in a lack of taste.53 These ideas stemmed from the British idea of the rule of taste where the perceived elegance of eighteenth-century styles were worshipped and anything Victorian cast as the vulgar villain.

Melbourne’s Boom era was a time of immense capital expansion. Millions of pounds were borrowed by both financial institutions and the government and there was unprecedented land speculation, reaching a crescendo in 1888.54 No one believed it was possible to lose money by investing in land, which proved to be a very dangerous sentiment.55 With the exponential expansion of business in the 1880s, Melbourne experienced a surge of lavish commercial, public and domestic building. Visitors

47 Julie Willis and Philip Goad, ‘Myth in its Making: Federation Style and Australian Architectural History’ in eds Leach, A. and E. Petrovic, Formulation Fabrication: The Architecture of History, Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Conference of S.A.H.A.N.Z., 2000, 113. 48 Boyd, Australia’s Home: Its Origins, Builders and Occupiers, 43. 49 Kohane and Willis, ‘Boom Style’, 97. 50 Royal Victorian Institute of Architects, Guide to Victorian Architecture: A Brief Illustrated Record of Architectural Development in Victoria, and in Melbourne, the Capital, (Melbourne: Public Relations Committee, Royal Victorian Institute of Architects, 1956). This guide to Melbourne architecture published to coincide with the Olympic Games and produced by R.I.V.A. members such as Boyd, showcases Modernist structures with much of the city’s Victorian architecture glossed over, illustrating how architects at the time wanted to promote to the world their cutting- edge stance, not their Victorian heritage. 51 Morton Herman, The Early Australian Architects and their Work, (Sydney: Angus and Robertson Publishers, 1973), 169. Herman idealized colonial architecture as the epitome of ‘…good taste…’ and his drawings in Early Australian Architects present a romanticized view of Georgian order and perfection. 52 Freeland, Architecture in Australia: A History, 122 & 185. 53 Colin Caldwell, ‘Architectural Style’ in ed. Saunders, David, Historic Buildings of Victoria (Brisbane: Jacaranda Press, 1966), 42. In ‘Towards the Dawn’, ed. Trevor Howells and Michael Nicholson, Towards the Dawn, (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, 1993), 10, Howells states the Boom Style was the florid response to the 1880s economy. 54 Davison, The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, 14. 55 Michael Cannon, The Land Boomers, (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1966), 12.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 17 to the city could not fail to be impressed by the large, technologically advanced and grand metropolis. London journalist George Sala famously labelled the city Marvellous Melbourne in 1885 whilst in the colonies on a lecture tour.56

Hence the term Boom Style has become equated with the architecture of prosperity and progress. Historian Michael Cannon wrote ‘With few exceptions, the architecture of the period was singularly florid and ornamental’.57 Unfortunately, with the financial crash of the early 1890s, there was a corresponding crash in Melbourne’s confidence. The expression of prosperity in the form of stylistic ostentatiousness in late nineteenth-century Melbourne architecture was consequently seen in pejorative terms almost immediately after the financial collapse.58

Highly decorative financial institutions were singled out as especially debased both morally and stylistically, as concrete manifestations of the superficiality and corruption at the root of the 1890s crash.59 Trends in architecture and architectural history in Britain and Australia from the early twentieth century, such as Neo-Georgianism and Modernism, further condemned Victorian architecture as disingenuous. That Furneaux Jordan prefaced his 1966 survey of Victorian British architecture with the caveat that interest in Victorian architecture is ‘…no longer to be considered odd’ 60 reveals how universally the period was disliked amongst historians.

In later discussions the Boom period is seen in a more positive light.61 Trethowan describes the 1880s and early 1890s as Boom Classicism where earlier conservative classicism was distorted creating a wide variety of styles.62 Kohane, King and Willis have broadly characterized the Boom period as a ‘…compositional approach…’ of an eclectic nature and thus difficult to define as Boom Style elements redolent in Melbourne 1880s buildings can also be noted in other urban centers were financially buoyant conditions such as gold rushes stimulated building growth in both classic and gothic modes.63 This discussion adds some clarity to the definition of the Boom Style.

56 George Augustus Sala, ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ in ed. Tim Flannery, The Birth of Melbourne, (Melbourne: Text Publishing Company, 2002), 327. Sala wrote how the city teemed with omnibuses and hansom cabs and the streets were adorned with splendid public architecture. 57 Cannon, The Land Boomers,7. 58 Davison, The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, 233 59 Davison, The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, 233. 60 Robert Furneaux Jordan, Victorian Architecture, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1966), 15. 61 George Tibbits, ‘1880 – 1890: Marvellous Melbourne…The Boom Style’ in Goad, A Guide to Melbourne Architecture, 57. Tibbits acknowledged that Boom Style architecture was wrongly accused of being debased. 62 Trethowan, A Study of Banks in Victoria 1851 – 1939, 18. 63 King and Willis, ‘Mining Boom Styles’, 335 and 339. In ‘Classicism Transformed: A Study of Façade Composition in

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 18 Apperly, Irving and Reynolds created a check list of Boom elements without considering the eclectic design traditions of the late nineteenth century.64 More recently, the Boom Style definition offered in The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture stresses its commercial nature, individuality, adventurousness, expression of affluence through ornamentation and a tendency to create layers of represented structure until little wall surface is visible.65 These definitions are all general and do not provide detailed discussions of examples. As with the broadly applied label of Federation for the complex period of Australian architecture from 1890 to 1915, the label Boom Style overshadows the 66 complexities of Melbourne’s commercial architecture in the 1880s and early 1890s.

The commercial architecture of Wight and Lucas appears to conform to the above-mentioned features of the Boom period precisely because the definition is so sweeping. The problem is that the reliance on general Boom Style definitions can overlook accepted stylistic analysis, for example the obvious Mannerist traits of much Boom era Melbourne architecture and the wide and creative use of sources utilized by late nineteenth-century Melbourne architects. Wight and Lucas’ suburban banks are essays in Mannerist playfulness,67 which places these designs within a particular style and intellectual tradition. I therefore intend to clarify the Boom era architectural language of Wight and Lucas, thereby testing if it is a style or a compositional approach. I will adopt Mordaunt Crook’s definition of style as a codified system of design intended to stimulate particular interpretations, where there are identifiable elements across a range of works.68 By contrast, a compositional approach involves arranging elements in a pattern such as layering or Picturesque massing, irrespective of style.69

Victoria, 1888 - 1892’, 27 – 36, the kernel for the fresh approach towards the Boom era was set out by Kohane; the Boom Style is described as an eclectic compositional language employing distortion of form to create dynamic effects. 64 Apperly, Irving and Reynolds, Identifying Australian Architecture: Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present, 64 – 67. In Willis and Goad, ‘Myth in its Making: Federation Style and Australian Architectural History’, 117, the point is made that the sections on Federation architecture in Identifying Australian Architecture list too many stylistic divisions and the same can be said of the dissection of Boom era examples. 65 Kohane and Willis, ‘Boom Style’, 97. 66 Willis and Goad, ‘Myth in its Making: Federation Style and Australian Architectural History’, 117. 67 Tibbits, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria’, 95 and 100. The middle generation shift away from conservative form to Mannerism and then the younger generation further exaggerate Mannerist tendencies. In Apperly, Irving and Reynolds, Identifying Australian Architecture: Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present’, 64 – 67, Victorian Mannerism is identified as a style, outlined rather generally as using classicism in unusual and ‘...unfamiliar ways’. 68 Joseph Mordaunt Crook, The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to the Post Modern, (London: John Murray, 1987), 11 – 13. 69 Mordaunt Crook, The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to the Post Modern, 31. Mordaunt Crook describes the Picturesque as a compositional approach as pictorial impact is given preference over the choice of ornamentation.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 19 2.3 Interpretive Model

In order to place Wight and Lucas within the context of Melbourne’s Boom era architecture, I will adopt Tibbits’ generation theory.70 This model divides architects working in nineteenth-century Melbourne into three generations; the first born in the 1820s, the second born in the 1830s and 1840s and the third born in the 1850s and 1860s, their styles moving chronologically from the Renaissance Revival of the first generation to the Boom complexity of the third.71 The diversity of practices in Melbourne is highlighted within this framework, with different generations working alongside each other.72 Of the third generation, Wight and Lucas worked in collaboration with architects of different generations such as Salway of the second generation and Askew of the third and these projects will be discussed in terms of each architects’ design contribution.

Wight and Lucas’ architecture has multiple local and overseas sources of influence and these will be analysed with the assistance of primary written and visual evidence. This will establish Wight and Lucas as uniquely creative designers without parallel in the British precedent tracing tradition of Australian architectural history and give a firmer conception of their contribution to the so far elusive

Boom Style.

70 In ‘The Classical Tradition’ Tibbits’ three generation model echoes Wölfflin’s concept of simplicity to complexity of form. This cyclical art history model of Heinrich Wölfflin was hugely influential in architectural analysis as well. See Wölfflin, Heinrich, Classic Art: An Introduction to the Italian Renaissance, (New York: Cornell University Press, 1980) for Introduction by Herbert Read, v – vii. 71 Tibbits, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria’, 87 - 105. See Appendix 2 for a list of the architects Tibbits mentions in his three generation categories. 72 Tibbits, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria’, 100.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 20 3. Apprenticeships and University

3.1 Training William Lucas

FIG.10 Detail of 1881 England Census: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Folio 75, 19, showing William Lucas, at the age of twenty, listed as an architect. Entry underlined in red. URL: ancestry.com.au.

In 1876 the Lucas family sailed for Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, where William served his architectural apprenticeship.73 In the 1881 British Census, Lucas was listed as an architect (FIG.10). As his father Charles, a tailor, was born in Gloucestershire,74 it is not unreasonable to assume that the family migrated to England to further Lucas’ chosen career, taking advantage of his father’s contacts in Cheltenham.75 Lucas could have been articled to at least a dozen local architects working in the area.76 Frustratingly, Artefacts, the South African built environment website, states Lucas was

73 William Lucas, Outward Passenger Index, 1852 – 1915. URL: ancestry.com.au. Lucas left for London on the ship Obraon accompanied by his father Charles, mother Letitia, brother Charles and sister Letitia, heading for Cheltenham where he served his architectural apprenticeship. Prior to the institutionalization of architectural training in Melbourne in the early twentieth century, those seeking an architectural career worked as an apprentice in the office of a practicing architect, usually for a period of seven years. 74 Charles Thomas Lucas, Church of England Baptisms, 1813 – 1913, Gloucestershire, England, 1827. URL: ancestry.com.au. 75 ‘Decades of Progress 1788 - 1820’ and ‘The Victorian Town 1840 - 1900’, Cheltenham Museum. URL: https://www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk/collection/local-history/. Cheltenham was a popular spa town since the late eighteenth century and famous for its Regency architecture. By the 1870s there were many architectural opportunities available in Cheltenham with numerous new churches, institutions and housing being built across the town. 76 Jill Waller, ‘Email Correspondence Regarding Evidence of William Lucas’ Apprenticeship in Cheltenham’,

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 21 educated in Cheltenham and that he briefly practised in England but offers no other clues.77 No mention is made by Lucas of his experiences in Cheltenham in primary documents.78 A folio of Lucas’ articles from British journals the Building News and The Builder, compiled between the 1880s and the 1930s, reveals his interest in British architecture over his lifetime with detailed folders dedicated to A. W. N. Pugin, Beresford Pite, Frank Baines and Leonard Stokes.79 These clippings illustrate Lucas’ interest in key British architects of the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods.

Cheltenham Local History Society. URL: https://www.cheltlocalhistory.org.uk/. John Middleton, Andrew Paul or John T. Darby were the most prominent local architects to whom Lucas could have been apprenticed. Waller suggested searching the British Newspaper Archive (URL: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/) but it has not been possible to link a Cheltenham architect to Lucas as newspaper sources such as tenders generally do not mention apprentices. Surprisingly, there is a lack of secondary material dealing with regional British architects so it has been difficult to gain an idea of their architectural practices let alone whom they appointed as apprentices. The following two articles discuss Cheltenham architects but they make no mention of Lucas; Brian E. Torode, John Middleton: Victorian Provincial Architect, (Zagreb: Unpublished text, 2014). URL: btsarnia.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/middleton-final.pdf and Brian E. Torode, William Hill Knight (1814 – 1895), (Unpublished text, 2003). URL: btsarna.org/2014/05/24/William-hill-knight-1814-1895/. 77 ‘Lucas, William, Architect’, Artefacts: South African Built Environment. 78 William Lucas, Folio of Architectural Biographies: Journal Articles, Press Clippings and Photographs, c.1880s – 1930s, Rare Books, Architectural Library, University of Melbourne. Lucas, ‘Papers Regarding Architectural Designs for Federal Government Competitions 1916 - 1931’, Royal Historical Society of Victoria. Lucas, ‘Papers Regarding Designs for Parliament House and University of Western Australia’, Royal Historical Society of Victoria. 6. 79 Lucas, Folio of Architectural Biographies: Journal Articles, Press Clippings and Photographs, c.1880s – 1930s. It is difficult to ascertain when various articles were collected and therefore impossible to state Lucas was looking at particular articles when they were first published. In a 1921 article in the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects Journal, (William Lucas, ‘Some Big Competitions and How They Were Won’, Royal Victorian Institute of Architects: Journal of Proceedings, January 1921, 170 – 176), Lucas discussed competition designs by Baker, Waterhouse, Lanchester and Rickards, Leeming and Leeming, Aston Webb, G. G. Scott and G. E. Street, revealing his interest in major British architectural trends.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 22 3.2 Training Gerard Wight

FIG.11 Left: Donato Bramante Former House of Raphael or Palazzo Caprini, 1512, Rome. Demolished. John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980), FIG.37, 53.

FIG.12 Right: Alfred Louis Smith Former Bank of Victoria, c.1867, 131 Gray Street, Hamilton, Victoria. URL:https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/26559.

FIG.13 Left: Charles Barry Reform Club, 1839 – 1841, Pall Mall, London. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.14 Right: William Chambers Somerset House, 1776 - 1801, Strand elevation, London. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 23

FIG.15 Alfred Louis Smith and Arthur Ebden Johnson Former Colonial Bank of Australasia, 1880, north east corner of Elizabeth and Little Collins Streets, Melbourne. Demolished. Detail of original ink and watercolour drawing on linen paper, 1880, Architectural Drawings Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/476528.

Wight was educated in Melbourne and had the benefit of both the new type of institutional education and the traditional apprenticeship. Initially Wight worked as a surveyor for the Victorian railways and was articled to the Melbourne architectural firm of Smith and Johnson,80 who were responsible for prominent landmarks such as the Law Courts of 1874 – 1884. As first-generation architects, Smith and Johnson were trained in the classical tradition in England. In London, Johnson spent a year in the office of G. G. Scott and was then articled to Wigg and Pownall,81 who designed in the grand classical style.82 From 1844 to 1846 Johnson was an assistant to Greek Revivalist Philip Hardwick and then formed a partnership with Horace Jones until 1849.83 Smith worked for master builder Thomas

80 ‘Wight Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 39. As a junior surveyor Wight worked along the Ballart line under the guidance of Leo Cussens. 81 George Tibbits, ‘Johnson, Arthur Ebden’, Biographical Index of Australian Architects, (Melbourne: Unpublished draft biographies, n.d.), n.p. URL: https://issuu.com/graemebutler21/docs/architects_bios-_tibbits. Johnson was in the office of Wigg and Pownall for five years from 1838. 82 Sylvanus Urban, ‘Fine Arts’, The Gentleman’s Magazine, v.14, July 1840, (London: John Bowyer Nichols and Sons, 1840), 68. Wigg and Pownall submitted a classical entry for the Royal Exchange competition in the 1840s, won by William Tite. The design contained an octastyle portico. George Pownall was a surveyor for a South Kensington landowner; see ‘Domestic Buildings after 1851: The Italianate Tradition’ in Survey of London: Volume 38, South Kensington Museums Area, ed. F. H. W. Sheppard, (London: London County Council, 1975), 30. Pownall was employed as a surveyor by solicitor H. B. Alexander who owned land in Queen’s Gate, South Kensington. Although this was in the early 1850s once Johnson was in Melbourne, it establishes his apprenticeship within the Italianate tradition, with his former employer called upon to assist in the development of large classical estates. 83 Tibbits, ‘Johnson, Arthur Ebden’, Biographical Index of Australian Architects, n.p.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 24 Cubitt84 who developed vast Italianate housing estates in west London. Smith and Johnson arrived in 85 Melbourne in the early 1850s, working separately and then in partnership from 1873.

Smith was already designing Bank of Victoria branches prior to working with Johnson and together they received numerous bank commissions.86 Smith’s Hamilton Bank of Victoria (FIG.12) of c.1867 is a Renaissance Revival palazzo adhering to early Renaissance compositions such as Bramante’s strictly proportioned Palazzo Caprini (FIG.11). Smith and Johnson were typical of mid-Victorian architects in their use of classicism, all part of the Neo-Classical heritage of British architecture. The Renaissance Revival was popularized by Charles Barry in the 1830s, his Reform Club (FIG.13) setting the standard for grand civic architecture. The association of Renaissance architecture with the banking magnates of that period meant the Renaissance Revival became the style of choice for banks. The composition of Smith and Johnson’s former Colonial Bank (FIG.15) of 1880 is a reinterpretation of Chamber’s Somerset House (FIG.14) begun in the 1770s. As an apprentice Wight was therefore trained in the conservative classical tradition and gained familiarity with bank architecture.

In 1886 Wight graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Master of Civil Engineering degree, having already won the first prize for the Merri Creek Bridge competition in partnership with Lucas in 1885.87 With both architectural and engineering training, the practice of Wight and Lucas could embark upon a wide variety of projects (FIG.9).88 Lucas had direct exposure to British architecture at a young age but Wight did not travel to Britain and Europe until 1891, in the company of his former employer Johnson.89 However, with the constant flow of journals from Britain to Australia, all architects were abreast of overseas trends in architecture. As I intend to illustrate however, following overseas precedents was not the sole concern of Melbourne architects of this period; local conditions were just as important in shaping the work of Wight and Lucas.

84 ‘Esplanade Hotel’, Buildings of St Kilda and Their People. URL: http://www.skhs.org.au/SKHSbuildings/14.htm. 85 Tibbits, ‘Johnson, Arthur Ebden’, Biographical Index of Australian Architects, n.p. 86 ‘Bank of Victoria Ltd: One Pound Circa 1900’, Coinworks. URL: https://coinworks.com.au/Bank-of-Victoria-Ltd- One-Pound-Circa~5302. Founded by Dr Thomas Black, a Richmond physician, the Bank of Victoria was registered in 1852 by an Act of the Legislative Council, commencing operations in January 1853. By 1887 the bank had sixty five branches. The bank merged with the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney in 1927 and eventually became part of the National Bank of Australia in 1981. 87 ‘Wight Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 39. 88 ‘Advertisement: Land Sale’, Argus, 10 October 1888, 4. Wight and Lucas performed land surveys, in this case a subdivision of Coote’s Paddock in Kensington being offered for sale as business and villa sites. 89 ‘Wight Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 39. Wight and Johnson bequeathed photographs taken during their trip to the R.I.V.A. and Johnson’s sketches of buildings they visited appear in the Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News in 1893 editions such as 8 July 1893, 21, with illustrations of churches in Assisi, Perugia and Florence.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 25 4. A Boom Practice 4.1 Wight and Lucas, Architects, Market Street

FIG.16 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Holy Trinity, 1886 – 1887, corner of McCracken and Wight Streets, Kensington. Now converted into a residence. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.17 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Holy Trinity, 1886 – 1887, corner of McCracken and Wight Streets, Kensington. Now converted into a residence. Detail of cement render buttress coping with three incised disks. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 26

FIG.18 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Holy Trinity, 1886 – 1887, corner of McCracken and Wight Streets, Kensington. Now converted into a residence. Detail of side elevation. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.19 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Holy Trinity, 1886 – 1887, corner of McCracken and Wight Streets, Kensington. Now converted into a residence. McCracken Street elevation. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.20 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Baptist Church, 1892, Athol Street, Moonee Ponds. Demolished. Photograph, c.1900, Moonee Ponds Library, provided by Essendon Historical Society.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 27

FIG.21 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Try Society Hall, 1887 (left), corner Cromwell and Surrey Roads, Hawksburn. Demolished. Photograph, c.1900, Stonnington Local History Archives, ID 11543. URL: http://www.picturevictoria.vic.gov.au/site/stonnington/miscellaneous/11543.html.

FIG.22 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Dr Cole’s House, 1888, 88 Rathdowne Street, corner Macarthur Square, Carlton. Now Carlton Family Medical Centre. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 28

FIG.23 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Dr Cole’s House, 1888, 88 Rathdowne Street, corner Macarthur Square, Carlton. Now Carlton Family Medical Centre. Detail of entrance pediment. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.24 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Dr Cole’s House, 1888, 88 Rathdowne Street, corner Macarthur Square, Carlton. Now Carlton Family Medical Centre. Detail of first floor. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 29

FIG.25 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Terraces, 1890, 51 – 57 Berry Street, East Melbourne. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.26 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Terraces, 1890, 51 – 57 Berry Street, East Melbourne. Detail of terrace division decoration with acanthus leaf and applied disks. Photograph by J. Fowler. FIG.27 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Terraces, 1890, 51 – 57 Berry Street, East Melbourne. Detail of terrace division decoration with capital. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 30

FIG.28 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Terraces, 1890, 51 – 57 Berry Street, East Melbourne. Detail of first floor with entablature and pediment. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.29 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Terraces, c.1890, 178 – 180 Gatehouse Street, Parkville. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 31

FIG.30 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Terraces, c.1890, 178 – 180 Gatehouse Street, Parkville. Detail of stringcourse with applied disks and segmental pediment. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.31 Giacomo Vignola Detail of engraving of cornice of Castello Farnese, Caprarola from his Regola, 1563. Summerson, John, The Classical Language of Architecture, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980), Plate 61, 74.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 32 No evidence of how Wight and Lucas met has been discovered but they most likely crossed paths within the orbit of the then Victorian Institute of Architects. Having solid training under their belts, their architectural collaboration corresponded with the era of Marvellous Melbourne and the benefits of the Boom economy; namely corporate and private clients with money to spend upon new buildings in the burgeoning city and suburbs. It was a perfect time to begin their careers when Melbourne was experiencing expansion in transportation, communications, finance and building technology.90 As Davison explains, 1880s Melbourne was a ‘…concrete expression of the capitalist order...’91

The size of the practice is difficult to estimate as I suspect there are numerous works yet to be attributed to Wight and Lucas, given they worked together for nearly a decade during a prolific period for the Melbourne architectural profession. Tender notices have been an invaluable attribution source; however they have their limitations as not all work was advertised in this manner. It is safe to say their 92 firm was of small to medium size considering the catalogue of works compiled so far.

Both serving apprenticeships with architects, Wight and Lucas had equal educations in the art of architectural design. Hence, their individual design contributions are difficult to estimate without access to original drawings or personal anecdotes. Wight also trained and worked as an engineer, broadening the practices’ variety of work. More scrutiny is needed to uncover their respective approaches.

This research has expanded Wight and Lucas’ known catalogue of works, including drainage commissions, houses and large city business blocks.93 Early works such as Holy Trinity (FIG.16) show the role of family connections and philanthropy in establishing the practice. On land donated by Edward Byam Wight, Gerard Wight’s father, the foundation stone for Holy Trinity was laid in October

90 Davison, The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, 131. 91 Davison, The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, 131. 92 Wight and Lucas advertised in the Argus for lads able to trace in 1888, one of their busiest years, and for a lad to assist in their architect’s and surveyor’s office in 1889. See ‘Wight and Lucas, Architects, require two lads able to trace’, Argus, 2 August 1888, 1 and ‘Lad Required to assist in architect’s and surveyor’s office, Wight and Lucas, Market Street’, Argus, 25 July 1889, 1. Evidence of only one employee has been found. T. H. Fordyce was employed in the office of Wight and Lucas in 1893; see Lewis, Australian Architectural Index, Record No.2109, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 8 July 1893, 17. Fordyce was also described as in the care of Wight and Lucas when awarded a special mention for field notes in the 1893 Annual Royal Victorian Institute of Architects drawing competition; see ‘Annual Competition R.I.V.A.’, Argus, 15 July 1893, 9. 93 The practice advertised for a wide variety of tenders including house additions (‘Wight and Lucas: Invite Tenders for additions to House, Acland Street, St Kilda’’, The Age, 23 October 1888, 10); houses with stables (‘Wight and Lucas: Invite Tenders for Brick Residence, Caretaker’s Cottage and Stabling at Healesville’, The Age, 23 October 1888, 10); and drainage works (‘Wight and Lucas: Invite Tenders for tank and drainage, Elsternwick’, Argus, 23 July 1885, 3).

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 33 1886.94 In 1889 the North Melbourne Advertiser acknowledged Wight as the honorary architect.95 As his father was the church’s benefactor, it is possible this work was executed pro-bono as a means of advertising the young practice. Despite Lucas not being mentioned as joint architect in the 1889 article, the former church bears the stamp of Wight and Lucas’ firm in the form of three intaglio disks on the cement render buttress mouldings (FIG.17). The same details appear on other works such as the North Melbourne Savings Bank’s chimneys (FIG.67).

Holy Trinity is a plain Gothic Revival brick barn with shallow buttresses (FIG.18). Two-tone brickwork outlines the four lancet windows of the McCracken Street elevation (FIG.19). On donated land, the church was not intended to be highly decorated. Like most Victorian architects in Britain or the colonies, Wight and Lucas were required to design in a range of styles and cater to their client’s stipulations and budgets.

Wight and Lucas designed a Baptist Church (FIG.20) in 1892.96 The now demolished building was a modest weatherboard structure with an iron roof and timber barge boards over the gable and entrance.97 The Baptist Church’s style and scale was domestic, recalling the Tudor roof treatments of countless British and colonial houses of the period. Despite its obvious simplicity, the church contained unconventional features; the hipped roofline had an unusual profile and the two barge boards were not flush with their gables, protruding forward, casting a shadow under the eaves. Lucas was a member of the Collins Street Baptist Church98 hence this commission may have been the result of his religious affiliation.

The Try Society Hall (FIG.21) in South Yarra of 1887 was designed by Wight and Lucas for philanthropist William Forster.99 The utilitarian two storey red brick building with a pitched roof was

94 ‘Brief Mention: Kensington Church’, The Herald, 28 October 1887, 2. The foundation stone was laid by the Dean of Melbourne. In The Church of England Messenger, 6 February 1884, 4, it is noted that a new church was planned to accommodate the needs of the growing population in Kensington and that Mr E. B. Wight offered a site and a sizable donation if the church could raise £600. 95 ‘Trinity Church, Kensington’, North Melbourne Advertiser, 19 January 1889, 4. 96 Lewis, Australian Architectural Index, Record No.9391, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 23 April 1892, 294. Tenders for the Baptist Church were advertised by Wight and Lucas in 1892. 97 Alex Bragiola, ‘Email Correspondence Regarding Wight and Lucas’ Holy Trinity, Kensington and Baptist Church, Moonee Ponds’, Essendon Historical Society, March 2020. URL: https://esshissoc.org.au/. Originally located at 98 Athol Street in Moonee Ponds, the Baptist Church was was relocated in 1914 to Eglinton Street as a Sunday School and later demolished to make way for a new brick building. 98 ‘Lucas Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 154. 99 ‘Wight and Lucas: Tenders wanted for Try Societies Hall, Surrey Road’, Argus, 17 November 1886, 11. Concerned for the welfare of homeless youth in Melbourne, Forster established youth services based on self-improvement, providing classes in practical pursuits such as carpentry, reading and writing. See Ruth Hoban, ‘Forster, William

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 34 undecorated apart from its stringcourses.100 It was described upon completion in the Argus as Romanesque in style,101 no doubt due to the large rounded arch window. An unusual feature of the design was the pyramid shaped attachment containing the society’s name above the entrance window. Restraint was called for in this work for a charity and in the true spirit of Victorian philanthropy, the architects waived their fee for the commission.102

Numerous tenders for residences were lodged by Wight and Lucas. Three residential premises have been located: a house in Carlton (FIG.22), a row of terraces in East Melbourne (FIG.25) and semi- detached terraces in Parkville (FIG.29). The 1888 Carlton building is a double storey palazzo form with arcaded entrances. Distinctive details appear on this modest house such as stylized fluting, a compressed pediment (FIG.23) and curious half spheres in groups of three below the cornice, ambiguously suggesting a frieze (FIG.24).

The 1890 East Melbourne terraces (FIG.25) appear unremarkable with their verandahs and wrought iron lacework. However, as at Dr Cole’s House, signature Wight and Lucas details are evident. Above the ground floor piers of the terrace divisions the acanthus scrolls are cut in half with the severed lower section turned upside down and above these sit two disks (FIG.26). Oddly shaped capitals deck the first-floor terrace division pilasters (FIG.27). Across the cornice pseudo dentils are stamped with two applied spheres and the two end terraces are decked by split pediments (FIG.28).

The Parkville terraces (FIG.29) have a bold, top-heavy entablature with two tall pediments. The practice’s signature applied disks appear on the ground floor stringcourse (FIG.30), enabling the houses to be identified as the work of Wight and Lucas.103 The churches, hall and houses show the relatively wide breadth of the fledgling practice.

Mark (1846 – 1921), Australian Dictionary of Biography, v.4, Melbourne University Press, 1972. URL: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/forster-william-mark-3554. 100 ‘Try Excelsior Hall, Toorak’, The Herald, 7 November 1887, 4. On donated land and with funds from public subscription, Forster approached Wight and Lucas to design his club rooms with a central hall, gymnasium, stage, games room and a library over the entrance hall lit by a large window. 101 ‘The Try Society’s New Hall’, Argus, 11 November 1887, 5. The hall measured 70 by 40 feet with the capacity to house 600 people. 102 ‘Try Excelsior Hall, Toorak’, The Herald, 4. 103 The Gatehouse Street terraces as potential works by Wight and Lucas were drawn to my attention by Dr Stuart King. Similar segmental arches appear on the stringcourses of Wight and Lucas’ Parkville Terrace (FIG.29) and Gerard Wight’s former Champion Hotel (FIG.6), illustrating the presence of Victorian Mannerism in Wight’s Edwardian work.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 35 There are striking similarities between Wight and Lucas’ eccentric details and elements in Italian Mannerist architecture. Spheres and incised brackets appear on Vignola’s Mannerist cornice design for the Castello Farnese of 1559 – 1564 (FIG.31). Many of the Mannerist decorative elements of the Melbourne buildings are not prominent but they are regularly applied and therefore intended to give the seemingly ordinary designs a distinctive stamp.

Images of two demolished Wight and Lucas structures have not yet been discovered; namely the 1888 St Kilda Road coach factory and the 1886 extension to William Pitt’s Melbourne Coffee Palace. Their 104 Merri Creek Bridge in Fitzroy has been substantially altered.

104 Peter Woods, ‘Yan Yean Pipeline and St George’s Road’, ed. Miles Lewis, Half-Drowned or Half-Baked: Essays in the History of North Fitzroy, (City of Yarra, The Fitzroy History Society, 2017), 100. URL: https://fitzroyhistorysociety.org.au/wp-content/uploads/HDHB-text-13-Dec.pdf. Built in 1886, Wight and Lucas’ Merri Creek Bridge was widened from six to fifteen metres in 1962.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 36 4.2 The Boom Banks: Marvellous Mannerism

FIG.32 John Alsop, Actuary, ‘The Melbourne Savings Bank: Advertisement’, The Age, 6 May 1882, 7. Trustee E. B. Wight, Esq. and J. P., Gerard Wight’s father, underlined in red.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 37

FIG.33 John Alsop, Actuary, The Melbourne Savings Bank, (Melbourne: Mason, Firth and McCutcheon, 1884 – 1885), 7. Advertising pamphlet published by the Melbourne Savings Bank. Chairman E. B. Wight, Esq. and J. P., Gerard Wight’s father, underlined in red. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/243404.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 38

FIG.34 Plaque attached to Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1887, 56 – 58 Ferguson Street, Williamstown. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.35 Giulio Romano Cortile, Palazzo del Te, 1524 – 1534, Mantua, Italy. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_del_Te.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 39

FIG.36 Charles Robert Cockerell Sun Fire Assurance Office, 1841 – 1842, London. Demolished. Nikolaus Pevsner, A History of Building Types, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1986), 214.

FIG.37 Left: Charles Robert Cockerell Bank of England, 1846 – 1848, Liverpool. Robert Furneaux Jordan, Victorian Architecture, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1966), FIG.74, 145.

FIG.38 Right: John Belcher and Beresford Pite Institute of Chartered Accountants, 1888 – 1893, Great Swan Alley, City of London. Alastair Service, Edwardian Architecture: A Handbook to Building Design in Britain 1890 – 1914, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977), 61.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 40

FIG.39 Left: William Bruce Gingell Liverpool and London Insurance Company, 1870, Corn Street, Bristol. Now National Westminster Bank. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXVIII, no.1426, 4 June 1870, 447. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202085/page/n457/mode/2up.

FIG.40 Right: Miles and Francis Bradford District Bank, 1874, Market Street, Bradford. Now National Westminster Bank. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXXII, no.1652, 3 October 1874, 829. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202044/page/n838/mode/2up.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 41

FIG.41 John Whichford Offices, 1880, Queen Victoria Street, London. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXXIX, no.1953, 10 July 1880, 51. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125007023357/page/n61/mode/2up.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 42

FIG.42 John Norton Submarine Telegraph Office, 1880, Throgmorton Avenue, London. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXXIX, no.1973, 20 November 1880, 618 – 619. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125007023357/page/n625/mode/2up.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 43

FIG.43 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn. Photograph by J. Fowler.

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FIG.44 Left: George Wharton Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888, Lygon Street, Carlton. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.45 Right: Associated with George Wharton Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1885, 231 Victoria Street, corner Hoddle Street, Abbotsford. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.46 Left: Alfred Louis Smith and Arthur Ebden Johnson Former Colonial Bank, 1888, 518 Elizabeth Street, Carlton. Photogragh by Lyle Fowler, c.1941, Harold Paynting Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/247475.

FIG.47 Right: Alfred Louis Smith and Arthur Ebden Johnson Former Bank of Victoria, 1874, 61 Whyte Street, Coleraine, Victoria. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/23060.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 45

FIG.48 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn. Detail of entrance pilasters. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.49 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn. Detail of fluted bracket and capital. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.50 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn. Detail of piano nobile central window. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 46

FIG.51 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn. Detail of piano nobile central window and segmental arch and cartouche of entablature. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 47

FIG.52 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 97 - 99 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill. Now unoccupied. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 48

FIG.53 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 97 - 99 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill. Now unoccupied. Detail of fluted bracket and applied spheres. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.54 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 97 - 99 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill. Now unoccupied. Detail of ground floor entablature. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.55 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 97 - 99 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill. Now unoccupied. Detail of piano nobile aedicule. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 49

FIG.56 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1889, 182 – 184 Bridge Road, Richmond. Now unoccupied. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 50

FIG.57 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1889, 182 – 184 Bridge Road, Richmond. Now unoccupied. Detail of piano nobile balcony with triumphal arch form. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 51

FIG.58 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1889, 720 Nicholson Street, corner of Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy. Now Nicholson Health and Wellness. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 52

FIG.59 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1889, 720 Nicholson Street, corner of Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy. Now Nicholson Health and Wellness. Detail of ground floor pier. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.60 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1889, 720 Nicholson Street, corner of Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy. Now Nicholson Health and Wellness. Detail of piano nobile aedicule. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.61 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1889, 720 Nicholson Street, corner of Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy. Now Nicholson Health and Wellness. Detail of corner piano nobile window and roofline. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 53

FIG.62 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Savings Bank, 1890, 118 Church Street, Middle Brighton. Now White Rabbit Café. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 54

FIG.63 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Savings Bank, 1890, 118 Church Street, Middle Brighton. Now White Rabbit Café. Detail of piano nobile. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 55

FIG.64 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Saving Bank, 1891, 94 Errol Street, North Melbourne. Now offices. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 56

FIG.65 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Saving Bank, 1891, 94 Errol Street, North Melbourne. Now offices. Detail of piano nobile window. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.66 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Saving Bank, 1891, 94 Errol Street, North Melbourne. Now offices. Detail of ground floor fluted bracket and capital with applied disks. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.67 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Saving Bank, 1891, 94 Errol Street, North Melbourne. Now offices. Detail of chimneys with incised disks. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 57

FIG.68 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1887, 56 – 58 Ferguson Street, Williamstown. Now two retail outlets and rear residence. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 58

FIG.69 Rose Stereograph Company Ferguson Street, Looking East, Williamstown, Vic., c.1950s, Postcard, Rose Postcard Collection, State Library of Victoria. Former Melbourne Savings Bank on left. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/62167.

FIG.70 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1887, 56 – 58 Ferguson Street, Williamstown. Now two retail outlets and rear residence. Side elevation. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.71 Right: Gerard Wight and Wiliam Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1887, 56 – 58 Ferguson Street, Williamstown. Now two retail outlets and rear residence. Detail of ground floor pilasters. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 59

FIG.72 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1887, 56 – 58 Ferguson Street, Williamstown. Now two retail outlets and rear residence. Detail of ground level pilasters and entablature. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.73 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1887, 56 – 58 Ferguson Street, Williamstown. Now two retail outlets and rear residence. Detail of piano nobile aedicule. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.74 Left: Michelangelo Medici Chapel, 1521 – 1524, San Lorenzo, Florence. Detail of aedicule. John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980), 61.

FIG.75 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn. Detail of aedicule. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 60

FIG.76 Beresford Pite Competition Design for Colchester Town Hall, 1897 with handwritten note by Lucas ‘J. Belcher 1st’ in William Lucas, Folio of Architectural Biographies: Journal Articles, Press Clippings and Photographs, c.1880s – 1930s, (Rare Books, Architectural Library, University of Melbourne.)

Marvellous Melbourne experienced unparalleled growth with British capital flowing into Australian banks as a result of high colonial interest rates.105 This in turn stimulated the wild land speculation of the 1880s, with abundant capital available for borrowing.106 Sala proclaimed 1880s Melbourne was ‘…the prosperous capital of a prosperous British colony.’107 Grand premises for financial institutions such as the Mercantile Bank (FIG.77), the Melbourne Permanent Building Society (FIG.104) and the

105 Robert Murray and Kate White, A Bank for the People: A History of the State Bank of Victoria, (North Melbourne: Hargreen Publishing Company, 1992), 84. 106 Alex Cooch, The State Savings Bank of Victoria: Its Place in the History of Victoria, (Melbourne: McMillan and Co., 1934), 69 - 70. 107 Sala, ‘Marvellous Melbourne’, 327.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 61 Premier Permanent Building Society (FIG.106) were being commissioned.108 There was also a growing need for smaller savings banks to serve the average worker.109 Rapidly increasing deposits and branch numbers were proudly advertised by banks in pamphlets and newspapers (FIGS 32 & 110 33).

The Melbourne Savings Bank built eighteen metropolitan banks (FIG.33),111 with dozens of branches opened across regional Victoria in response to the booming financial conditions.112 Wight and Lucas designed eleven of the bank’s suburban branches and seven survive, namely Hawthorn (FIG.43), Clifton Hill (FIG.52), Richmond (FIG.56), North Fitzroy (FIG.58), Middle Brighton (FIG.62), North Melbourne (FIG.64) and Williamstown (FIG.68).113 As the son of financier and politician Edward Byam Wight, Gerard Wight was well placed to access this important commission.114 His father was a Bank of Victoria Director115 and Chairman of the trustees of the Melbourne Savings Bank (FIG.33).116 It is reasonable to assume the lucrative banking commissions of Wight and Lucas were procured

108 ‘Melbourne Permanent Society’s Building’, Illustrated Australian News, 5 August 1885, 122. For example, the Melbourne Permanent Building Society, which was established in the early 1870s, is described in this article in glowing terms as one of the most successful in the colony, offering shareholders 9% return and advancing hundreds and thousands of pounds to Melbourne residents to buy freehold properties. 109 Trethowan, A Study of Banks in Victoria 1851 – 1939, 7 and 9. 110 ‘Melbourne Savings Bank’, Argus, 7 August 1882, 4. Savings banks evolved in Britain during the industrial revolution to encourage working people to save their money (Murray and White, A Bank for the People: A History of the State Bank of Victoria, viii). In Victoria, the Savings Bank of Port Phillip was established in 1841, run by Trustees and in 1851 the government appointed a Board of Commissioners to monitor the bank’s administration with power over the Trustees of each branch; see Trevor Craddock and Maurice Cavanough, One Hundred and Twenty- Five Years: The Story of the State Savings Bank of Victoria, 1842 - 1966, (Melbourne: Southdown Press, 1967), 7 - 8. The Savings Bank of Port Phillip was renamed the Melbourne Savings Bank when incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1853 (‘Melbourne Savings Bank’, Weekly Times, 6 September 1884, 11). 111 ‘Proposed Amalgamations of Savings Banks’, Argus, 28 April 1893, 5. Of the eighteen metropolitan Melbourne Savings Banks, Wight and Lucas designed eleven, with the others being built prior to the establishment of their practice. Their eleven banks are listed in the Building List in Appendix 1. 112 Cooch, The State Savings Bank of Victoria: Its Place in the History of Victoria, 66. An article in the Weekly Times (‘Melbourne Savings Bank’, 6 September 1884, 11) states that a branch of the Bank of New South Wales was established in Victoria in 1841 and was renamed the Port Phillip Savings Bank in 1851 and then became the Melbourne Savings Bank in 1853. Confusingly, secondary texts such as Murray and White claim the Melbourne Savings Bank was created in 1879. Trethowan notes in A Study of Banks in Victoria 1851 – 1939, 157, that from 1853 to 1912, these Commissioner run banks were named after their towns or suburbs and after 1912 became State Savings Banks (FIG.34). 113 Most of Wight and Lucas’ suburban banks are referred to as Melbourne Savings Bank and the remainder are labelled as State Banks. There are many inconsistencies in primary and secondary sources regarding the banks’ titles, with some branches called both State and Melbourne Savings banks in different sources. I will refer to the savings banks according to primary references. The nomenclature confusion results from subsequent bank amalgamations; after 1912 the suburban and rural branches all became State Banks. 114 Gerard Wight, Australia, Birth Index, 1788 – 1922, 1860. URL: ancestry.com.au. Wight was born in the suburb of Kensington Hill in 1860 to Edward Byam Wight and Catherine Philpott. In ‘Old Memories’, Essendon Gazette, 4 January 1917, 4, E.B. Wight was described as a gentleman with pastoral and financial interests, who served as the first Major of the municipality of Essendon and Flemington. 115 ‘Bank of Victoria’, The Age, 1 August 1855, 5. 116 ‘Melbourne Savings Bank’, The Herald, 18 March 1884, 1.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 62 through the recommendation of E. B. Wight, indicating the importance of family connections for the practice and how work was not always gained through tenders or competitions.

The Melbourne Savings Bank designs form a coherent stylistic group. They are the practices’ most substantial and emblematic buildings, forging its reputation and designed at the peak of the Boom between 1887 and 1891. All branches are classical, characteristic of commercial architecture in Melbourne at the time, with rendered brick elevations of two storeys, ground floor banking chambers and first floor accommodation for the bank manager. The buildings are of fitting proportions in relation to their retail streetscapes, where ornament is of an appropriate scale to the mass of the whole.117 What sets them apart from their neighbours is their bold classical designs, the result of Wight and Lucas’ Mannerism.

Mannerist sources were increasingly being employed by British architects from around the 1840s onwards, especially for commercial work. The archaeological purity of classical influences and aristocratic patronage was fading by the early nineteenth century, giving way to the lavish tastes and eclecticism of new industrial and commercial patrons,118 as illustrated by the progressive Italianate work of Bristol architect William Gingell (FIG.39).119 Similar shifts in sources and taste were seen in the colonies.

Mannerist architecture began in the sixteenth century with Michelangelo and Romano, where the perfection of High Renaissance classicism was challenged through the use of deliberately provocative compositions.120 The most famous Mannerist design is Romano’s Palazzo del Te, built as a summer residence for Federigo Gonzaga. The courtyard (FIG.35), with its expressions of unsettling movement through enlarged keystones and fallen triglyphs, scandalously defied the rules of antique classicism.121 Hart describes Romano’s work at Mantua as an architecture of fantasy and dynamic force.122 The

117 Peter Kohane and Michael Hill, ‘Site Decorum’, Architectural Theory Review, vol.20, no.2, 1 January 2015, 229. URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13264826.2016.1156719. 118 Furneaux Jordan, Victorian Architecture, 148. 119 Robin Middleton and David Watkin, Neoclassical and 19th Century Architecture, (New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc. Publishers, 1977), 264. William Bruce Gingell was known for his commercial Italianate designs in Bristol, inspired by Jacopo Sansovino’s St Mark’s Library in Venice of 1537 – 1591. 120 Fleming, Honour and Pevsner, ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture, 206. 121 Frederick Hart, Giulio Romano, (New York: Hacker Art Books, 1981),95 and 97. 122 Hart, Giulio Romano, 95.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 63 same can be said of Wight and Lucas’ bank designs; they contain the same playfulness, distortions and 123 creativity inherent in Italian Mannerism that subverted the laws of the classical orders.

Mid nineteenth-century architects were interested in Mannerism, particularly for commercial work. As Summerson points out, most large banks and warehouses in industrial British cities were Mannerist in inspiration, beginning with the work of Cockerell.124 Within the codes of classical hierarchy, public building types tended to adopt conservativism but commercial architecture sought more radical Mannerism as a means of advertising. Also, British commercial architecture from the 1850s was outgrowing the confines of the Renaissance Revival palazzo formula with its wide window spacing and limit of three storeys: offices required maximum light and were growing in height.125 Cockerell’s Sun Fire Assurance Office (FIG.36) of 1841 - 1842 provided a prototype for the Mannerist experimentation in British and colonial commercial architecture with its use of stylized rustication, large basement windows, layering and distortion of scale. Cockerell’s Liverpool Bank of England (FIG.37) of the 1840s employed Mannerist distortions with its overblown lower Doric cornice and the massive split capping pediment. These designs permitted light into the interiors and presented a compelling corporate identity.

Contemporary with Wight and Lucas’ commercial Mannerist architecture is the proto Baroque Revival Institute of Chartered Accountants (FIG.38) by Belcher and Pite of 1888 - 1893, a widely known and progressive design.126 Belcher visited Genoa prior to designing the institute,127 infusing its elevations with Mannerist features such as the deeply carved basement rustication which ambiguously engulfs the Doric order, turning the columns into bands of masonry. Wight and Lucas’ Mannerism mirrors that of Belcher and Pite’s and other British regional examples with its flamboyance and free attitude towards classical composition. This link is reinforced by the fact Lucas collected journal cuttings of 128 Pite’s work (FIG.76).

123 Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre, Classical Architecture: The Poetics of Order, (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1986). 35. The orders are the pre-determined canons of classical composition. 124 John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980), 65. 125 Henry Russell Hitchcock, Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1969), 328 – 330. 126 Watkin, David, English Architecture: A Concise History, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1979), 182. 127 Alastair Service, Edwardian Architecture: A Handbook to Building Design in Britain 1890 – 1914, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977), 44. 128 Lucas, Folio of Architectural Biographies: Journal Articles, Press Clippings and Photographs, c.1880s – 1930s. For example, this collection includes a competition design for Colchester Town Hall by Beresford Pite of 1897.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 64 Nineteenth-century colonial architects kept abreast of professional developments via means of local and overseas journals. The experimental Mannerist trend in British commercial architecture is evident in the London architectural journal The Builder,129 with countless examples of eclectic classical designs from the 1870s and 1880s, prefiguring the Boom Mannerism of Wight and Lucas. The layering of represented structure and density of ornament seen in Gingell’s 1870 Liverpool and London Insurance Company (FIG.39), where split pediments and double Corinthian columns and their entablatures jump forward from the façade, can be seen in the Mercantile Bank (FIG.78) and the suburban banks, particularly Hawthorn (FIG.43). The Builder reveals classical provocations such as ambiguous rustication and free interpretations of details in Green’s London Offices (FIG.97) of 1875, Isaacs’ 1872 London Joint Stock Bank (FIG.98) and Botterill’s Hull Banking Company (FIG.99) of 1872. These features are adopted by Wight and Lucas in the rustication treatment of the ground floor of the North Melbourne bank (FIG.64) and the inventive detailing of the Business Premises (FIG.88).

The domes and mansards of the Bradford District Bank (FIG.40) of 1874 and the Grand Hotel (FIG.100) of 1879 appear in the Mercantile Bank (FIG.81 & Frontispiece). The Mannerist commercial language of British work such as Whichford’s 1880 Offices (FIG.41) and Norton’s Submarine Telegraph Office (FIG.42) of 1880 can be seen subsequently in the Business Premises (FIG.88) with its application of dense classical ornament upon a multi-storey development. The predominance of Mannerist style commercial work in both London and regional areas is telling as Lucas was in Cheltenham during this period and importantly, he collected clippings from The Builder and other 130 British architectural journals.

Classicism has long been associated with ideas of permanence and grandeur.131 Victoria had a strong classical tradition in commercial architecture from the 1840s, beginning in a conservative manner, as outlined by Tibbits.132 By the 1880s conservativism gave way to experimentation; Mannerism turned the gravitas of the classical tradition into a sense of adventurousness and progress, perfect for commercial functions. Financial companies sought prestige via architectural display.133 Wight and

129 The Builder: An Illustrated Weekly Magazine (London) began circulation in 1843. Volumes of the 1870s and 1880s have been searched for Mannerist style illustrations. URL: https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=builder. 130 Lucas, Folio of Architectural Biographies: Journal Articles, Press Clippings and Photographs, c.1880s – 1930s. 131 Mordaunt Crook, The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to the Post Modern, 16. Mordaunt Crook quotes from An Essay of Taste by Alexander Gerard of 1759; grandeur in architecture is seen as emanating from associations such as columns suggesting strength and durability. 132 Tibbits, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria’, 89. 133 Hitchcock, Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 327.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 65 Lucas’ banks form a unified Mannerist group, in a style formulated and repeated to create a recognizable brand. Of these, five stand out as highly decorative showpieces, all different but containing similar architectural features. Two of the branches are more restrained in their application of ornament but still bear the marks of Wight and Lucas’ Mannerism.

The most ornate of Wight and Lucas’ banks is the Hawthorn branch of 1888 – 1889 (FIG.43). Classical rules are subverted in the manner of Romano and Cockerell to create a sense of theatricality. In the Renaissance Revival banks of Wharton (FIGS 44 & 45) and Smith and Johnson (FIGS 46 & 47), the focus is upon arcuated or trabeated represented structure.134 By contrast, the Hawthorn bank abandons such concepts of containment, smashing the regular grid of classicism into a malleable expression of movement, both vertically and within a deep surface plane. The Boom economy created soaring land values and fierce competition at street level for businesses to advertise through the medium of architecture.135 Wight and Lucas’ Hawthorn design conspicuously proclaims its status with bold classical forms in high relief.

The Hawthorn façade has three bays on each level and a satisfying entablature to complete the design but upon close inspection the classical details are for want of a better word, strange. The ground floor piers contain incised rectangles which masquerade as rustication but are interrupted by what appear to be pilaster bases half way between their bases and capitals (FIG.48). The ground floor pier capitals in turn are compromised by being overlaid with unusual fluted brackets for three-quarters of their width (FIG.49). The brackets support what appear to be pilaster capitals but these elements form bases for the squat pilasters above which flank the glazed section of the ground floor. Wight and Lucas created 136 ambiguous forms which do not adhere to the language of classical architecture.

At Hawthorn, the thermal style windows of the outer bays with their compressed pilasters, direct the eye upwards through the fastidiously detailed frieze, without a Doric order, toward the first floor. This level contains three large windows set around segmental arched aedicules, filling the entire wall space.

134 Tibbits, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria’, 93. On page 97 Tibbits lists George Wharton as a middle generation architect although he was born in the 1820s, the same generation as Smith and Johnson. 135 King and Willis, ‘Mining Boom Styles’, 340. 136 Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture. Summerson provides one of the best and most concise explanations of classical architecture and its grammar from its roots in ancient Greece and Rome, to its revival by Bramante and Alberti to the subversions of Mannerism and provides a basis for my use of the term classical language of architecture.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 66 The four monumental smoothly rusticated piers of the first floor contain Ionic capitals draped wth festoons between their volutes (FIG.43). The central aedicule is a Mannerist feast of double pilasters supporting bare blocks beneath Baroque style volutes next to incised brackets which in turn support the segmental arch (FIG.50). This arch has no room to move, pressing against the frieze, sending a sense of movement skywards. The upward sense of dynamism is expressed dramatically by the protruding cornice and its large segmental arch, punched violently in half by the cartouche, which takes the top of the arch well above the balustrading (FIG.51). The Hawthorn design is restless as the forms are intricate, suggest constrained movement, play tricks with scale and layering and there is little wall surface left unadorned. It is a surprisingly assured and grand elevation for a suburban bank, revealing the skill of Wight and Lucas as designers. Across the road from Hawthorn Town Hall of 1888 - 1890 by John Beswicke, the Hawthorn bank clearly annouced the importance of its function to 137 the community.

The Clifton Hill Savings Bank of 1888 – 1889 (FIG.52) is an eccentric composition, containing many of the details seen at Hawthorn. Wight and Lucas repeated the ground floor formula of three bays with applied piers, a central rectangular window flanked by circular windows, this time in the form of roundels. The sculptural pier rustication has protrusions of a triangular profile. The unusual fluted brackets are again applied to the capitals of the piers and sit below a secondary architrave, bearing four panels above the brackets each curiously adorned with three half spheres (FIG.53). Three incised grooves decorate the pilasters either side of the fenestration, turning them ambiguously into enormous triglyphs (FIG.54). The Clifton Hill first floor has four windows encased in aedicules with segmental arches (FIG.55), completely occupying the space between the four pilasters. The aedicules contain peculiar forms such as the disks applied to the capitals. Clifton Hill has a more conventional horizontality of movement than the fluidity of the Hawthorn façade but it reiterates the Mannerist distortion techniques seen in the latter façade.

By analysing the Richmond branch of 1889 (FIG.56), distinct compositional patterns and idiosyncractic details emerge from the drawing boards of Wight and Lucas. Unfornately the original ground level has been destroyed to the base of the windows. Nevertheless, the elevation is divided in

137 Kohane and Hill, ‘Site Decorum’, 242. A site can be a stage for viewing a building and successful proportions can enhance the intended meaning of a design. In the case of Wight and Lucas’ banks, their applied ornament is large enough to be appreciated from the street but small enough in relation to the whole to not overpower the overall massing. The effect is balanced and yet rich, perfect for bank architecture.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 67 a similar manner to the Clifton Hill branch. The ground floor frieze is missing its central section and this occurs in both the Hawthorn and Clifton Hill facades and is an intended omission, not a casualty of time as initially thought. This is another example of Mannerist disregard for classicism’s strict codes of composition.

The Richmond first floor of three bays has Ionic pilasters and over-sized window aedicules on the outer bays. Wight and Lucas apply triumphal arch forms across their facades as seen at North Fitzroy (FIG.58) and Brighton (FIG.62) but at Richmond the element becomes disengaged to create a freestanding triumphal arch on the central balcony (FIG.57). The fluted pilaters of the triumphal arch entablature bear the same applied disks visible on the Clifton Hill aedicules and the Richmond balcony contains incised circles repeated on the Clifton Hill window balconies and upon the Hawthorn superstructure. The roof line at Richmond has balustrading punctured by a raised rectangular superstructure, responding to the cavity of the triumphal arch below. Throughout these facades, motifs are repeated with creativity to create tantalizingly unique effects.

A tour de force of Wight and Lucas’ use of Mannerism is the North Fitzroy Melbourne Savings Bank of 1889 (FIG.58). Taking full advantage of its corner site, this branch contains three bays to each street, pivoting around the curved entrance bay. All the now familiar features of the three previously discussed banks appear at North Fitzroy. The ground floor is carved out heavily with piers, all with incised rectangular blocks. Through this runs an unusual but sturdy central band applied with protruding spheres and once again, at the top of the piers, the bizarre fluted brackets are present (FIG.59). Below the ground floor frieze are arched windows, also evident at Clifton Hill and Richmond.138 The piano nobile of this imposing elevation contains Wight and Lucas’ signature Mannerist pier and aedicule composition (FIG.60). The movement of the curved plan is carried upward by the corner aedicule; its compressed segmental arch triggers the cornice to shatter, a rectangular piece jumping above the cornice line to sit precariously in the air (FIG.61). This is another original design, heralding the status of the bank to potential clients from its prominent corner site.

Another Mannerist interpretation is the Middle Brighton branch of 1890 (FIG.62). As with Richmond, the ground level has been shaved of its classical features, apart from a small section remaining on the

138 The ground floor arched windows of the North Fitzroy bank appear to have been painted over from the exterior.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 68 south façade. These remaining original elements contain rectangular stylised pier rustication, the fluted brackets and triplicate applied spheres. The first floor is deeply layered. The three bays are framed by Ionic pilasters with capital festoons and applied fluting only covering the lower section of the pilaster shafts (FIG.63). The two outer windows are surrounded by an aedicule that bleeds into the wall surface with horizontally incised squared pilasters with disks for capitals supporting large segmental arches on flimsy brackets. The central window sports an eclectic triumphal arch aedicule. 139 The Brighton cornice is interrupted at the centre, moving backwards over the central window.

Two of Wight and Lucas’ banks are noticeably different to the other five examples. The North Melbourne branch of 1891 (FIG.64) at first appears to be designed by a different hand, the classical articulation reminiscent of earlier generations of architects.140 The ground floor is austere with applied half columns supporting rounded arches surrounded by smooth rustication. The first floor bays are punched by rounded arched windows with conventionally proportioned keystones. Yet there are ostentatious flourishes; the double Corinthian pilasters and the solid ground floor keystones supporting only incised lines. The two protruding segmental aches capping the outer bays with their prominent dentils sit below elevated superstructures (FIG.65). However, movement on this façade is restrained.

The differences between all the seven bank designs show that Wight and Lucas were versatile in their use of classicism. The North Melbourne Advertiser in 1891 reached the same conclusion when describing the North Melbourne branch, stating ‘…the whole design is in harmony with the Bank’s other branches, yet sufficiently distinctive when compared with other banking offices.’141 The reasons for Wight and Lucas toning down their exuberant Mannerism for the simplicity evident at North Melbourne may be the result of budget constraints, the taste of bank trustees or site considerations. Errol Street is wide hence fewer and larger elements are more suitable when viewed from a distance.142 Another factor could be the absense of Wight in 1891, accompanying Johnson on his overseas tour.143 Lucas may have been the more conservative designer, giving North Melbourne its simplicity, although

139 The superstructure of the Middle Brighton bank is suspiciously plain, perhaps bearing the marks of subsequent alterations. 140 Tibbits, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria’, 87 - 105. 141 ‘New Banking Premises, Melbourne Savings Bank, North Melbourne’, North Melbourne Advertiser, 3 July 1891, 3. 142 Kohane and Hill, ‘Site Decorum’, 240. In site decorum theory, buildings seen from afar should be given a larger scale. 143 ‘Notes and Notices: Mr Arthur Ebden Johnson’, The Australasian, 1 June 1895, 32. Johnson, suffering from heart disease, embarked upon an extended health trip in 1891 to England and Europe, spending time studying architecture.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 69 the tenders for the structure were published in 1890.144 Locating original drawings may assist in 145 pinning down any differences between the two architect’s sensibilities.

Visual evidence for the North Melbourne branch as a Wight and Lucas design is provided by eccentric details. The fluted brackets of the Mannerist branches also appear beneath the stylized capitals of the ground floor piers and the applied disks adorn the ground floor column capitals (FIG.66). Another highly unusual touch appears on the chimneys at North Melbourne in the form of disks impressed into the render (FIG.67).146 It is as if the architects were forced to alter their Mannerist style but added 147 unique details to distinguish their work from others.

The Williamstown bank of 1887 (FIG.68) is the most stripped design, possibly in response to both financial considerations and concerns regarding appropriatness of form in a modest streetscape (FIG.69). The main façade has three bays and a single storey entrance, two bays reach along the side street and the manager’s suite is attached at the rear (FIG.70). The windows are rectangular and the ground level double Doric pilasters are tied at two points along their shafts with single bands of typical Wight and Lucas linear rustication (FIG.71).148 In a complete reversal of classical rules, the frieze above is bare except for the inclusion of guttae, appearing incongruous without their corresponding triglyphs (FIG.72). The first floor rectangular windows are eccentrically detailed. Pilasters bear disk capitals and the fluting only reaches half way down the pilaster shaft. In an extreme Mannerist reversal of classical logic, the entablatures are interrupted by large keystones (FIG.73). This motif appears in British work such as the dormer windows of Gibson’s Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (FIG.95). The Williamstown bank’s cornice is free of decoration, only breaking at the corner bay

144 ‘Wight and Lucas, Architects, Market Street, invite tenders for the erection of Banking Premises at North Melbourne for the Commissioners of Savings Bank’, Argus, 29 November 1890, 15. 145 No original drawings for Wight and Lucas’ suburban banks have been located. The Richmond and Burnley Historical Society advised they have no material relating to Wight and Lucas’ bank architecture. A search of the Public Records Office holdings under the headings of Public Works Department Plans and Savings Banks has yielded no results. As they were not government architects it is not likely state archives would hold plans by Wight and Lucas. 146 The intaglio disk forms also appear on the cement render buttress copings of Holy Trinity in Kensington (FIG.17). 147 Jennifer Fowler, ‘Gold Rush to ‘Black Wednesday’: The Melbourne Treasury and John James Clark’s Public Works Department Career from 1852 to 1878’, (Melbourne: Master of Arts Thesis, Monash University, 1992), 126. When compiling a catalogue of works for Clark, I looked for idiosyncratic and unselfconscious details such as string course mouldings to assist attribution. This was difficult as Clark worked in a government department where individuality was not necessarily encouraged. With Wight and Lucas, many details can be identified as peculiar to their practice after analysing their seven extant suburban banks, aiding further possible attributions. 148 The Williamstown bank’s ground level windows are not original and have been replaced with large plate glass.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 70 which steps out modestly towards the street. As at North Melbourne, the initial plainness is deceptive as even though the treatments are not deeply layered, they still contain Mannerist devices.

The interiors of all the branches have been altered as they have not functioned as banks for many years, with no original ground floor features intact.149 An 1888 description in the North Melbourne Advertiser of Wight and Lucas’ now demolished Carlton branch gives an idea of the banks’ original interior layouts. The article states the new bank had a tiled banking chamber fitted out in cedar with a strong room and the upstairs manager’s residence contained large drawing and dining rooms.150 Interestingly, this article describes the Carlton branch’s façade as containing broken pediments and a deeply recessed central section with a large archway,151 closely corresponding to the architectural vocabularly of the existing banks such as Hawthorn (FIG.43) and Richmond (FIG.56).

Francis Adams, a novelist who visited Melbourne in 1886, wrote specifically of the city’s banks. He stated ‘They express a certain sense of movement, of progress, of conscious power’.152 This aptly sums up the effect of Wight and Lucas’ bank designs; they are dynamic, contorting space and classical elements to create distinctive architectural statements at a time of confidence in the future and a belief in progress. The banks’ eclectic Mannerist style is appropriately symbolic, creating associations with the magnificence of classical architecture, wealth and progressiveness,153 all features trustees would have been keen to emphasize to potential clients.

Summerson was of the opinion Mannerism is not a style but a mood,154 echoing the definition of the Boom Style as a compositional approach. The mannered compositions of Wight and Lucas’ banks are easily identifiable as their architecture. I would argue this estalishes these classical designs as a style.

149 The Hawthorn and North Fitzroy buildings are now wellness centres. Richmond and Clifton Hill branches are at present uninhabited. The North Melbourne branch has been fitted out as offices. Williamstown contains ground floor shops and the manager’s residence has been renovated into a separate apartment. The Brighton bank now operates as a café. 150 ‘New Savings Bank, Melbourne Savings Bank, Carlton’, North Melbourne Advertiser, 18 August 1883, 3. This now demolished branch was on the north west corner of Bouverie and Victoria Streets and contained a chamber measuring 31 feet by 18 feet and was 16 feet in height. 151 ‘New Savings Bank Melbourne Savings Bank, Carlton’, North Melbourne Advertiser, 3. 152 Francis Adams, ‘Where They Go Ahead’ in ed. Tim Flannery, The Birth of Melbourne, (Melbourne: Text Publishing Company, 2002), 332 – 333. 153 Mordaunt Crook, The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to the Post Modern, 15 - 17. Mordaunt Crook emphasizes style is an issue of appropriateness as it triggers memory and associations. 154 Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture, 64.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 71 Their Boom work relects Italian Mannerist examples closely. Summerson highlights the intensity of Michelangelo’s Mannerism in the Medici Chapel, illustrating an aedicule which he states ‘…defies technical description (FIG.74).’155 A similar level of distortion is noticeable in the work of British examples; the third floor of Gingell’s 1870 office building (FIG.39) is surmounted by split and protruding pediments and the dormer windows of Gibson’s 1879 design (FIG.95) is eccentrically detailed. The window treatments of the Hawthorn bank directly correspond to the Medici Chapel aedicule and are just as complex and difficult to describe (FIG.75).

155 Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture, 60.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 72 4.3 The Mercantile Bank: Grand Manner Mannerism

FIG.77 William Salway, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Mercantile Bank, 1888, 345 – 349 Collins Street, Melbourne. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 73

FIG.78 William Salway, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Mercantile Bank, 1888, 345 – 349 Collins Street, Melbourne. Detail of photograph by Albert Dubucand of Collins Street, c.1892, Album collected and compiled during a visit to Australia, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/205783.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 74

FIG.79 William Salway Former Mercantile Bank, 1888, corner Moorabool and Ryrie Streets, Geelong. Victorian Heritage Database. URL:https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/19958.

FIG.80 William Salway Former Athenaeum Club, now Block Court, 1890, ground floor remodelled by Harry Norris, 1930, Collins Street, Melbourne. Detail of oriel bays. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 75

FIG.81 William Salway, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Mercantile Bank, 1888, 345 – 349 Collins Street, Melbourne. Engraving, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 28 July 1888. The bank is in the centre, topped with its original dome, lantern and flanking mansards.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 76

FIG.82 Louis Visconti and Hector Lefuel New Louvre, 1852 – 1857, Paris. Detail of Richelieu Pavilion. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Lefuel#/media/File:Louvre_aile_Richelieu.jpg.

FIG.83 Left: Thomas Verity Criterion Theatre and Restaurant, 1871 – 1873, Piccadilly Circus, London. The Builder (London), v.XXIX, no.1483, 8 July 1871, 527. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202077/page/n533/mode/2up.

FIG.84 Right: John Giles Langham Hotel, 1864 – 1866, Langham Place, London. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 77 As a city headquarters, the Mercantile Bank (FIGS 77 & 78) of 1888 was an important commission, far larger than Wight and Lucas’ other bank projects.156 Their Mannerist style governed the winning competition design, despite the joint attribution with Salway. As reputation was paramount for financial institutions,157 they tended to employ established architects. This commission confirms the rising reputation of Wight and Lucas and the beneficial association with Salway.158 In the same year the Mercantile Bank was erected, Salway designed their Geelong branch (FIG.79) which highlights his different working method to that of Wight and Lucas. The Geelong design is akin to the work of Wharton (FIGS 44 & 45) as it has a flat surface plane; its bones are a Renaissance Revival palazzo, prevalent in commercial building types during 1850s and 1860s, illustrating Salway’s more conservative training.

Salway does inject a few Mannerist elements into his Geelong design. Above the ground level string course, the pilasters turn into miniature pediments topped by double pilasters and the entrance pediment surprisingly jumps above the cornice on contorted brackets in a subtle Mannerist hint of imbalance. Salway does acknowledge the eclecticism of the 1880s but still retains his loyalty to the conservative handling of the classical language. However, when working with Wight and Lucas upon the Melbourne Mercantile Bank, he permitted the highly sculptural approach of the third generation to dominate the design. Wight and Lucas therefore bought their Boom Mannerism to the table when collaborating with Salway. The former Athenaeum Club (FIG.80) by Salway of 1890 reveals his lack of interest in the Mannerist experimentation of his younger colleagues.

Businessmen commissioning bank architecture during the Boom aimed to create a strong visual identity. Matthew Davies, who became one of Melbourne’s wealthiest and most notorious land speculators, established financial institutions built upon the foundations of Boom era hysteria, including the Mercantile Bank.159 The caution of gold rush pioneers was thrown to the wind by the

156 ‘Our Illustrations: Mercantile Bank, Melbourne’, Australasian Builder, 28 July 1888, 72. Salway, Wight and Lucas submitted the winning entry in the Mercantile Bank headquarters architectural competition of 1888. The banking chamber was 33 feet wide and 70 feet long with a ceiling of 24 feet in height, there were strong rooms, a treasury in the basement and offices on the upper floors were served by an elevator. The roof contained a dome, lantern and highly pitched mansards. The facade was faced with granite and Stawell stone. Today the interiors have been altered, wiping away their original layouts. 157 Hitchcock, Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 327. 158 John J. Taylor, ‘William Salway (1844-1902)', Western Australian Architect Biographies, July 2014. URL: https://repository.architecture.com.au. After his apprenticeship in Reed’s office in Melbourne and a career in Asia from 1868 to 1876, Salway established an extensive practice in Melbourne. 159 Cannon, The Land Boomers, 157 & 164 - 165. See Cannon for the financial history of the Mercantile Bank and Matthew Davies’ influence and eventual demise during the crash. Born in Geelong in 1850 and educated at Geelong

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 78 next generation of businessmen, who by the 1880s were increasing Melbourne’s wealth with unparalleled zeal.160 This change in attitude makes an interesting parallel to Tibbits’ characterization of generational architectural change, where conservative forms were rejected in favour of exaggeration.161 Not exclusively an architectural phenomenon, the transition from the gold rush to the Boom was keenly felt in the financial sector.

Contemporary commentators were impressed by Melbourne’s wealth, Sala proclaiming

I need scarcely say that there are any number of big banks and insurance offices, which in their architecture are more than palatial.162

Property values in nineteenth-century cities rose steadily,163 nowhere more spectacularly than in 1880s Melbourne. The city saw itself as equal to London or New York,164 with new structures changing the scale of its streets from a pioneer town to a major metropolis. The Mercantile Bank dwarfed its earlier Renaissance Revival neighbours (FIG.81), outshining them not only in scale but with ornamentation, a typical element in the fiercely competitive Boom economy.165 The Australasian Builder praised the new bank in 1888 as a sign of Melbourne’s progress.166 With the demands of commerce in mind, the palazzo form of the first generation has been modified beyond recognition into a tall sculptural advertisement for the benefits of wealth.167 The design’s verticality provided the opportunity for immense creativity whereby classicism was reinvented as a nonconformist language.168

Grammar, Davies was a Geelong lawyer who began purchasing suburban land cheaply and then selling at a considerable profit, learning the technique from his client C. H. James. By 1877 Davies has enough capital to float the Australian Economic Bank which changed its name to the Mercantile Bank in 1885. Regional branches were established (FIG.79) as well as in London, with Davies encouraging deposits for long term dividends. 160 Davison, The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, 130 – 131. 161 Tibbits, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria’, 95 & 100. 162 Sala, ‘Marvellous Melbourne’, 327. 163 Richard Apperly, ‘The Commercial Palazzo: Its Origins Overseas and Some Examples in New South Wales in the Early Twentieth Century’, Society of Architectural Historians of Australian and New Zealand, Fifth Annual Conference, Sydney, 15 – 18 May 1988, 57. URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/10331867.1995.10525087. 164 Delyse Ryan, ‘Does All Melbourne Smell Like This? The Colonial Metropolis in Marvellous Melbourne’, Australian Literary Studies, University of Queensland Press, 1 May 2003, 86. 165 Kohane and Willis, ‘Boom Style’, 97. 166 ‘Our Illustrations: Mercantile Bank, Melbourne’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 72. 167 Hitchcock, Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 330. 168 Apperly, ‘The Commercial Palazzo: Its Origins Overseas and Some Examples in New South Wales in the Early Twentieth Century’, 58 – 65. Apperly discusses the dilemma of the tall building in the context of the palazzo form; how to decorate a structure well over four storeys using the Renaissance Revival style? One solution was the commercial palazzo, pioneered by Louis Sullivan and McKim, Mead and White in America, where high-rise buildings were treated as a large column with a delineated base, shaft and capital. This move away from the tradition of the Charles Barry style palazzo is relevant to Melbourne’s Boom architecture as it too grappled with ways of designing taller structures in the classical tradition.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 79 The Mercantile Bank’s façade contains broadly applied pilasters and pediments readily appreciated from the street.169 The five storeys are divided into three bays with a deeply recessed central entrance (FIG.78), now obscured by the glazed shopfront entry flush with the pavement (FIG.77). The two ground floor bays flanking the entrance bear solid Doric pilasters encased in a single band of thick rustication and the pediments they support are disproportionately small, creating an uneasy sense of compression. The eye is then forced to travel vertically by these truncated pediments to those above and then beyond to the broken segmental pediments of the top floor where the upward movement is caught by the central circle.

There are also significant horizontal forces at work. Kohane has argued the Mercantile Bank contains overlapping forms creating the illusion of deep Baroque space.170 The outer bays jump forward and bear a variety of applied single and double column and pilaster compilations. The third level contains Corinthian three-quarter columns squeezed next to a plain pilaster capped by another compressed pediment, this time in segmental form (FIG.77). Circular windows across the first floor are treated as metopes in between enlarged triglyphs. The upward thrusts of the Mercantile Bank façade were given a fitting crescendo in the form of the central dome capped by a lantern and flanked by steeply angled mansards (FIG.81 & Frontispiece). The central motifs of the arch and top-level circle now make sense as their movement was successfully resolved by the dome. Unfortunately, the Mercantile Bank’s 171 dramatic roofline was replaced with a pitched roof in 1923.

The Mannerist distortions evident in Wight and Lucas’ suburban banks resurface in the Collins Street elevation to create a sense of richness and dynamism. All the general features of the secondary source definitions of the Boom Style are present; it is an eclectic, ornate and layered design. In 1888 the Australasian Builder described the Mercantile Bank as deriving its details from the Italian Renaissance and sixteenth-century France, a particularly accurate contemporary assessment.172 However, Renaissance Revival elements are combined in a sculptural manner using Mannerist distortions as well as a Second Empire silhouette in the form of mansards (FIG.81 & Frontispiece). This is in accordance

169 Kohane and Hill, ‘Site Decorum’, 229. 170 Kohane, ‘Classicism Transformed: A Study of Façade Composition in Victoria, 1888 - 1892’, 35. Kohane argues the depth evident in the Mercantile Bank façade is Baroque and similar to the architecture of ancient Petra. Kohane’s idea of Baroque space is not inconsistent with Mannerism as the styles are related, both using sculptural, dynamic compositions and layering of space. 171 ‘Mercantile Bank, 345 – 349 Collins Street’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, 1999. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/732. 172 ‘Our Illustrations: Mercantile Bank, Melbourne’, Australasian Builder and Contractors’ News, 72.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 80 with Victorian eclecticism and the desire for lively effects during the Boom, as this adventurous 173 elevation was intended to loudly advertise the importance and wealth of its owners.

Current during the Boom period, the Second Empire style was associated with the rule of Louis Phillipe, who commissioned the New Louvre (FIG.82) in the 1850s.174 This richly embellished extension was hugely influential in Britain, seen by the public and architects during the 1855 International Exhibition in Paris.175 Typical Second Empire features are mansard roofs, either curved or straight-sided and ornate classical decoration. The style is well represented in Melbourne by grand municipal buildings across the inner suburbs such as Collingwood Town Hall by George Johnson of

1885 - 1887.

The mansards and plasticity of form of the Second Empire became the accepted style for the mid- Victorian British hotel boom and for numerous other commercial functions.176 Verity’s Criterion Theatre (FIG.83) of 1871 – 1873177 and Giles’ Langham Hotel (FIG.84) of 1864 – 1866 bear large mansards and ornate classical features. Victorian architectural theorists such as Beresford Hope178 and Robert Kerr179 saw this multiple use of sources as progressive eclecticism. Wight and Lucas’ Collins Street bank (FIG.81) and Business Premises (FIG.85) can be seen as part of this trend. Second Empire forms often appeared in concert with other stylistic traditions in Melbourne as the commercial work Wight and Lucas (FIGS 78 & 81) and other architects illustrate (FIG.111). Influences from Britain and France were selected by Wight and Lucas and transformed into designs of great originality.

173 Kohane and Willis, ‘Boom Style’, 97. The commercial and competitive nature of Boom Style work is emphasized, largely achieved through the use of ornament to express wealth. 174 Hitchcock, Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 193. Louis Phillipe was the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. 175 Hitchcock, Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 228. 176 Hitchcock, Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 232. 177 Stuart King, ‘The Victorian City’, Australian Architecture Lecture, Semester 1, 2019. 178 Joseph Mordaunt Crook, The Architect’s Secret: Victorian Critics and the Image of Gravity, (London: John Murray, 2003), 107 – 109. 179 John Summerson, Victorian Architecture in England: Four Studies in Evaluation, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1971), 7 - 9.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 81 4.4 The Business Premises: A Boom Statement

FIG.85 David Askew, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Business Premises, 1891, corner Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, Melbourne. Subsequently known as Cromwell Buildings. Demolished 1973. Engraving, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 8 August 1891, 108.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 82

FIG.86 David Askew, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Business Premises, 1891, corner Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, Melbourne. Subsequently known as Cromwell Buildings. Demolished 1973. Photograph by Lyle Fowler, 1954, Harold Paynting Collection, K Series, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/41405.

FIG.87 M. Émile Jaulet Belgium Façade, 1878, Paris Exhibition. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXXVL, no.1850, 20 July 1878, 752. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125007023332/page/n757/mode/2up.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 83

FIG.88 David Askew, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Detail of former Business Premises, 1891, corner Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, Melbourne. Subsequently known as Cromwell Buildings. Demolished 1973. Herald Sun photograph, 1952. URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/photo-essay-a-look-at-glorious-melbourne-buildings- that-were-demolished/news-story/9bd4fbf54cf6e367aeb5cc0fa6424797.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 84

FIG.89 Gordon Norfolk Photograph of Armistice celebrations in Bourke Street looking across Elizabeth Street, 1918, Kevin Patterson Collection, State Library of Victoria. Business Premises on left. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/399065.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 85

FIG.90 Edward Twentyman and David Askew Block Arcade, 1891 – 1892, Elizabeth Street façade, Melbourne. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 86

FIG.91 Edward Twentyman and David Askew Block Arcade, 1891 – 1892, 280 – 286 Collins Street, Melbourne. Photograph by Commercial Photographic Co., c.1930 – 1939, Harold Paynting Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/50136.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 87

FIG.92 Thomas Watts and Sons Former New Business Premises, 1891, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. Demolished. Engraving, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 8 August 1891.

Wight and Lucas collaborated with Askew to design the former Business Premises (FIGS 85 & 86) on Bourke and Elizabeth Streets in 1891. On a prominent site, the new building housed eleven shops, offices and three large stores to the rear (FIG.89).180 This time all three architects belong to the radical third generation.181 Consequently, the Mannerism of this design was concentrated to an overwhelming degree, the facades covered in undulating layers of ornament. Details executed on the Mercantile Bank, such as the three-quarter columns clinging to a pilaster supporting a small segmental arch appeared on the first floor of the Business Premises (FIG.88). Its elevation entrances used the same

180 ‘Our Illustrations: Business Premises, Bourke Street, Melbourne’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 8 August 1891, 108. The new business venture was also built with the latest ventilation and fireproofing. 181 Tibbits, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria’, 100.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 88 suggestion of upward movement as the Collins Street design, with ground level archways, protruding bays, paired columns below segmental pediments and circular superstructure windows surmounted by two Flemish style gables. Flemish elements were appearing in British architecture in the 1880s (FIGS 41 & 42), inspired by Continental sources as displayed at the 1878 Paris Exhibition (FIG.87). The Bourke Street façade of the Business Premises had a protruding double storey oriel bay, a large cornice befitting the scale of the whole and a roofline punctuated by a balustrade with large urns finishing the vertical movement of the pilasters and columns below. The relative simplicity of the broad retail windows at ground level provided a base for the frenetic pace of plastic movement above.

Askew brought a similar Mannerist tone to the Business Premises as Wight and Lucas, as he designed the Block Arcade (FIGS 90 & 91) with Edward Twentyman, also of 1891. It would appear Askew was the driving force behind the Mannerism of his firm’s work as he is cited as the designer of the Mannerist Melbourne Permanent Building Society (FIG.104), not Twentyman.182 There are many stylistic parallels between the Business Premises and the Block Arcade, as they both contain tension between horizontal and vertical movement upon their wavering surfaces, layering of elements and witty classical inversions of form. For example, both structures are decked with a number of pilaster variations, some with no mouldings, others with the upper half fluted and on other levels the lower half is fluted. The overall effect of both of these designs would have been a satisfying experience for the Victorian observer, as decoration had an important visual function.183 As Kohane explains, expressed movement throughout a design ‘…could be perceived through analogy with one’s own 184 body,’ literally expressing the dynamism of urban life at the time.

The style of the Business Premises was free in its varieties of applied ornament with no flat wall surface permitted to interfere in the presentation of theatricality. Along with the Block Arcade, the Business Premises perfectly expressed the social aspirations of the shopper it was designed to attract. In Marvellous Melbourne it was a social ritual for the well-dressed to promenade in Collins Street, what became known as ‘doing the Block’.185 In a similar vein, the dress of commercial buildings became an important way of sending a message to potential customers. Askew, Wight and Lucas therefore gave their Business Premises a coat of Mannerist glamour to attract the eye of the discerning shopper

182 ‘Building Society Architecture in the Metropolis’, The Record (Emerald Hill), 7 August 1886, 6. This 1886 article states that the design of the Melbourne Permanent Building Society was ‘…from the pencil of Mr D. C. Askew.’ 183 Kohane, ‘Classicism Transformed: A Study of Façade Composition in Victoria, 1888 - 1892’, 27. 184 Kohane, ‘Classicism Transformed: A Study of Façade Composition in Victoria, 1888 - 1892’, 27. 185 Davison, The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, 201.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 89 (FIG.86). The intensity of their Mannerism can be easily illustrated by comparison to other contemporary city premises. A commercial block (FIG.92) by Watts in Elizabeth Street of 1891 is given a flat layer of piers and arches; there are Boom flourishes such as the giant Corinthian orders and roof profile, but none of the elaborate, eclectic and complicated application of classical forms seen in the Business Premises. Again, conservative use of form is evident in the work of first-generation architects such as Watts.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 90 5. Vernacular Creativity: A House Style

5.1 The Relevance of Overseas Precedents

FIG.93 Edward William Mountford Sheffield Town Hall, 1890 – 1897, Pinstone Street, Sheffield. Original competition drawing. URL: https://www.courtauldprints.com/image/167222/mountford- edward-william-sheffield-town-hall.

FIG.94 Leonard Stokes Competition design for West End Club, Building News, April 1882. Handwritten note by Lucas stating ‘A.B. Pite 1st’. William Lucas, Folio of Architectural Biographies: Journal Articles, Press Clippings and Photographs, c.1880s – 1930s, Rare Books, Architectural Library, University of Melbourne.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 91

FIG.95 John Gibson Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1879, Northumberland Avenue, London. Now Nigeria House. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXXVII, no.1915, 18 October 1879, 1153. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125007023340/page/n1189/mode/2up.

FIG.96 Horton and Bridgford Southport Baths, 1870, corner of the Promenade and Nevill Street, Southport. Now Victoria Leisure Club. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXVIII, no.1451, 26 November 1870, 947. Detail of entrance. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202085/page/n955/mode/2up.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 92

FIG.97 Theodore K. Green Offices, 1875, corner Threadneedle and Bishopsgate Streets, London. Now Lloyds Bank. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXXIII, no.1712, 27 November 18975, 1063. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202036/page/n1083/mode/2up.

FIG.98 Lewis H. Isaacs London Joint Stock Bank, 1872, 89 Charterhouse Street, Clerkenwell. Now Barclays Bank. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXX, no.1516, 24 February 1872, 147. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202069/page/n159/mode/2up.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 93

FIG.99 William Botterill Hull Banking Company, 1872, Silver Street, Hull. Now restaurant. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXX, no.1535, 6 July 1872, 527. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202069/page/n539/mode/2up.

FIG.100 F. and H. Francis and J. E. Saunders Grand Hotel, 1879, Charing Cross, London. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXXVII, no.1886, 29 March 1979, 344 – 346. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125007023340/page/n357/mode/2up.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 94 Wight and Lucas’ Boom practice can be seen as part of the eclecticism of late nineteenth-century architecture across the British Empire.186 The mid-Victorian architectural establishment, led by the Royal Institute of British Architects, was inherently pro-classical but by the 1880s the classical tradition was stagnating and younger architects were looking for new modes of expression such as the Picturesque.187 The multiple sources evident in British late Victorian architecture188 were described by Service as a Free Style, where English medieval vernacular, Queen Anne, French and Flemish styles were utilized by architects such as Richard Norman Shaw (FIG.116).189 In Melbourne, third generation architects were challenging the classical dogma of the previous generations, pioneering new ways to interpret classicism.

An example of the British Free Style is Sheffield Town Hall (FIG.93) of 1891 – 1897 by Mountford, an eclectic essay combining Flemish, English and French sources.190 The design is asymmetrically planned with an undulating roof line, protruding pavilions and a bewildering array of window treatments. The Flemish gables and richly articulated facades of Mountford’s building are reminiscent of the Business Premises (FIGS 85 & 86). However, the Melbourne building is an original interpretation of architectural elements in its own right, spreading its many decorative forms, in contrasting scales, thickly across its facades. Mountford’s building has portions of unadorned masonry and is therefore not as frenetic as the surfaces of the Business Premises.

Lucas was conscious of 1880s trends in British architectural design; his collection of journal articles includes examples of eclectic British design such as Stokes’ 1882 club drawing (FIG.94). The Mannerism of Wight and Lucas also had its roots in Victorian British architecture. Mannerist British commercial architecture was featured in The Builder, a journal with which Lucas was familiar.191 Wight and Lucas’ commercial work was therefore steeped in the tradition of eclectic Mannerist work, as a survey of examples from The Builder illustrates.

186 Roger Dixon and Stefan Muthesius, Victorian Architecture, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978), 176. 187 Mordaunt Crook, The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to the Post Modern, 203 – 204. 188 Willis and Goad, ‘Myth in its Making: Federation Style and Australian Architectural History’, 117. Willis and Goad draw attention to Service’s use of the phrase Free Style as a generic term useful in coping with the plethora of eclectic styles of the late Victorian period, a similar set of circumstances to the coining of the term Federation Style. 189 Service, Edwardian Architecture: A Handbook to Building Design in Britain 1890 – 1914, 38 - 40. 190 Dixon and Muthesius, Victorian Architecture, 176. 191 Lucas, Folio of Architectural Biographies: Journal Articles, Press Clippings and Photographs, c.1880s – 1930s.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 95 The Hawthorn bank (FIG.43) shares thermal windows with Gibson’s 1879 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (FIG.95) and a similar mansard and segmental arch on the cornice line are evident upon the Southport Baths (FIG.96) of 1870. Aedicules entirely filling the spaces between columns are a feature of Green’s 1875 Offices (FIG.97) and are also recurring elements of the Hawthorn (FIG.51), Clifton Hill (FIG.52) and Richmond (FIG.56) banks. Pilasters with half fluting can be seen upon Whichford’s 1880 Offices (FIG.41) and used by Wight and Lucas on their North Fitzroy (FIG.58) and Brighton (FIG.62) bank facades. The striking protruding corner entablature of Isaacs’ London Joint Stock Bank (FIG.98) of 1872 is also employed at the North Fitzroy premises. The incised rectangular pilaster shafts panels of Botterill’s Hull Banking Company (FIG.99) of 1872 are also applied to the pilasters of the Brighton and Hawthorn banks, the Mercantile Bank (FIG.77) and the Business Premises (FIG.88). A segmental arch supported by two sets of double columns is a device evident upon the Southport Baths (FIG.96) and the North Melbourne bank (FIG.64). Norton’s Submarine Telegraph Office (FIG.42) of 1880 and the Grand Hotel (FIG.100) of 1879 have similar massing and eclectic use of details to the Business Premises (FIG.85).

However, late nineteenth-century Australian architecture does not draw on a predetermined stylistic pedigree from overseas.192 Rather, Wight and Lucas’ work illustrates the opposite; Australian architects of the Boom were forming their own distinct syntheses of elements that are not pastiches of British precedents. For example, nearly all the suburban banks contain aedicules with unique and varied combinations of distorted classical forms (FIGS 51, 55, 56, 60, 63 & 73). A strikingly original element is the triumphal arch form applied to windows to fashion inventive aedicule designs as seen at Brighton (FIG.63), North Fitzroy (FIG.60) and Hawthorn (FIG.50). Richmond boasts the most original triumphal arch motif in freestanding form upon the first-floor balcony (FIG.57). Other creative compositions include ground floor friezes interrupted by unadorned sections (FIGS 56 & 58) and entrances flanked by exaggerated rustication and capped by rounded windows and enlarged pilasters (FIGS 43 & 52). With the practice of marking their work with peculiar brackets, spheres and disks (FIGS 17, 30, 53 & 66), Wight and Lucas were conscious of their architecture as being distinctive in style, with these elements applied to all their building types, from the banks to houses (FIGS 26 & 30) to a church (FIG.17).

192 King and Willis, ‘Mining Boom Styles’, 335.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 96 King and Willis note that during the Boom period ‘…divergence from architectural sources began and local inflections and styles became evident’.193 By looking at 1880s British architecture, the vernacular creativity of Wight and Lucas is revealed. The suburban banks emerge as a practice house style as they are notably coherent in design, responding to the particular conditions of the Boom period in Melbourne. Wight and Lucas’ commercial work can be described as a local inflection as it is a complex mix of overseas and local trends, resulting in unique interpretations of classical form.

193 King and Willis, ‘Mining Boom Styles’, 335.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 97 5.2 Local Precedents: The Importance of Colleagues

FIG.101 William Salway Former Dr Beaney’s House, 1886 - 1888, corner of Collins and Russell Streets, Melbourne. Now retail outlets and offices. Engraving, Australian Builder and Contractor’s News, 7 April 1888.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 98

FIG.102 William Salway Former Dr Beaney’s House, 1886 - 1888, corner of Collins and Russell Streets, Melbourne. Now retail outlets and offices. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.103 William Salway Former Dr Beaney’s House, 1886 - 1888, corner of Collins and Russell Streets, Melbourne. Now retail outlets and offices. Detail of ground floor window with segmental pediment. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 99

FIG.104 Edward Twentyman and David Askew Melbourne Permanent Building Society, 1885, 18 Collins Street, Melbourne. Demolished. Engraving by Samuel Calvert, 5 August 1885, Illustrated Australian News. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/253803.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 100

FIG.105 Edward Twentyman and David Askew Stalbridge Chambers, 1890 - 1891, 435 - 443 Little Collins Street, Melbourne. Photograph by Charles Rudd, c.1892, Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/301268.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 101

FIG.106 Charles D’Ebro Premier Permanent Building Society, 1885, 229 – 233 Collins Street, Melbourne. Demolished. Photograph by Algernon Darge, c.1900, Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/252351.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 102

FIG.107 Charles D’Ebro Former Stonington, 1891, 336 Glenferrie Road Malvern. Victorian Heritage Database. URL:https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/679.

FIG.108 Charles D’Ebro Prahran Market Offices, 1891, Commercial Road, Prahran. Detail of façade entrance. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 103

FIG.109 Left: William Pitt Former Melbourne Coffee Palace 1882, 89 Bourke Street, Melbourne. Demolished. Original drawing by William Pitt, 1881, University of Melbourne Drawing Collection. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/403145.

FIG.110 Right: William Pitt Rialto Building, 1889, Collins Street, Melbourne. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.111 William Pitt, William Ellerker and Edward Kilburn Former Federal Coffee Palace, 1888, corner King and Collins Streets, Melbourne. Demolished. Detail of undated photograph, Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/252241.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 104

FIG.112 Left: William Pitt, William Ellerker and Edward Kilburn Former Federal Coffee Palace, 1888, corner King and Collins Streets, Melbourne. Demolished. Engraving of Grand Vestibule and Staircase, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 27 August 1887.

FIG.113 Right: Paul Sédille Printempts Department Store, 1882 – 1883, Paris. Nikolaus Pevsner, A History of Building Types, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1986), 268.

FIG.114 Left: William Ellerker, Edward Kilburn, Alfred Smith and Arthur Johnson City of Melbourne Building, 1886, corner of Elizabeth and Little Collins Streets, Melbourne. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.115 Right: William Ellerker, Edward Kilburn, Alfred Smith and Arthur Johnson City of Melbourne Building, 1886, corner of Elizabeth and Little Collins Streets, Melbourne. Detail of split mansard. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 105

FIG.116 Richard Norman Shaw Former New Scotland Yard, 1887 – 1906, Victoria Embankment, London. Now parliamentary offices known as Richard Norman Shaw Buildings. Detail of South Building. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.117 David Wormal Former Queen Victoria Building, 1888, corner of Swanston and Collins Street, Melbourne. Demolished. Hand coloured lithograph by Clarence Woodhouse, c.1888, Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/109388.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 106

FIG.118 Alfred Louis Smith and Arthur Ebden Johnson Former Colonial Mutual Chambers, 1891, Market Street, Melbourne. Demolished. Engraving, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 1 July 1893.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 107

FIG.119 Left: Walter Scott Law Former Benvenuta, 1892, Drummond Street, Carlton. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.120 Right: William Wolf Lalor House, 1888, Church Street, Richmond. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.121 Left: William Vahland Former Colonial Bank, 1887, 32 Pall Mall, Bendigo. Victorian Heritage Database. URL:https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/1544.

FIG.122 Right: J. A. B. Koch Former Record Chambers, 1887, Collins Street, Melbourne. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 108

FIG.123 William Salway, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Mercantile Bank, 1888, 345 – 349 Collins Street, Melbourne. Detail of entrance foyer pediment. Photograph by J. Fowler.

Local conditions and fellow architects were important influences upon Wight and Lucas. Their practice was shaped by Melbourne’s Boom economy and they worked with a group of colleagues who all rode the wave of prosperity of the 1880s. As a second-generation architect, Salway’s architecture with its shift towards Mannerism,194 can be seen as a catalyst for Wight and Lucas’ radical assault upon classical decorum.

Subtle Mannerist elements have already been noted in Salway’s Geelong Mercantile Bank (FIG.79). Salway’s Dr Beaney’s House (FIG.101) of 1886 - 1888, built at the same time he was working with Wight and Lucas upon the Mercantile Bank, bears some similar Mannerist motifs to those used by the younger architects.195 Salway’s ornate three storey Renaissance Revival palazzo196 contains ground and first floor segmental arches that touch their cornices and are lifted by brackets, not columns (FIG.103). The stringcourses and balustrading cartouches are lined with applied spheres. These two details are also seen in Wight and Lucas’ work (FIGS 30 & 53), illustrating the cross-fertilization of ideas between the older and younger architects.

194 Tibbits, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria’, 95. 195 ‘Former Cromwell House’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, 2006. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/64614. Dr Beaney’s House has been altered significantly both inside and out, with an extra storey and bays added in the early twentieth century (FIG.102). 196 ‘Our Illustrations: Dr Beaney’s New Residence, Collins Street’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 7 April 1888, 222. Salway’s building has a Malmsbury bluestone base and was built of brick and cement as a town residence and surgery for noted Melbourne surgeon Dr Beaney.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 109 Twentyman and Askew were renowned for their fashionable Italian Mannerist style,197 with designs such as the 1885 Melbourne Permanent Building Society (FIG.104)198 and Stalbridge Chambers (FIG.105) of 1890 - 1891, employing similar Mannerist details and distortions of scale to the Business Premises (FIG.85). There are strong Mannerist parallels between Twentyman and Askew’s Block Arcade (FIGS 90 & 91)199 and Wight and Lucas’ work and this is not surprising as Askew also collaborated upon the Business Premises (FIG.85).

The work of Charles D’Ebro, another third generation architect, resembles the Mannerism of Wight and Lucas.200 The former Premier Permanent Building Society (FIG.106) by D’Ebro of 1891 had a similarly proportioned façade to the Mercantile Bank (FIG.77), employing Mannerist distortions of scale, richness of detail and a Second Empire mansard roof.201 Stonington (FIG.107) by D’Ebro is Mannerist in composition.202 The design has a Second Empire roof profile and motifs echoing Wight and Lucas’ details such as enlarged segmental pediments over the dormer windows and chimneys. D’Ebro’s 1891 Prahran Market Offices (FIG.108) reflects the same eclectic sources as the Business

Premises (FIG.85) with its Mannerist aedicules, oriel bay, mansards and Flemish gables.

197 Allan Willingham, ‘Twentyman and Askew’, ed. Philip Goad and Julie Willis, The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 720. 198 ‘Melbourne Permanent Society’s Building’, Illustrated Australian News, 122. This new premises is described as ‘…boldly treated…’ and a necessary expansion for the rapidly growing financial institution. This institution is yet another example of confidence in the Boom economy with correspondingly confident architectural treatment. 199 Michael Cannon, ‘Benjamin Josman Fink’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, v.4, Melbourne University Press, 1972. URL: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fink-benjamin-josman-3516. As the Mercantile Bank was founded by Boom businessman and politician Davies, the Block Arcade was built by politician and land speculator Benjamin Fink, who suffered a similar financial fate to that of Davies after the crash. 200 ‘Mr Charles D’Ebro: Tragic Death in Perth’, Argus, 24 June 1920, 6. D’Ebro was born in London in 1850 and trained as an engineer and architect before migrating to Australia in 1877. He was in partnership in Melbourne with John Grainger and then a senior partner in the firm D’Ebro, Mackenzie and Meldrum. 201 ‘Premier Permanent Building Land and Investment Association Scrip Issued to Alfred Champion of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia’, Museums Victoria Collections, Item NU 43430. URL: https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/1111869. Founded in 1874 by James Mirams, the Premier Permanent was one of the largest building societies during Melbourne’s Boom era and one of the first to fail, collapsing in March 1890. At the height of the Boom in 1888, the institution attracted new deposits of £660.000. Boosted by huge bank loans, new funds were invested in city and suburban land developments and the construction of the Federal Coffee Palace. Mirams files for a secret liquidation of the company, with in excess of £370,000 of debt. Charges were brought against the company directors and Mirams was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for falsifying a balance sheet. 202 Goad, A Guide to Melbourne Architecture, 74. Goad notes the Mannerism of Stonington has a possible connection to the Villa Knoop in Bremen in German of 1873 – 1876 by architect J. G. Poope but emphasizes this link is parallel to rather than mimicking the German precedent.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 110 In association with Ellerker and Kilburn, Pitt designed the monumental Federal Coffee Palace (FIG.111) of 1887 – 1890.203 Contemporaries saw this establishment as ‘…no better proof…’ of Melbourne’s advancement, rivalling hotels in the old world.204 Celebrated as a novel French Renaissance design,205 the hotel was related to Wight and Lucas’ work with its complex classical articulation of form, Mannerist distortions and Second Empire dome and mansards, a prominent example of the lavishness of the Boom period both inside and out (FIG.112). With its corner dome, the Federal Coffee Palace reflected Second Empire buildings such as Paul Sédille’s Printempts Department Store (FIG.113) of 1882 – 1883. By contrast, Pitt’s Melbourne Coffee Palace (FIG.109) was conservative in its deployment of classic elements. Like Wight and Lucas, Pitt was working in 206 both complex and simple modes of composition, typical of the eclecticism of the Boom period.

Another example of third-generation architects working with older architects, Ellerker and Kilburn designed the City of Melbourne Building (FIG.114) of 1886 in conjunction with Smith and Johnson, a composition which meshes a number of different traditions together. Mannerist classical column and window treatments of the four storey offices draw the eye upwards, competing for attention with the horizontality of the Free Style red brick with contrasting stringcourses, a feature inspired by British architects such as Shaw in his New Scotland Yard begun in 1887 (FIG.116). The fractured roofline combines Flemish gables and a split mansard at the corner (FIG.115). The massing is Picturesque, a historicist intellectual tradition outside academic classicism which began in the eighteenth century and gained popularity with Victorian architects,207 placing great value upon expressions of novelty and 208 surprise.

203 Philip Goad, ‘Pitt, William’, ed. Philip Goad and Julie Willis, The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 543. Ellerker and Kilburn won the Federal Coffee Palace competition with Pitt awarded second prize. Pitt then collaborated with the winners to create the final design, an enormous eight storey establishment of 500 rooms. Renamed later as the Federal Hotel after permitting the sale of alcohol, the building was demolished in 1973. 204 ‘Progressive Melbourne: The Federal Coffee Palace’, The Bacchus Marsh Express, 20 August 1887, 6. 205 ‘Our Illustrations: Federal Coffee Palace, Melbourne’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 27 August 1887, 254 – 259. With great civic pride, in ‘Melbourne Architecture’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 27 August 1887, 249, the author of this article is proud to boast that the famous Otis hydraulic elevators, perfected in New York, will be installed in the Federal Coffee Palace. All new tall buildings in Boom time Melbourne were keen to embrace the latest technology. 206 Pitt was an important Melbourne Boom era architect who designed the Melbourne Coffee Palace (FIG.109) of 1882, the city’s first temperance hotel (Goad, A Guide to Melbourne Architecture, 242). In 1886 Wight and Lucas added a five storey Little Bourke Street extension to Pitt’s building of which no images have yet come to light. It was built in Hoffman’s dark red bricks with contrasting cement render stringcourses, bluestone ground floor piers and incorporated the latest building technology such as Hayward’s outlet ventilators (‘A Proposed New Coffee Palace’, The Age, 12 June 1886, 15). The Argus described the extension as Elizabethan in style which increased the total number of bedrooms of the Melbourne Coffee Palace from 163 to 250 (‘Enlargement to the Melbourne Coffee Palace’, Agrus, 24 December 1886, 10). 207 Kohane, ‘Classicism Transformed: A Study of Façade Composition in Victoria, 1888 - 1892’, 28. 208 Mordaunt Crook, The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to the Post Modern, 22.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 111 There is a Mannerist theme running through the work of Wight and Lucas as well as that of D’Ebro, Askew, Pitt, Ellerker and Kilburn, indicating a significant trend in Melbourne’s Boom architecture.209 Operating at the same time, another group of classical Boom era architects produced work of a different character, despite all creating highly decorative effects. Still working in the 1890s, it is not surprising Smith and Johnson, as first-generation architects, adhered to a conservative classicism in their red brick Queen Anne Colonial Mutual Chambers of 1891 (FIG.118). The façade is a flat palazzo form 210 stretched to accommodate nine storeys and does not employ Mannerist contortions.

Four buildings stand out as examples of exuberant Boom period design that still pay deference to the conservative rules of classicism, unlike Wight and Lucas’ banking house style. Scott Law’s former mansion Benvenuta (FIG.119) of 1892 in Carlton is a richly carved two storey façade of Ionic and Corinthian arcading. Lalor House (FIG.120) in Richmond of 1888 by Wolf has a similar bold double storey arcaded façade. Vahland’s former Colonial Bank (FIG.121) of 1887 in Bendigo has deeply articulated Ionic and Corinthian orders supporting an entablature with caryatids and a broken pediment. Koch’s 1887 Record Chambers (FIG.122) imitates the flat planes of its Gothic neighbours with Renaissance Revival trabeation on the first and second floors. Although a second-generation architect with a reputation for lavishness such as his remodeling of Labassa between 1889 - 1890, Koch makes no concessions to Mannerism upon the Record Chambers façade. None of these buildings veer towards Mannerist playfulness; their columns and arcades do not overlap or step out of proportion with their designs as a whole.

Such conservative interpretations of classicism coexisted with the more radical designs of Wight and Lucas, D’Ebro, Askew, Pitt, Ellerker and Kilburn. The unique and inventive Mannerism of Wight and Lucas’ banks had its roots in the work of older architects such as Salway but was pushed to further levels of experimentation by the younger architects. These two broad groups of Boom classical architects in Melbourne illustrate the eclecticism and complexity of late nineteenth-century architecture and why it is so difficult to give the period an accurate overall stylistic label.211

209 Numerous eclectic Boom period buildings have been demolished in Melbourne such as the former Queen Victoria Building (FIG.117) on the corner of Collins and Swanston Streets. The many layers of influence in this design also inform the complexity of sources in Wight and Lucas’ commercial work, particularly the Business Premises (FIG.85). 210 ‘Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society’, Argus, 12 August `1891. 6. The building was 135 feet in height, of nine storeys with electric lighting and Otis elevators. 211 There are also numerous examples of Boom era Gothic architecture in Melbourne that was lavishly adorned to express wealth such as William Pitt’s Rialto Building (FIG.110) of 1889 with its highly worked façades of two-tone brickwork. Kohane has argued that late nineteenth-century designs were a fusion of classical and gothic elements

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 112 6. Conclusion

The inventiveness of nineteenth-century architects working in the colonies has been at best underplayed and at worst overlooked. The obsession with tracing British precedents for Australian buildings has meant similarities are noted at the expense of identifying variations. Local trends and inter colonial sources have not been researched as a result of this historiographical bias. As Wight and Lucas’ work demonstrates, the architecture of Melbourne’s 1880s Boom period exhibits great creativity. They were designing in a Mannerist classical manner alongside other architects working in various styles, all contributing to what I call a creative vernacular. The difficulty in finding an adequate stylistic label for the Boom era is a result of its complexity during a frenetic period of prosperity. In other words, as with the term Federation, the Boom Style does not exist as a single entity as it 212 encompasses many threads of influences.

Recently, the Boom Style has been described as a compositional approach due to its experimental nature, eclecticism, ornateness in the service of attracting attention and dissolving wall surfaces beneath layers of applied classical or gothic ornamentation.213 Specific Mannerist combinations of elements are identifiable across Wight and Lucas’ architecture and these forms were intended to evoke particular interpretations of success and wealth for commercial patrons.214 I therefore see Wight and Lucas’ Boom commercial architecture as a conscious style rather than a compositional approach to design as it is inherently and consistently Mannerist in its application of classical elements. Their work forms part of an identifiably Mannerist stream in Melbourne’s Boom period, alongside the architecture of D’Ebro, Pitt and Askew. This style, however, is only one portion of Boom architecture in Melbourne. It would be rash to pin down all classical Boom period architecture as belonging to a

such as the Mercantile Bank’s use of overlapping surfaces and the circular opening at the apex of the composition recalling a rose window in a Gothic cathedral (see Kohane, ‘Classicism Transformed: A Study of Façade Composition in Victoria, 1888 - 1892’, 33 – 35). I see the Collins Street composition as entirely classical with the circular form catching the upward movement from the basement and echoing the profile of the original dome. The Gothic style is a different architectural language to the classical. The commercial Gothic of the Boom era does not contain the same distortion of forms as Wight and Lucas’ classical work. Without a strict set of proportional rules, Gothic composition is not predisposed to Mannerist contradictions as seen in Wight and Lucas’ bank designs. Pitt’s Rialto façade is a typical example of the flatness of the Gothic articulation of form, even with the use of protruding bays. The Gothic architecture of the 1880s needs to be considered as a separate Boom Style to the classical. 212 Willis and Goad, ‘Myth in its Making: Federation Style and Australian Architectural History’, 114. There are parallels between the use of the terms Federation Style and Boom Style as both cover periods where eclecticism was widespread thus an all-encompassing label does not assist in accurately describing the architecture of either period. 213 King and Willis, ‘Mining Boom Styles’, 335 & 343 and Kohane and Willis, ‘Boom Style’, 98. 214 Mordaunt Crook, The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to the Post Modern, 11 – 13. Wight and Lucas’ Boom Mannerism fits Mordaunt Crook’s definition of an architectural style.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 113 particular style as there are various modes evident during the 1880s and early 1890s.215 The Boom Style is most effective as an umbrella term. There is the Mannerist group, the French Second Empire was an important source of influence as were British notions of Picturesque asymmetrical composition and the Free Style as seen in the work of Pitt, Ellerker and Kilburn. Vahland, Scott Law, Wolf and Koch represent another strain, where conservative non-Mannerist represented structure is overlaid with ornate classical ornamentation.216

Wight and Lucas contributed to the development of Melbourne into a Boom metropolis with their unique Mannerist interpretations. Adventurous and dynamic, reflecting the confidence of Marvellous Melbourne, their commercial classical facades symbolize the energy and sense of confidence of their time. Their Mercantile Bank (FIG.78) was at the centre of the financial crash of the early 1890, closing its doors on 4 March 1892.217 Millions of pounds were lost and founder Davies was forced to resign from Parliament and all his prestigious public posts.218 The economic depression heralded a sharp drop in the demand for architects and the consequent demise of the exuberant eclecticism witnessed in

Melbourne’s architecture in the previous decade.219

With commissions stemmed by the crash, Wight and Lucas’ association came to an end by 1894. After working in the mining industry, Wight returned to architectural practice in Melbourne with William Pestell in 1898.220 This partnership produced various domestic buildings and a third prize competition entry in 1900 for the new Flinders Street Station.221 Serving as the President of the R.I.V.A. from 1911 to 1913,222 Wight advised the Federal government regarding conditions for the 1911 Federal Capital competition.223 Along with Hudson, Wight designed Geelong Grammar (FIGS 7 & 8) of 1912

215 Tibbits, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria’, 98. As Tibbits has noted, the varied architecture of the 1880s has all been ‘…lumped together…’ as Boom Style. 216 Apperly, Irving and Reynolds, Identifying Australian Architecture: Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present, 64 – 67. This text discusses Victorian Mannerism and mentions a few major works which exhibit Mannerist elements. Some are what I have called Boom Style Mannerism such as the Block Arcade, but most High Victorian works shown here are not Mannerist in design. 217 Cannon, The Land Boomers, 165 - 166. Entrepreneur Matthew Davies floated the Australian Economic Bank in 1877, changing its name to the Mercantile Bank in 1885. The financial institution was founded to speculate in land and was not a real bank. 218 Cannon, The Land Boomers, 159. During the crisis of 1892, nearly all of Davies’ 34 listed companies were liquidated and he was subjected to criminal charges but found not guilty. He could afford brilliant defense lawyer Theodore Fink but was nevertheless declared insolvent in 1894. 219 George Tibbits, ‘An Emanation of Lunacy’, ed. Howells, Trevor and Michael Nicholson, Towards the Dawn, 52. 220 ‘Wight Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 39. 221 See Lewis, Australian Architectural Index, Records 34681, 24057, 31407 and 32282 for references to the practice of Wight and Pestell. 222 ‘Wight Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 39. 223 ‘The Federal Capital Competition’, Royal Victorian Institute of Architects: Journal of Proceedings, May 1911, 57 – 61.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 114 – 1914, his final work. Wight was therefore an established member of Melbourne’s architectural profession from the 1880s until his death in 1915.

During his career in South Africa, Lucas was best known for his large classical buildings (FIGS 3 & 4), the Pietermaritzburg General Post Office being a major civic structure. He returned to Melbourne in 1915, resuming his association with the R.I.V.A., taking on various roles such as treasurer and editor.224 The remainder of his career appears to have been exclusively devoted to large competition submissions such as the Victorian War Memorial (FIG.1) of 1924, awarded second prize, and the Australian National War Memorial (FIG.2) of 1928 for Villers-Bretonneux in France, awarded first prize but controversially not built to Lucas’ design.225 Lucas had a varied career across three continents and remained an active presence amongst Melbourne’s architectural profession until his death in 1939.

The post Boom architecture of Wight and Lucas has not been studied.226 There is much scope for further research to uncover their combined catalogue of works throughout the 1890s and into the early twentieth century. The two other partnerships of Wight need to be explored as does the South African architecture of Lucas spanning three provinces.227 The Melbourne practice of Wight and Lucas requires additional attention as their decade of work must exceed the catalogue of works already revealed. Their idiosyncratic Mannerism (FIG.123) warrants additional investigation into their knowledge of other local architects work and their exposure to British sources and possibly American influences, such as the commercial palazzi of Louis Sullivan and McKim, Mead and White.228 The commercial, religious and domestic architecture of Wight and Lucas illustrates they were both skilled practitioners and ones who helped shape Melbourne during the Boom. Further research will consolidate and increase their standing in Australian architectural history.

224 ‘Lucas Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, 154. 225 Williams, Abstract of Exquisite Joy, Exquisite Privilege. Williams research deals with Lucas’ early twentieth-century war memorial competition designs and his uneasy relationship with colleagues and the R.I.V.A. 226 Williams, Abstract of Exquisite Joy, Exquisite Privilege. Williams focuses upon the Victorian and Villers-Bretonneux competition work of Lucas. 227 ‘Lucas, William, Architect’, Artefacts: South African Built Environment. Lucas first migrated to Natal Province, practicing in Durban in 1894 and then Pietermaritzburg in 1895. Around 1910 Lucas left for the Transvaal and worked in Pretoria, including their Public Works Department. 228 Apperly, ‘The Commercial Palazzo: Its Origins Overseas and Some Examples in New South Wales in the Early Twentieth Century’, 65.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 115 Bibliography Primary Sources

Archival Material

Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, Sydney, 1887 – 1895, (Microfilm, State Library of Victoria and original journals, Architecture Library, Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne).

Australia, Birth Index, 1788 – 1922, Gerard Wight, 1860. URL: ancestry.com.au.

Australia, City Directories, 1845 - 1948 (Sands and McDougall), Gerard Wight, Trade Listings 1892, 1893 and 1915. URL: ancestry.com.au.

Australia, City Directories, 1845 - 1948: Victorian P.O. Directory (Wise), Gerard Wight, 1896, 1897, 1904, 1905 and 1907. URL: ancestry.com.au.

Australia, Death Index, 1787 – 1985, Gerard Wight, 1915. URL: ancestry.com.au.

Australia, Marriage Index, 1788 – 1950, William Lucas, 1888. URL: ancestry.com.au.

Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 1887 – 1895, Microfilm, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/.

Argus (Melbourne), 1880 – 1894, Trove, National Library of Australia. URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/.

The Builder: An Illustrated Weekly Magazine (London), 1870s – 1880s. URL: https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=builder.

Birth Certificate, Australia, Birth Index, 1788 – 1922, William Lucas, 1860. URL: ancentry.com.au.

Church of England Baptisms, 1813 – 1913, Gloucestershire, England, Listing of Charles Thomas Lucas, 1827. URL: ancestry.com.au.

1881 England Census, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, William Lucas, Folio 75, 19. URL: ancestry.com.au.

Lucas, William, Folio of Architectural Biographies: Journal Articles, Press Clippings and Photographs, c.1880s – 1930s, Rare Books, Architectural Library, University of Melbourne.

Lucas, William, ‘Papers Regarding Architectural Designs for Federal Government Competitions 1916 - 1931’, Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Manuscripts Collection Box 25/3, MS11132 – MS11134.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 116 Lucas, William, ‘Papers Regarding Designs for Parliament House and University of Western Australia’, Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Manuscripts Collection Box 25/3, MS11135 – MS11136.

Outward Passenger Index, 1852 – 1915, William Lucas, 1876. URL: ancestry.com.au.

Primary Books and Pamphlets

Alsop, John, The Melbourne Savings Bank, (Melbourne: Mason, Firth and McCutcheon, 1884 – 1885).

Lucas, William, Australian National War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France, (Melbourne: Argonaut Press, 1919).

Lucas, William, ‘The National War Memorial for Victoria: A Review of the Competition’, 1924, State Library of Victoria, Manuscripts Collection, MS Box 1716/15.

Lucas, William, The War Memorial of Victoria and Capital: A Suggestion, (Melbourne: W.T. Pater and Co., 1919). URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/251469.

Primary Articles

Adams, Francis, ‘Where They Go Ahead’ in ed. Tim Flannery, The Birth of Melbourne, (Melbourne: Text Publishing Company, 2002), 330 – 335.

‘Advertisement: Land Sale’, Argus, 10 October 1888, 4.

‘Advertisement: Wight and Lucas, Architects and Surveyors’, The Record (Emerald Hill), 17 November 1886, 1.

‘Annual Competition R.I.V.A.’, Argus, 15 July 1893, 9.

‘Bank of Victoria’, The Age, 8 August 1855, 5.

‘Brief Mention: Kensington Church’, The Herald, 28 October 1887, 2.

‘Building Society Architecture in the Metropolis’, The Record (Emerald Hill), 7 August 1886, 6.

‘Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society’, Argus, 12 August `1891. 6.

D’Ebro, Charles, ‘President’s Retiring Address’, Royal Victorian Institute of Architects: Journal of Proceedings, March 1907, 11.

‘Enlargement to the Melbourne Coffee Palace’, Agrus, 24 December 1886, 10.

‘The Federal Capital Competition’, Royal Victorian Institute of Architects: Journal of Proceedings, May 1911, 57 - 61.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 117 ‘Gerard Wight Obituary’, Royal Institute of Victorian Architects: Journal of Proceedings, May 1915, 39. URL: https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-401020818.

‘Kensington: New Church’, The Church of England Messenger, 6 February 1884, 4.

‘Lad Required to assist in architect’s and surveyor’s office. Wight and Lucas, Market Street’, Argus, 25 July 1889, 1.

Lucas, William, ‘A Summer Holiday: Impressions of a Trip Abroad’, Royal Victorian Institute of Architects: Journal of Proceedings, Instalments May, July, September and November 1909.

Lucas, William, ‘Competition: The Public Library, Museums and National Gallery of Victoria’, Building, vol.36, no.214, 12 June 1925, 70 – 72. URL: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-318063006.

Lucas, William, ‘Presidential Address by William Lucas, Esq., F.R.V.I.A.’, Natal Institute of Architects, 18 May 1906. URL: http://handlel.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/165251.

Lucas, William, ‘Some Big Competitions and How They Were Won’, Royal Victorian Institute of Architects: Journal of Proceedings, January 1921, 170 – 176.

‘Melbourne Architecture’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 27 August 1887, 249.

‘Melbourne Permanent Society’s Building’, Illustrated Australian News, 5 August 1885, 122.

‘Melbourne Savings Bank’, Argus, 7 August 1882, 4.

‘Melbourne Savings Bank’, The Herald, 18 March 1884, 1.

‘The Melbourne Savings Bank: Advertisement’, The Age, 6 May 1882, 7.

‘The Melbourne Savings Bank, Port Melbourne’, Standard (Port Melbourne), 11 April 1891, 2.

‘Melbourne Savings Bank’, Weekly Times, 6 September 1884, 11.

‘Mr Charles D’Ebro: Tragic Death in Perth’, Argus, 24 June 1920, 6.

‘Old Memories’, Essendon Gazette, 4 January 1917, 4.

‘New Banking Premises, Melbourne Savings Bank, North Melbourne’, North Melbourne Advertiser, 3 July 1891, 3.

‘New Savings Bank, Melbourne Savings Bank, Carlton’, North Melbourne Advertiser, 18 August 1883, 3.

‘Notes and Notices: Mr Arthur Ebden Johnson’, The Australasian, 1 June 1895, 32.

‘Public Notices: A Card’, The Age, 20 April 1885, 2.

‘Our Illustrations: Business Premises, Bourke Street, Melbourne’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 8 August 1891, 108.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 118 ‘Our Illustrations: Dr Beaney’s New Residence, Collins Street’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 7 April 1888, 222.

‘Our Illustrations: Federal Coffee Palace, Melbourne’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 27 August 1887, 254 – 259.

‘Our Illustrations: Illustrations to Mr A.E. Johnson’s Note on Travel’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 8 July 1893, 21.

‘Our Illustrations: Mercantile Bank, Melbourne’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 28 July 1888, 72.

‘Progressive Melbourne: The Federal Coffee Palace’, Bacchus Marsh Express, 20 August 1887, 6.

‘Proposed Amalgamations of Savings Banks’, Argus, 28 April 1893, 5.

‘A Proposed New Coffee Palace’, The Age, 12 June 1886, 15.

Sala, George Augustus, ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ in ed. Tim Flannery, The Birth of Melbourne, (Melbourne: Text Publishing Company, 2002), 326 – 330.

‘Trinity Church, Kensington’, North Melbourne Advertiser, 19 January 1889, 4.

‘Try Excelsior Hall, Toorak’, The Herald, 7 November 1887, 4.

‘The Try Society’s New Hall’, Argus, 11 November 1887, 5.

Urban, Sylvanus, ‘Fine Arts’, The Gentleman’s Magazine, v.14, July 1840, (London: John Bowyer Nichols and Sons, 1840), 68.

‘Wight and Lucas, Architects, require two lads able to trace’, Argus, 2 August 1888, 1.

‘Wight and Lucas: Invite Tenders for additions to House, Acland Street, St Kilda’, The Age, 23 October 1888, 10.

‘Wight and Lucas: Invite Tenders for Brick Residence, Caretaker’s Cottage and Stabling at Healesville’, The Age, 23 October 1888, 10.

‘Wight and Lucas: Invite Tenders for tank and drainage, Elsternwick’, Argus, 23 July 1885, 3.

‘Wight and Lucas: Tenders wanted for iron girder bridge over Merri Creek, Fitzroy’, Argus, 21 November 1885, 17.

‘Wight and Lucas: Tenders wanted for Try Societies Hall, Surrey Road’, Argus, 17 November 1886, 11. ‘William Lucas Obituary’, Journal of the Royal Institute of Victorian Architects, vol.37, no.5, July 1939, 154. URL: https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-406679799.

‘Williams Road Bridge’, The Prahran Telegraph, 1 December 1894, 2.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 119 Secondary Sources

Secondary Books and Pamphlets

Apperly, Richard, Robert Irving and Peter Reynolds, Identifying Australian Architecture: Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present, (Pymble: Angus and Robertson, 1994).

Boyd, Robin, Australia’s Home: Its Origins, Builders and Occupiers, (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1987).

Casey, Maie, ed. Early Melbourne Architecture: 1840 to 1888, (London: Oxford University Press, 1966).

Cannon, Michael, The Land Boomers, (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1966).

Craddock, Trevor and Maurice Cavanough, One Hundred and Twenty-Five Years: The Story of the State Savings Bank of Victoria, 1842 - 1966, (Melbourne: Southdown Press, 1967).

Cooch, Alex, The State Savings Bank of Victoria: Its Place in the History of Victoria, (Melbourne: McMillan and Co., 1934).

Davison, Graeme, The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1978).

Dixon, Roger and Stefan Muthesius, Victorian Architecture, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978).

Fleming, John, Hugh Honour and Nikolaus Pevsner, ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1984).

Freeland, John Maxwell, Architecture in Australia: A History, (Ringwood: Penguin Books, 1982).

Goad, Philip, A Guide to Melbourne Architecture, (Melbourne: Watermark Press, 1999).

Goad, Philip and Julie Willis, ed. The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Hart, Frederick, Giulio Romano, (New York: Hacker Art Books, 1981).

Herman, Morton, The Early Australian Architects and their Work, (Sydney: Angus and Robertson Publishers, 1973).

Hitchcock, Henry Russell, Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1969).

Furneaux Jordan, Robert, Victorian Architecture, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1966).

Leach, Andrew, What is Architectural History?, (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010).

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 120 Middleton, Robin and David Watkin, Neoclassical and 19th Century Architecture, (New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc. Publishers, 1977).

Mordaunt Crook, Joseph, The Architect’s Secret: Victorian Critics and the Image of Gravity, (London: John Murray, 2003).

Mordaunt Crook, Joseph, The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to the Post Modern, (London: John Murray, 1987).

Murray, Robert and Kate White, A Bank for the People: A History of the State Bank of Victoria, (North Melbourne: Hargreen Publishing Company, 1992).

Pevsner, Nikolaus, A History of Building Types, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1986).

Picton Seymour, Desiree, Victorian Buildings in South Africa, (Cape Town: A.A. Balkema, 1977).

Royal Victorian Institute of Architects, Guide to Victorian Architecture: A Brief Illustrated Record of Architectural Development in Victoria, and in Melbourne, the Capital, (Melbourne: Public Relations Committee, Royal Victorian Institute of Architects, 1956).

Service, Alastair, Edwardian Architecture: A Handbook to Building Design in Britain 1890 – 1914, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977).

Summerson, John, Architecture in Britain 1530 – 1830, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1953).

Summerson, John, The Classical Language of Architecture, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980).

Summerson, John, Victorian Architecture in England: Four Studies in Evaluation, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1971).

Tzonis, Alexander and Liane Lefaivre, Classical Architecture: The Poetics of Order, (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1986).

Watkin, David, English Architecture: A Concise History, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1979).

Wölfflin, Heinrich, Classic Art: An Introduction to the Italian Renaissance, (New York: Cornell University Press, 1980).

Wölfflin, Heinrich, Principles of Art History: The Problem of the Development of Style in Later Art, (New York: Dover Publications, 1950).

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 121 Secondary Articles

Apperly, Richard, ‘The Commercial Palazzo: Its Origins Overseas and Some Examples in New South Wales in the Early Twentieth Century’, Society of Architectural Historians of Australian and New Zealand, Fifth Annual Conference, Sydney, 15 – 18 May 1988, 57 - 82. URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/10331867.1995.10525087. Aslet, Clive, ‘The Architect, the Diamond Magnate and a Grand Design’, The Daily Telegraph (London), 21 January 2017, 10. URL: http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/docview/1860258415?accountid =12372.

Bremner, G. A., ‘‘Architects’ and ‘Architecture’: Realigning the Words of British Architecture’ in Bremner, G. A., Johan Lagae and Mercedes Volait, ‘Intersecting Interests: Developments in Networks and Flow of Information and Expertise in Architectural History’, Fabrications, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand, (2016), v.26, no.2, 227 – 245. URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10331867.2016.1173167.

Bremner, G. A., ‘Black Gold: Opium and the Architecture of Imperial Trade in Nineteenth Century Asia’, ed. AnnMarie Brennan and Philip Goad, Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, (Melbourne: S.A.H.A.N.Z. Conference Proceedings, 2016), vol.33, Gold, 74 - 82. URL:https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/sahanz-2016.

Bremner, G. A., Johan Lagae and Mercedes Volait, ‘Intersecting Interests: Developments in Networks and Flow of Information and Expertise in Architectural History’, Fabrications, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand, (2016), v.26, no.2, 227 – 245. URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10331867.2016.1173167.

Caldwell, Colin, ‘Architectural Style’ in ed. Saunders, David, Historic Buildings of Victoria (Brisbane: Jacaranda Press, 1966), 39 – 44.

Cannon, Michael, ‘Benjamin Josman Fink’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, v.4, Melbourne University Press, 1972. URL: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fink-benjamin-josman-3516.

‘Domestic Buildings after 1851: The Italianate Tradition’ in Survey of London: Volume 38, South Kensington Museums Area, ed. F. H. W. Sheppard, (London: London County Council, 1975), 30. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol38/pp262-307.

Goad, Philip, ‘Pitt, William’, ed. Philip Goad and Julie Willis, The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 542 - 544.

Hoban, Ruth, ‘Forster, William Mark (1846 - 1921’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, v.4, Melbourne University Press, 1972. URL: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/forster-william-mark-3554.

Howells, Trevor, ‘Towards the Dawn’, ed. Trevor Howells and Michael Nicholson, Towards the Dawn, (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, 1993), 10 – 12.

King, Stuart, ‘The Victorian City’, Australian Architecture Lecture, Semester 1, 2019.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 122 King, Stuart and Julie Willis, ‘Mining Boom Styles’, ed. AnnMarie Brennan and Philip Goad, Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, (Melbourne: S.A.H.A.N.Z. Conference Proceedings, 2016), vol.33, Gold, 334 - 345. URL: https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/sahanz-2016.

Kohane, Peter, ‘Classicism Transformed: A Study of Façade Composition in Victoria, 1888 - 1892’, Transition, February 1983, 27 – 36.

Kohane, Peter and Michael Hill, ‘Site Decorum’, Architectural Theory Review, vol.20, no.2, 1 January 2015, 228 – 246. URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13264826.2016.1156719.

Kohane, Peter and Julie Willis, ‘Boom Style’, ed. Philip Goad and Julie Willis, The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 97 - 98 .

Maudlin, Daniel, ‘Beginnings: Early Colonial Architecture’, ed. G. A. Bremner, Architecture and Urbanism in the British Empire, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 19 – 50.

Occhino, Tessa, ‘What Could Have Been: William Lucas, Architectural Competitions and Landmarks’, Royal Historical Society of Victoria. URL: https://www.historyvictoria.org.au/collections-lounge/what-could-have-been-william-lucas- architectural-competitions-and-landmarks/.

Ryan, Delyse, ‘Does All Melbourne Smell Like This? The Colonial Metropolis in Marvellous Melbourne’, Australian Literary Studies, University of Queensland Press, 1 May 2003, 81 – 91. URL: https://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=c549f353-fe89- 4b43-bac8-fe3d828481e3%40pdc-v-sessmgr02.

Taylor, John J., ‘William Salway (1844-1902)’, Western Australian Architect Biographies, July 2014. URL: https://repository.architecture.com.au.

Tibbits, George, ‘1880 – 1890: Marvellous Melbourne…The Boom Style’ in ed. Goad, Philip, A Guide to Melbourne Architecture, (Sydney: The Watermark Press, 1999), 54 – 57.

Tibbits, George, ‘An Emanation of Lunacy’, ed. Howells, Trevor and Michael Nicholson, Towards the Dawn, (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, 1993), 47 – 86.

Tibbits, George, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria: Represented Style’, Paper Delivered to the Annual Conference, Art Association of Australia, (Sydney: 21 August 1976).

Torode, Brian E., John Middleton: Victorian Provincial Architect, (Zagreb: Unpublished text, 2014). URL: btsarnia.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/middleton-final.pdf.

Torode, Brian E., William Hill Knight (1814 – 1895), (Unpublished text, 2003). URL: btsarna.org/2014/05/24/William-hill-knight-1814-1895/.

Trethowan, Bruce, ‘William Salway’ in ed. Philip Goad and Julie Willis, The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, (Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 613 – 614.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 123 ‘The Try Society (c.1883 - )’, Find and Connect: History and Information About Australian Orphanages, Children’s Homes and Other Institutions. URL: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/vic/biogs/E000402b.htm.

Willingham, Allan, ‘Twentyman and Askew’, ed. Philip Goad and Julie Willis, The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 720.

Willis, Julie, ‘Architectural Movements: Journeys of an Inter-Colonial Profession’, Fabrications, vol.26, no.2, 158 – 179. URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/10331867.2016.1178622.

Willis, Julie and Philip Goad, ‘Myth in its Making: Federation Style and Australian Architectural History’ in Leach, A. and E. Petrovic eds, Formulation Fabrication: The Architecture of History, Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Conference of S.A.H.A.N.Z., 2000, 113 – 118.

Woods, Peter, ‘Yan Yean Pipeline and St George’s Road’, ed. Miles Lewis, Half-Drowned or Half- Baked: Essays in the History of North Fitzroy, (City of Yarra, The Fitzroy History Society, 2017), 93 – 104. URL: https://fitzroyhistorysociety.org.au/wp-content/uploads/HDHB-text-13-Dec.pdf.

Zandi-Sayek, Sibel, ‘The Unsung of the Canon: Does a Global Architectural History Need New Landmarks?’, Architecture Beyond Europe, v.6, (2014), 1 – 11. URL: https://journals.openedition.org/abe/1271.

University Reports and Theses

Fowler, Jennifer, ‘Gold Rush to ‘Black Wednesday’: The Melbourne Treasury and John James Clark’s Public Works Department Career from 1852 to 1878’, (Melbourne: Master of Arts Thesis, Monash University, 1992).

Trethowan, Bruce, A Study of Banks in Victoria 1851 – 1939, (Melbourne: University of Melbourne Thesis, 1976).

Williams, Katharine Emily, Abstract of Exquisite Joy, Exquisite Privilege: The Unrealised Great War Memorial Designs of Australian Architect William Lucas, (Melbourne: University of Melbourne Ph.D. Thesis, 2017). Embargo: not available until 20/10/2019.

Correspondence

Waller, Jill, ‘Email Correspondence Regarding Evidence of William Lucas’ Apprenticeship in Cheltenham’, Cheltenham Local History Society, February 2020. URL: https://www.cheltlocalhistory.org.uk/.

Bragiola, Alex, ‘Email Correspondence Regarding Wight and Lucas’ Holy Trinity, Kensington and Baptist Church, Moonee Ponds’, Essendon Historical Society, March 2020. URL: https://esshissoc.org.au/.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 124 Heritage Reports

Graeme Butler and Associates, Central City (Hoddle’s Grid) Heritage Review, (Melbourne: 2011). URL: https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/about-council/committees-meetings.

‘Former Colonial Bank, Bendigo’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, Updated January 2000. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/1544.

‘Former Cromwell House’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, 2006. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/64614.

‘List of Heritage Sites in Pietermarizburg’. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heritage_sites_in_Pietermaritzburg.

Lovell Chen, City of Bayside Heritage Review: Heritage Overlay Precincts, v.3, March 1999. URL: https://www.bayside.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/cob_heritage_overlay_precincts_vol_3.

Lovell Chen, Carlton Precinct: HO1, March 2015. URL: https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/.

Lovell Chen, City of Melbourne Heritage Review: Local Heritage Policies and Precinct Statements of Significance Methodology Report, September 2015. URL: https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/.

Lovell Chen, East Melbourne Precinct: H02, March 2016. URL: https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/.

‘Lucas, William, Architect’, Artefacts: South African Built Environment. URL: https://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=1011.

Melbourne Planning Scheme: Heritage Places Inventory, March 2018. URL: https://melb-C324-Incorp-Doc-Heritage-Places-Inventory-March-2018.pdf.

‘Melbourne Savings Bank, Abbotsford’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, Updated January 2008. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/103727.

‘Melbourne Savings Bank, Carlton’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, Updated 2008. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/64817.

‘Melbourne Savings Bank, Clifton Hill’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, Updated January 2014. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/93820.

‘Melbourne Savings Bank, North Fitzroy’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, Updated January 2014. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/102213.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 125 ‘Melbourne Savings Bank, Richmond’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, Updated January 2014. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/91554.

‘Melbourne Savings Bank, Williamstown, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/15053. ‘Mercantile Bank, 345 – 349 Collins Street’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database, 1999. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/732.

‘Newcastle Town Hall’, Word Press. URL: https://grahamlesliemccallum.wordpress.com/2014/04/26/newcastle-natal/.

‘Stalbridge Chambers, 435 – 443 Little Collins Street’, Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/783.

Websites

British Newspaper Archive. URL: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/.

‘Cheltenham History: Decades of Progress 1788 – 1820’ and ‘Cheltenham History: The Victorian Town 1840 - 1900’, The Wilson: Cheltenham Museum. URL: https://www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk/collection/local-history/.

Cheltenham Local History Society. URL: https://www.cheltlocalhistory.org.uk/.

‘Bank of Victoria Ltd: One Pound Circa 1900’, Coinworks. URL: https://coinworks.com.au/Bank- of-Victoria-Ltd-One-Pound-Circa~5302.

‘Esplanade Hotel’, Buildings of St Kilda and Their People. URL: http://www.skhs.org.au/SKHSbuildings/14.htm.

Lewis, Miles, Australian Architectural Index. URL:aai.app.unimelb.edu.au.

‘Premier Permanent Building Land and Investment Association Scrip Issued to Alfred Champion of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia’, Museums Victoria Collections, Item NU 43430. URL: https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/1111869.

‘South Africa: Gold Mining’, Encyclopedia Britannica. URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa/Gold-Mining.

State Bank of Victoria, Social Networking Site, Photograph of former Middle Brighton State Savings Bank. URL: http://www.statebankvictoria.org/?page_id=1081.

Tibbits, George, Biographical Index of Australian Architects, (Melbourne: Unpublished draft biographies, n.d.). URL: https://issuu.com/graemebutler21/docs/architects_bios-_tibbits.

Trove, National Library of Australia. URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 126 List of Illustrations

Frontispiece: Herbert Percival Bennett Photograph of Collins Street looking east towards Elizabeth Street, c.1894, glass lantern slide, Gosbel Collection, State Library of Victoria. Salway, Wight and Lucas’ Mercantile Bank of 1888 with dome at centre above tram. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/54894.

FIG.1 William Lucas Victorian War Memorial Competition Design, 1924 in William Lucas, ‘The National War Memorial for Victoria: A Review of the Competition’, 1924, Manuscripts Collection, MS Box 1716/15, State Library of Victoria.

FIG.2 William Lucas Australian National War Memorial Competition Design: Elevation, 1928, for Villers-Bretonneux in William Lucas, Australian National War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France (Melbourne: Argonaut Press, 1919).

FIG.3 William Lucas Newcastle Town Hall, 1897 - 1899, Scott Street, Newcastle, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. URL: https://pathfinda.com/en/newcastle/gallery#&gid=undefined&pid=1.

FIG.4 William Lucas General Post Office, 1901 - 1903, Longmarket Street, Pietermarizburg, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Original drawing by William Lucas, 1895, Royal Institute of British Architects Collection, RIBA21748. URL: https://www.architecture.com/image- library/RIBApix/image-information/poster/design-for-the-new-general-post-office- pietermaritzburg-perspective-view/posterid/RIBA21748.html?Action=Cookie.

FIG.5 Gerard Wight Former Wight House, 1907, 3 Oak Dene Road, Kyabram, Victoria. URL: https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/22620892.

FIG.6 Gerard Wight Former Champion Hotel, 1911, corner of Brunswick and Gertrude Streets, Fitzroy. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.7 Gerard Wight and Philip Hudson Geelong Grammar School Main Building, 1912 – 1914, 50 Biddlecombe Road, Corio. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.8 Gerard Wight and Philip Hudson Rendered drawing of Geelong Grammar School Main Building and Dining Hall, c.1912 – 1913, Geelong Grammar School Archives.

FIG.9 ‘Advertisement: Wight and Lucas, Architects and Surveyors’, The Record (Emerald Hill), 17 November 1886, 1.

FIG.10 Detail of 1881 England Census: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Folio 75, 19, showing William Lucas, at the age of twenty, listed as an architect. Entry underlined in red. URL: ancestry.com.au.

FIG.11 Left: Donato Bramante Former House of Raphael or Palazzo Caprini, 1512, Rome. Demolished. John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980), FIG.37, 53.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 127 FIG.12 Right: Alfred Louis Smith Former Bank of Victoria, c.1867, 131 Gray Street, Hamilton, Victoria. URL:https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/26559.

FIG.13 Left: Charles Barry Reform Club, 1839 – 1841, Pall Mall, London. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.14 Right: William Chambers Somerset House, 1776 - 1801, Strand elevtion, London. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.15 Alfred Louis Smith and Arthur Ebden Johnson Former Colonial Bank of Australasia, 1880, north east corner of Elizabeth and Little Collins Streets, Melbourne. Demolished. Detail of original ink and watercolour drawing on linen paper, 1880, Architectural Drawings Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/476528.

FIG.16 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Holy Trinity, 1886 – 1887, corner of McCracken and Wight Streets, Kensington. Now converted into a residence. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.17 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Holy Trinity, 1886 – 1887, corner of McCracken and Wight Streets, Kensington. Now converted into a residence. Detail of cement render buttress coping with three incised disks. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.18 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Holy Trinity, 1886 – 1887, corner of McCracken and Wight Streets, Kensington. Now converted into a residence. Detail of side elevation. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.19 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Holy Trinity, 1886 – 1887, corner of McCracken and Wight Streets, Kensington. Now converted into a residence. McCracken Street elevation. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.20 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Baptist Church, 1892, Athol Street, Moonee Ponds. Demolished. Photograph, c.1900, Moonee Ponds Library, provided by Essendon Historical Society.

FIG.21 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Try Society Hall, 1887 (left), corner Cromwell and Surrey Roads, Hawksburn. Demolished. Photograph, c.1900, Stonnington Local History Archives, ID 11543. URL: http://www.picturevictoria.vic.gov.au/site/stonnington/miscellaneous/11543.html.

FIG.22 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Dr Cole’s House, 1888, 88 Rathdowne Street, corner Macarthur Square, Carlton. Now Carlton Family Medical Centre. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.23 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Dr Cole’s House, 1888, 88 Rathdowne Street, corner Macarthur Square, Carlton. Now Carlton Family Medical Centre. Detail of entrance pediment. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.24 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Dr Cole’s House, 1888, 88 Rathdowne Street, corner Macarthur Square, Carlton. Now Carlton Family Medical Centre. Detail of first floor. Photograph J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 128 FIG.25 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Terraces, 1890, 51 – 57 Berry Street, East Melbourne. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.26 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Terraces, 1890, 51 – 57 Berry Street, East Melbourne. Detail of terrace division decoration with acanthus leaf and applied disks. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.27 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Terraces, 1890, 51 – 57 Berry Street, East Melbourne. Detail of terrace division decoration with capital. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.28 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Terraces, 1890, 51 – 57 Berry Street, East Melbourne. Detail of first floor with entablature and pediment. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.29 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Terraces, c.1890, 178 – 180 Gatehouse Street, Parkville. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.30 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Terraces, c.1890, 178 – 180 Gatehouse Street, Parkville. Detail of stringcourse with applied disks and segmental pediment. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.31 Giacomo Vignola Detail of engraving of cornice of Castello Farnese, Caprarola from his Regola, 1563. John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980), Plate 61, 74.

FIG.32 John Alsop, Actuary, ‘The Melbourne Savings Bank: Advertisement’, The Age, 6 May 1882, 7. Trustee E. B. Wight, Esq. and J. P., Gerard Wight’s father, underlined in red.

FIG.33 John Alsop, Actuary The Melbourne Savings Bank, (Melbourne: Mason, Firth and McCutcheon, 1884 - 1885), 7. Advertising pamphlet published by the Melbourne Savings Bank. Chairman E. B. Wight, Esq. and J. P., Gerard Wight’s father, underlined in red. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/243404.

FIG.34 Plaque attached to Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1887, 56 – 58 Fergusson Street, Williamstown. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.35 Giulio Romano Cortile, Palazzo del Te, 1524 – 1534, Mantua, Italy. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_del_Te.

FIG.36 Charles Robert Cockerell Sun Fire Assurance Office, 1841 – 1842, London. Demolished. Nikolaus Pevsner, A History of Building Types, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1986), 214.

FIG.37 Left: Charles Robert Cockerell Bank of England, 1846 – 1848, Liverpool. Robert Furneaux Jordan, Victorian Architecture, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1966), FIG.74, 145.

FIG.38 Right: John Belcher and Beresford Pite Institute of Chartered Accountants, 1888 – 1893, Great Swan Alley, City of London. Alastair Service, Edwardian Architecture: A Handbook to Building Design in Britain 1890 – 1914, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977), 61.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 129 FIG.39 Left: William Bruce Gingell Liverpool and London Insurance Company, 1870, Corn Street, Bristol. Now National Westminster Bank. Engraving, The Builder, v.XXVIII, no.1426, 4 June 1870, 447. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202085/page/n457/mode/2up.

FIG.40 Right: Miles and Francis Bradford District Bank, 1874, Market Street, Bradford. Now National Westminster Bank. Engraving, The Builder, v.XXXII, no.1652, 3 October 1874, 829. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202044/page/n838/mode/2up.

FIG.41 John Whichford Offices, 1880, Queen Victoria Street, London. Engraving, The Builder, v.XXXIX, no.1953, 10 July 1880, 51. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125007023357/page/n61/mode/2up.

FIG.42 John Norton Submarine Telegraph Office, 1880, Throgmorton Avenue, London. Engraving, The Builder, v.XXXIX, no.1973, 20 November 1880, 618 – 619. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125007023357/page/n625/mode/2up.

FIG.43 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.44 Left:4 George Wharton Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888, Lygon Street, Carlton. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.45 Right: Associated with George Wharton Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1885, 231 Victoria Street, corner Hoddle Street, Abbotsford. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.46 Left: Alfred Louis Smith and Arthur Ebden Johnson Former Colonial Bank, 1888, 518 Elizabeth Street, Carlton. Photogragh by Lyle Fowler, c.1941, Harold Paynting Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/247475.

FIG.47 Right: Alfred Louis Smith and Arthur Ebden Johnson Former Bank of Victoria, 1874, 61 Whyte Street, Coleraine, Victoria. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/23060.

FIG.48 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn. Detail of entrance pilasters. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.49 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn. Detail of fluted bracket and capital. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.50 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn. Detail of piano nobile central window. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.51 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn. Detail of piano nobile central window and segmental arch and cartouche of entablature. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 130 FIG.52 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 97 - 99 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill. Now unoccupied. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.53 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 97 - 99 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill. Now unoccupied. Detail of fluted bracket and applied spheres. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.54 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 97 - 99 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill. Now unoccupied. Detail of ground floor entablature. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.55 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 97 - 99 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill. Now unoccupied. Detail of piano nobile aedicule. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.56 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1889, 182 – 184 Bridge Road, Richmond. Now unoccupied. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.57 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1889, 182 – 184 Bridge Road, Richmond. Now unoccupied. Detail of piano nobile balcony with triumphal arch form. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.58 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1889, 720 Nicholson Street, corner of Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy. Now Nicholson Health and Wellness. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.59 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1889, 720 Nicholson Street, corner of Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy. Now Nicholson Health and Wellness. Detail of ground floor pier. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.60 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1889, 720 Nicholson Street, corner of Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy. Now Nicholson Health and Wellness. Detail of piano nobile aedicule. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.61 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1889, 720 Nicholson Street, corner of Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy. Now Nicholson Health and Wellness. Detail of corner piano nobile window and roofline. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.62 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Savings Bank, 1890, 118 Church Street, Middle Brighton. Now White Rabbit Café. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.63 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Savings Bank, 1890, 118 Church Street, Middle Brighton. Now White Rabbit Café. Detail of piano nobile. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.64 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Saving Bank, 1891, 94 Errol Street, North Melbourne. Now offices. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.65 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Saving Bank, 1891, 94 Errol Street, North Melbourne. Now offices. Detail of piano nobile window. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 131 FIG.66 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Saving Bank, 1891, 94 Errol Street, North Melbourne. Now offices. Detail of ground floor fluted bracket and capital with applied disks. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.67 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Saving Bank, 1891, 94 Errol Street, North Melbourne. Now offices. Detail of chimneys with incised disks. Photograph by J. Fowler. FIG.68 Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1887, 56 – 58 Ferguson Street, Williamstown. Now two retail outlets and rear residence. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.69 Rose Stereograph Company Ferguson Street, Looking East, Williamstown, Vic., c.1950s, Postcard, Rose Postcard Collection, State Library of Victoria. Former Melbourne Savings Bank on left. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/62167.

FIG.70 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1887, 56 – 58 Ferguson Street, Williamstown. Now two retail outlets and rear residence. Side elevation. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.71 Right: Gerard Wight and Wiliam Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1887, 56 – 58 Ferguson Street, Williamstown. Now two retail outlets and rear residence. Detail of ground floor pilasters. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.72 Left: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1887, 56 – 58 Ferguson Street, Williamstown. Now two retail outlets and rear residence. Detail of ground level pilasters and entablature. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.73 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1887, 56 – 58 Ferguson Street, Williamstown. Now two retail outlets and rear residence. Detail of piano nobile aedicule. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.74 Left: Michelanelo Medici Chapel, 1521 – 1524, San Lorenzo, Florence. Detail of aedicule. John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980), 61.

FIG.75 Right: Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Melbourne Savings Bank, 1888 – 1889, 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn. Detail of aedicule. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.76 Beresford Pite Competition Design for Colchester Town Hall, 1897 with handwritten note by Lucas ‘J. Belcher 1st’ in William Lucas, Folio of Architectural Biographies: Journal Articles, Press Clippings and Photographs, c.1880s – 1930s, (Rare Books, Architectural Library, University of Melbourne.)

FIG.77 William Salway, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Mercantile Bank, 1888, 345 – 349 Collins Street, Melbourne. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 132 FIG.78 William Salway, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Mercantile Bank, 1888, 345 – 349 Collins Street, Melbourne. Detail of photograph by Albert Dubucand of Collins Street, c.1892, Album collected and compiled during a visit to Australia, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/205783.

FIG.79 William Salway Former Mercantile Bank, 1888, corner Moorabool and Ryrie Streets, Geelong. Victorian Heritage Database. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/19958.

FIG.80 William Salway Former Athenaeum Club, now Block Court, 1890, ground floor remodelled by Harry Norris, 1930, Collins Street, Melbourne. Detail of oriel bays. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.81 William Salway, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Mercantile Bank, 1888, 345 – 349 Collins Street, Melbourne. Engraving, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 28 July 1888. The bank is in the centre, topped with its original dome, lantern and flanking mansards.

FIG.82 Louis Visconti and Hector Lefuel New Louvre, 1852 – 1857, Paris. Detail of Richelieu Pavilion. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Lefuel#/media/File:Louvre_aile_Richelieu.jpg.

FIG.83 Left: Thomas Verity Criterion Theatre and Restaurant, 1871 – 1873, Piccadilly Circus, London. The Builder (London), v.XXIX, no.1483, 8 July 1871, 527. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202077.

FIG.84 Right: John Giles Langham Hotel, 1864 – 1866, Langham Place, London. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.85 David Askew, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Business Premises, 1891, corner Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, Melbourne. Subsequently known as Cromwell Buildings. Demolished 1973. Engraving, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 8 August 1891, 108.

FIG.86 David Askew, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Business Premises, 1891, corner Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, Melbourne. Subsequently known as Cromwell Buildings. Demolished 1973. Photograph by Lyle Fowler, 1954, Harold Paynting Collection, K Series, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/41405.

FIG.87 M. Émile Jaulet Belgium Façade, 1878, Paris Exhibition. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXXVL, no.1850, 20 July 1878, 752. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125007023332/page/n757/mode/2up.

FIG.88 David Askew, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Detail of former Business Premises, 1891, corner Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, Melbourne. Subsequently known as Cromwell Buildings. Demolished 1973. Herald Sun photograph, 1952. URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/photo-essay-a-look-at-glorious-melbourne- buildings-that-were-demolished/news-story/9bd4fbf54cf6e367aeb5cc0fa6424797.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 133 FIG.89 Gordon Norfolk Photograph of Armistice celebrations in Bourke Street looking across Elizabeth Street, 1918, Kevin Patterson Collection, State Library of Victoria. Business Premises on left. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/399065.

FIG.90 Edward Twentyman and David Askew Block Arcade, 1891 – 1892, Elizabeth Street façade, Melbourne. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.91 Edward Twentyman and David Askew Block Arcade, 1891 – 1892, 280 – 286 Collins Street, Melbourne. Photograph by Commercial Photographic Co., c.1930 – 1939, Harold Paynting Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/50136.

FIG.92 Thomas Watts and Sons Former New Business Premises, 1891, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. Demolished. Engraving, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 8 August 1891.

FIG.93 Edward William Mountford Sheffield Town Hall, 1890 – 1897, Pinstone Street, Sheffield. Original competition drawing. URL: https://www.courtauldprints.com/image/167222/mountford-edward-william-sheffield-town- hall.

FIG.94 Leonard Stokes Competition design for West End Club, Building News, April 1882. Handwritten note by Lucas stating ‘A.B. Pite 1st’. William Lucas, Folio of Architectural Biographies: Journal Articles, Press Clippings and Photographs, c.1880s – 1930s, Rare Books, Architectural Library, University of Melbourne.

FIG.95 John Gibson Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1879, Northumberland Avenue, London. Now Nigeria House. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXXVII, no.1915, 18 October 1879, 1153. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125007023340/page/n1189/mode/2up.

FIG.96 Horton and Bridgford Southport Baths, 1870, corner of the Promenade and Nevill Street, Southport. Now the Victoria Leisure Centre. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXVIII, no.1451, 26 November 1870, 947. Detail of entrance. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202085/page/n955/mode/2up.

FIG.97 Theodore K. Green Offices, 1875, corner Threadneedle and Bishopsgate Streets, London. Now Lloyds Bank. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXXIII, no.1712, 27 November 18975, 1063. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202036/page/n1083/mode/2up.

FIG.98 Lewis H. Isaacs London Joint Stock Bank, 1872, 89 Charterhouse Street, Clerkenwell. Now Barclays Bank. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXX, no.1516, 24 February 1872, 147. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202069/page/n159/mode/2up.

FIG.99 William Botterill Hull Banking Company, 1872, Silver Street, Hull. Now restaurant. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXX, no.1535, 6 July 1872, 527. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125006202069/page/n539/mode/2up.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 134 FIG.100 F. and H. Francis and J. E. Saunders Grand Hotel, 1879, Charing Cross, London. Engraving, The Builder (London), v.XXXVII, no.1886, 29 March 1979, 344 – 346. URL: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125007023340/page/n357/mode/2up.

FIG.101 William Salway Former Dr Beaney’s House, 1886 - 1888, corner of Collins and Russell Streets, Melbourne. Now retail outlets and offices. Engraving, Australian Builder and Contractor’s News, 7 April 1888.

FIG.102 William Salway Former Dr Beaney’s House, 1886 - 1888, corner of Collins and Russell Streets, Melbourne. Now retail outlets and offices. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.103 William Salway Former Dr Beaney’s House, 1886 - 1888, corner of Collins and Russell Streets, Melbourne. Now retail outlets and offices. Detail of ground floor window with segmental pediment. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.104 Edward Twentyman and David Askew Melbourne Permanent Building Society, 1885, 18 Collins Street, Melbourne. Demolished. Engraving by Samuel Calvert, 5 August 1885, Illustrated Australian News. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/253803.

FIG.105 Edward Twentyman and David Askew Stalbridge Chambers, 1890 - 1891, 435 - 443 Little Collins Street, Melbourne. Photograph by Charles Rudd, c.1892, Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/301268.

FIG.106 Charles D’Ebro Premier Permanent Building Society, 1885, 229 – 233 Collins Street, Melbourne. Demolished. Photograph by Algernon Darge, c.1900, Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/252351.

FIG.107 Charles D’Ebro Former Stonington, 1891, 336 Glenferrie Road Malvern. Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database. Last updated March 2006. URL:https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/679.

FIG.108 Charles D’Ebro Prahran Market Offices, 1891, Commercial Road, Prahran. Detail of façade entrance. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.109 Left: William Pitt Former Melbourne Coffee Palace 1882, 89 Bourke Street, Melbourne. Demolished. Original drawing by William Pitt, 1881, University of Melbourne Drawing Collection. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/403145.

FIG.110 Right: William Pitt Rialto Building, 1889, Collins Street, Melbourne. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.111 William Pitt, William Ellerker and Edward Kilburn Former Federal Coffee Palace, 1888, corner King and Collins Streets, Melbourne. Demolished. Detail of undated photograph, Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/252241.

FIG.112 Left: William Pitt, William Ellerker and Edward Kilburn Former Federal Coffee Palace, 1888, corner King and Collins Streets, Melbourne. Demolished. Engraving of Grand Vestibule and Staircase, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 27 August 1887.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 135 FIG.113 Right: Paul Sédille Printempts Department Store, 1882 – 1883, Paris. Nikolaus Pevsner, A History of Building Types, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1986), 268.

FIG.114 Left: William Ellerker, Edward Kilburn, Alfred Smith and Arthur Johnson City of Melbourne Building, 1886, corner of Elizabeth and Little Collins Streets, Melbourne. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.115 Right: William Ellerker, Edward Kilburn, Alfred Smith and Arthur Johnson City of Melbourne Building, 1886, corner of Elizabeth and Little Collins Streets, Melbourne. Detail of split mansard. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.116 Richard Norman Shaw Former New Scotland Yard, 1887 – 1906, Victoria Embankment, London. Now parliamentary offices known as Richard Norman Shaw Buildings. Detail of South Building. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.117 David Wormal Former Queen Victoria Building, 1888, corner of Swanston and Collins Street, Melbourne. Demolished. Hand coloured lithograph by Clarence Woodhouse, c.1888, Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria. URL: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/109388.

FIG.118 Alfred Louis Smith and Arthur Ebden Johnson Former Colonial Mutual Chambers, 1891, Market Street, Melbourne. Demolished. Engraving, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 1 July 1893.

FIG.119 Left: Walter Scott Law Former Benvenuta, 1892, Drummond Street, Carlton. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.120 Right: William Wolf Lalor House, 1888, Church Street, Richmond. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.121 Left: William Vahland Former Colonial Bank, 1887, 32 Pall Mall, Bendigo. Victorian Heritage Register: Statement of Significance, Victorian Heritage Database. URL: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/1544.

FIG.122 Right: J. A. B. Koch Former Record Chambers, 1887, Collins Street, Melbourne. Photograph by J. Fowler.

FIG.123 William Salway, Gerard Wight and William Lucas Former Mercantile Bank, 1888, 345 – 349 Collins Street, Melbourne. Detail of entrance foyer pediment. Photograph by J. Fowler.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 136 Appendix 1: Building List

Gerard Wight & William Lucas Partnership

Structure Former Melbourne Coffee Palace Extension

Date(s) 1886

Location 89 Little Bourke Street

Style Free style in red brick with cement dressings

Contractor / Tenders Contractor: Ray Noble

Notes ‘Enlargement to the Melbourne Coffee Palace’, Argus, 24 December 1886, 10. Miles Lewis, Australian Architectural Index, Record 73324: Melbourne City Council Registration of Coffee Tavern, 1886, 89 Little Bourke Street, between Russell and Swanston Streets. Demolished.

Structure Former Try Society Hall

Date(s) 1887

Location Corner Cromwell and Surrey Roads, South Yarra

Style Free Style in red brick

Contractor / Tenders Contractor: W.K. Vincent ‘Wight & Lucas: Tenders wanted for Try Societies Hall, Surrey Road’, Argus, 17 November 1886, 11.

Notes Hall opened 10 November 1887. ‘Try Excelsior Hall, Toorak’, The Herald, 7 November 1887, 4. Demolished.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 137 Gerard Wight & William Lucas Partnership cont.

Structure Former Row of Shops, thirteen x two storey

Date(s) 1889

Location Gertrude Street, Fitzroy

Style Unknown

Contractor / Tenders ‘Wight and Lucas: Tenders for 13 two-storey shops at Gertrude Street, Fitzroy’, Building, Engineering and Mining Journal, 4 April 1889.

Notes Demolished.

Structure Holy Trinity Anglican Church

Date(s) 1886 – 1887

Location Corner Wight and McCracken Street, Kensington

Style Gothic Revival

Contractor / Tenders Builder: J. Morton, Ascot Vale ‘Tenders wanted for fencing land, Church of England, Kensington’, Argus, 24 June 1887, 2.

Heritage Status Given Category C status in the Melbourne Planning Scheme, Heritage Places Inventory, March 2018, 68.

Notes ‘Opening of new Anglican Church, Kensington’, Australasian Builders and Contractor’s News, 5 November 1887. Land for the church was donated by Edward Byam Wight, Gerard Wight’s father.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 138 Gerard Wight & William Lucas Partnership cont.

Structure Former Baptist Church

Date(s) 1892

Location Originally at 98 Athol Street, Moonee Ponds. Moved in 1914 to Eglinton Street, Moonee Ponds and used as a Sunday School.

Style Domestic Tudor Revival

Contractor / Tenders ‘Contract open for erection of Wooden Baptist Church, Ascot Vale’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 23 April 1892, 294.

Notes Demolished and replaced with brick building.

Structure Former Dr Cole’s House

Date(s) 1888

Location 88 Rathdowne Street, corner Macarthur Square, Carlton

Style Classical

Contractor / Tenders Builder: Thomas Lang, Parkville

Heritage Status Included in Heritage Overlay HO1, Carlton Precinct. Not individually listed. Given Category B regional or state significance in the Melbourne Planning Scheme: Heritage Places Inventory, March 2018, 33.

Notes Miles Lewis, Australian Architectural Index, Record No.79711: Melbourne City Council Registration for House for Dr Cole. Lists address as corner of Rathmines Street and McArthur Square, Carlton. No Rathmines Street in Carlton, Macarthur misspelt. However, evidence of unique classical details employed by Wight and Lucas confirms attribution. Now Carlton Family Medical Centre.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 139 Gerard Wight & William Lucas Partnership cont.

Structure Former Terrace Houses, four x two storey

Date(s) c.1880s

Location Pelham Street, Carlton

Style Unknown

Contractor / Tenders Builder: Peirson & Wright

Notes Miles Lewis, Australian Architectural Index, Record No.79711: Melbourne City Council Registration of 4 x 2 storey houses for Mrs Pratt. Demolished.

Structure Terrace Houses, two x two storey

Date(s) c. late 1880s

Location 178 – 180 Gatehouse Street, Parkville

Style Classical

Contractor / Tenders Unknown

Heritage Status Included in Parkville Precinct HO4 of Local Significance.

Notes Brick with cement render details. Identifiable Wight and Lucas features of applied render disks upon stringcourse and segmental pediment details.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 140 Gerard Wight & William Lucas Partnership cont.

Structure Terraces, four x two storey

Date(s) 1890

Location 51 – 57 Berry Street, East Melbourne

Style Classical

Contractor / Tenders Built for W.M. McLean Builder: Peirson & Wright

Heritage Status Included in Heritage Overlay HO2, East Melbourne Precinct which is of State Significance. Not individually listed. Given Category C local significance in the Melbourne Planning Scheme, Heritage Places Inventory, March 2018, 40.

Notes Miles Lewis, Australian Architectural Index, Record No.80884: 4 x 2 storey houses of 1890, built by Peirson & Wright.

Structure Former Dr Embley’s House

Date(s) 1890

Location Latrobe Street East, near Elizabeth Street

Style Unknown

Contractor / Tenders Contractor: E. Tout, 476 Canning Street

Notes Description of new residence for Dr Embley on Latrobe Street. Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 17 May 1890, 1044. Demolished.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 141 Gerard Wight & William Lucas Partnership cont.

Structure Coach Factory

Date(s) 1888

Location St Kilda Road, Melbourne

Style Unknown

Contractor / Tenders Builder: Hall & Humphries ‘Wight & Lucas: Tenders wanted: large wood and iron coach factory, St Kilda Road, Melbourne’, Building, Engineering and Mining Journal, 1 September 1888.

Notes Demolished.

Structure Former Melbourne Savings Bank

Date(s) 1888

Location Corner of Bouverie and Victoria Streets, Carlton

Style Unknown

Contractor / Tenders Contractor: Edward Tout, Carlton ‘Letting of tenders for bank branch in Carlton by Wight & Lucas’, Australasian Builders and Contractor’s News, 12 May 1888.

Notes Demolished.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 142 Gerard Wight & William Lucas Partnership cont.

Structure Former Melbourne Savings Bank

Date(s) 1889

Location 182 – 184 Bridge Road, Richmond

Style Mannerist Classical

Contractor / Tenders ‘Wight & Lucas, Architects, Market Street, Invite tenders for erection of Richmond Branch of the Melbourne Savings Bank’, Agrus, 9 March 1889, 15. ‘Wight & Lucas: Letting of tenders: erection of banking premises, Richmond’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 2 March 1889.

Heritage Status Victorian Heritage Register: Local significance as part of Statement of Significance for Bridge Road Precinct. Does not mention Wight and Lucas as the architects.

Notes At present unoccupied.

Structure Former Melbourne Savings Bank

Date(s) 1887

Location 56 – 58 Ferguson Street, Williamstown

Style Mannerist Classical

Contractor / Tenders ‘Wight & Lucas: tenders wanted for Melbourne Savings Bank branch in Williamstown’, Argus, 17 July 1886, 14.

Heritage Status Victorian Heritage Register: Historic, Social and Aesthetic of Local Significance. Listed as by Wight and Lucas.

Notes Included Manager’s residence at rear. Became a State Bank in 1912, a Commonwealth Bank from 1991 to 1995. Now in private ownership and renovated. Private rear residence and front retail outlets. No original interiors.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 143 Gerard Wight & William Lucas Partnership cont.

Structure Former Savings Bank

Date(s) 1888 - 1889

Location 97 - 99 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill

Style Mannerist Classical

Contractor / Tenders ‘Wight & Lucas, Architects, Market Street, Invite tenders, Savings Bank, Clifton Hill’, Argus, 11 August 1888, 17. ‘Letting of tenders: erection of Savings Bank, Clifton Hill’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 11 August 1888.

Heritage Status Victorian Heritage Register: Local Significance as part of Precinct Statement of Significance. Does not mention Wight and Lucas as the architects.

Notes Operated recently as a Taco Bill restaurant and now unoccupied.

Structure Former Melbourne Savings Bank

Date(s) 1889

Location 720 Nicholson Street, corner of Scotchmer Street, North Fitzroy

Style Mannerist Classical

Contractor / Tenders ‘Wight & Lucas, Architects, Market Street, Invite tenders for Branch of the Melbourne Savings Bank, Nicholson Street, Fitzroy’, Argus, 22 June 1889, 3.

Heritage Status Victorian Heritage Register: Local Significance as part of Precinct Statement of Significance. Does not mention Wight and Lucas as the architects.

Notes Scotchmer Street additions c.1890s when became Lyceum Language Centre. Now Nicholson Health and Wellness Centre. No original interiors.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 144 Gerard Wight & William Lucas Partnership cont.

Structure Former Melbourne Savings Bank

Date(s) 1888 - 1889

Location 365 Burwood Road, Hawthorn

Style Mannerist Classical

Contractor / Tenders ‘Wight & Lucas, Architects, Market Street, Invites tenders for Banking Premises, Hawthorn for the Melbourne Savings Bank’, Argus, 14 January 1888, 17.

Heritage Status Victorian Heritage Register: Local Significance within Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn precinct. Does not mention Wight and Lucas as the architects.

Notes Original interiors significantly renovated. Now Wellbeing Hawthorn.

Structure Former State Savings Bank

Date(s) 1888 - 1889

Location Victoria Market

Style Unknown

Contractor / Tenders Unknown

Notes Demolished.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 145 Gerard Wight & William Lucas Partnership cont.

Structure Former Savings Bank

Date(s) 1890

Location 118 Church Street, Middle Brighton

Style Mannerist Classical

Contractor / Tenders ‘Tenders wanted for banking premises in Brighton. Architects Wight & Lucas’, Building, Engineering and Mining Journal, 10 April 1890. Heritage Status Included in Brighton Beach Railway Precinct Heritage Overlay but not individually listed.

Notes Church Street façade altered with ground floor classical decoration removed. No original interiors. Now White Rabbit Café.

Structure Former State Savings Bank

Date(s) 1890

Location Footscray

Style Unknown

Contractor / Tenders Unknown

Notes Demolished.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 146 Gerard Wight & William Lucas Partnership cont.

Structure Former Melbourne Savings Bank

Date(s) 1891

Location Bay Street, Port Melbourne

Style Unknown

Contractor / Tenders Contractor: Edward Tout ‘Wight & Lucas: tenders wanted for erection of bank at Port Melbourne’, Building, Engineering and Mining Journal, 12 July 1890.

Notes ‘The Melbourne Savings Bank: Port Melbourne Branch’, Standard (Port Melbourne), 11 April 1891, 2. States magnificent building completed with banking chamber 29 feet by 23 feet and 15 feet in height. Demolished.

Structure Former Melbourne Savings Bank

Date(s) 1891

Location 94 Errol Street, North Melbourne

Style Mannerist Classical

Contractor / Tenders Contractor: Arthur Parker ‘Contract opened by Wight & Lucas for bank in North Melbourne’, Australasian Builders and Contractor’s News, 6 December 1890, 426. ‘Wight & Lucas, Architects, Market Street, invite tenders for the erection of Banking Premises at North Melbourne for the Commissioners of Savings Bank’, Argus, 29 November 1890, 15.

Heritage Status Given Category A national or state significance in the Melbourne Planning Scheme, Heritage Places Inventory, March 2018, 93.

Notes ‘New Banking Premises’, North Melbourne Advertiser, 3 July 1891, 3 states building opened 1891.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 147 Gerard Wight & William Lucas Partnership cont.

Structure Burnley Street Williams Road Bridge

Date(s) Competition c.1892

Location For Yarra between Williams Road, Prahran and Burnley Street, Richmond

Style Unknown

Contractor / Tenders Not built

Notes Awarded first prize in competition for Richmond Council. ‘City of Prahran: Tenders’, The Age, 28 February 1894, 8. Tenders invited by Prahran Council and for plans to be viewed at Wight and Lucas’ office. ‘Williams Road Bridge’, The Prahran Telegraph, 1 December 1894, 2. Failure of Williams Bridge project. Prahran Council offers settlement to Wight and Lucas for preparation costs.

Structure Former St George’s Road Bridge

Date(s) 1886

Location Merri Creek, St George’s Road, North Fitzroy

Style Iron girder

Contractor / Tenders D. Munro & Company, ironwork contractors. W.H. Deague, masonry contractors. ‘Wight & Lucas: tenders wanted for iron girder bridge over Merri Creek, Fitzroy’, Argus, 21 November 1885, 17.

Notes Wight awarded first prize in 1885. ‘Merri Creek Bridge, Formal Opening’, Argus, 3 August 1886, 6. Substantially altered through widening in 1962.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 148 William Salway, Gerard Wight & William Lucas

Structure Former Mercantile Bank

Date(s) 1888

Location 345 – 349 Collins Street, Melbourne

Style Mannerist Classical

Contractor / Tenders ‘Acceptance of tender for erection of Mercantile Bank, Collins Street West. Joint architects: William Salway and Wight & Lucas. Builder: Thomas Cockram & Co.’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 27 October 1888.

Heritage Status Victorian Heritage Register: Architectural and Historical of State Significance. Classified 1999.

Notes Original central dome and flanking pavilion roofs demolished. Now offices and ground floor retail outlets. Interior extensively altered.

David Askew, Gerard Wight & William Lucas

Structure Former Business Premises

Date(s) 1891

Location North west corner of Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, Melbourne

Style Mannerist Classical

Contractor / Tenders ‘Tender accepted for premises on corner of Bourke and Elizabeth Streets. Joint architects: David Christopher Askew and Wight & Lucas’, Australasian Builder and Contractor’s News, 24 January 1891, 47. ‘Tenders invited for erecting Extensive Premises at the corner of Elizabeth and Bourke Streets. Wight & Lucas and David C. Askew, Joint Architects’, Argus, 17 December 1890, 3.

Notes Site known prior to completion of Wight and Lucas building as Busy Bee Corner. Subsequently known as Cromwell Buildings. Demolished 1973.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 149 Gerard Wight: Sole Authorship

Structure Wight House

Date(s) 1907

Location 3 Oak Dene Road, Kyabram, Campaspe Shire, Victoria

Style Single-storey Australian vernacular house with verandah

Contractor / Tenders Unknown

Heritage Status Victorian Heritage Register: Local Significance. Classified 1984.

Notes Wight designed the house for his doctor brother John and his wife as a family home and surgery. Now operating as Oak Dene bed and breakfast accommodation.

Structure Former Champion Hotel

Date(s) 1911

Location Corner Brunswick and Gertrude Streets, Fitzroy

Style Federation

Contractor / Tenders Unknown

Heritage Status Included as individually significant in City of Yarra Heritage Precinct Overlay HO334. Notes Red brick of two storeys. Includes offices and shops.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 150 Gerard Wight & Philip Hudson

Structure Geelong Grammar School

Date(s) 1912 – 1913

Location 50 Biddlecombe Road, Corio, City of Greater Geelong

Style Gothic Revival in red brick and concrete dressings

Contractor / Tenders Thomas Quayle of Brighton accepted the modified tender of £30,332 in November 1912.

Heritage Status Victorian Heritage Register: Regional Significance

Notes Awarded first prize in public competition & executed the work.

Structure All Saints’ Chapel, Geelong Grammar School

Date(s) 1915

Location 50 Biddlecombe Road, Corio, City of Greater Geelong

Style Gothic Revival

Contractor / Tenders

Heritage Status Victorian Heritage Database: Regional Significance

Notes Modified by Alexander North and Louis Williams from 1917.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 151 William Lucas: Sole Authorship

Structure Young Men’s Christian Young Association

Date(s) c.1894

Location Longmarket Street, Pietermaritzburg, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

Style Classical double storey with iron lacework verandah

Contractor / Tenders Unknown

Notes Lucas added the gymnasium. Demolished c.1970s.

Structure Diamond Jubilee Pavilion

Date(s) 1897

Location Alexandra Park, Pietermaritzburg, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

Style Late Victorian cricket pavilion.

Contractor / Tenders E. Wheller was the builder.

Heritage Status

Notes Cricket pavilion overlooking oval.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 152 William Lucas: Sole Authorship cont.

Structure Newcastle Town Hall

Date(s) 1897 - 1899

Location Scott Street, Newcastle, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

Style Classical

Contractor / Tenders Unknown

Heritage Status Provincial Heritage Site

Notes Commissioned to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

Structure Ladysmith Town Hall, c.1895 by Walker and Singleton

Date(s) 1900 restoration by Lucas

Location Ladysmith, Natal Province

Style Classical

Contractor / Tenders Unknown

Notes Damaged during 1897 siege.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 153 William Lucas: Sole Authorship cont.

Structure General Post Office

Date(s) 1901 - 1903

Location Longmarket Street, Pietermarizburg, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa.

Style Edwardian Baroque

Contractor / Tenders Unknown

Heritage Status Provincial Heritage Site

Structure Federal Parliament House

Date(s) 1914

Location Not built

Style Unknown

Notes Government abandoned competition. Not found original drawings as yet.

Structure Victorian War Memorial Competition Design

Date(s) 1924

Location Not built

Style Classical

Notes Awarded second prize in competition. Winning design by Philip Hudson and James Wardrop in the King’s Domain, St Kilda Road, was constructed between 1927 and 1934.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 154 William Lucas: Sole Authorship cont.

Structure National Australian War Memorial

Date(s) 1928 Competition

Location Intended for Villers-Bretonneux, France and not built.

Style 1920s classicism

Notes Awarded first prize in competition limited to Australian architects. Project postponed during the 1930s Depression. Edwin Lutyens redesigned memorial as built.

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 155 Appendix 2: Tibbits Generation List

From George Tibbits, ‘The Classical Tradition in Victoria: Represented Style’, Paper Delivered to the Annual Conference, Art Association of Australia, (Sydney: 21 August 1976), 87 – 102.

First Conservative Classical Generation: Born 1820s

Nathaniel Billing (1821 – 1910) Lloyd Tayler (1832 – 1900) Arthur Ebden Johnson (1821 – 1895) Leonard Terry (1825 – 1884) Peter Kerr (1820 – 1912) William Wardell (1823 – 1899) John George Knight (1826 – 1892) Thomas Watts (1827 – 1915) Joseph Reed (1823 – 1890) Francis Moloney White (1819 – 1888) Alfred Louis Smith (1825 – 1907) George Wharton (1822 – 1891)

Second Montage Generation: Born 1830s and 1840s

John James Clark (1838 – 1915) George Johnson (1840 – 1896) John Beswicke (1847 – 1925) John Augustus Bernard Koch (1845 – 1928) William Ellerker (1837 – 1891) Percy Oakden (1845 – 1917) John Flannagan (1838 – 1882) William Salway (1844 – 1902) Norman Hitchcock (b.1837) Edward Twentyman (1836 – 1917)

Third Boom Generation: Born 1850s and 1860s

Harold Desbrowe Annear (1868 – 1933) William Lucas (1860 – 1939) David Christopher Askew (1854 – 1906) Robert Haddon (1866 – 1929) Nahum Barnet (1855 – 1931) Henry Hardie Kemp (1859 – 1946) Walter Butler (1864 – 1949) William Pitt (1855 – 1918) Alfred Dunn (1862 – 1894) Beverley Ussher (1868 – 1908) Charles D’Ebro (1850 – 1920) Gerard Wight (1860 – 1915) George de Lacy Evans (b.1863) William Wolf (1857 – 1922) Edward Kilburn (1859 – 1984)

ABPL90382 Minor Thesis Jennifer Fowler 156

Minerva Access is the Institutional Repository of The University of Melbourne

Author/s: Fowler, Jennifer

Title: Boom Mannerism: The Architectural Practice of Gerard Wight and William Lucas from 1885 to 1894

Date: 2020

Persistent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/241383

File Description: Final thesis file

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