Richmond Conservation Study
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I I I RICHMOND CONSERVATION I STUDY I I I I I VOLUME 2. I I |COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND PHONE4283131 I COMMISSIONER A. G. GILLON O.B.E..J.P. I Your Ref: Our Ref: I THE RICHMOND URBAN CONSERVATION STUDY I The completion of this Conservation Study hereby represents a significant milestone for Richmond. I commend it to you and 1 endorse its recommendations in principle. I use the term "in principle" because the Conservation Study is just one part of an overall strategy plan being proposed for I Richmond. This means that conservation controls will be considered in the wider context of other matters just as economic development, housing, traffic management and the like. There will inevitably be conflicting objectives and these must be 1 reconciled by Council, in due course, after extensive public consultation. I It seems that controls over the preservation of our built heritage are almost always "too late", no matter when they are introduced. Nevertheless, I believe we have done the best job within the I available resources and that the release of the Study is timely, given the increasing pressure for large scale redevelopment that Richmond is experiencing. I Council is grateful to the National Estates Committee, the Historic Buildings Council and the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works in providing funding for the Study. Undoubtedly credit I is due to the consultants who have done a superb job and to our Urban Conservation Advisory Committee for guidance and overall direction. I I look forward to the implementation of the Study and its impact on Richmond. — COMMISSIONER A. G. GILLON, O.B.E.. J.P. I I 1 RICHMOND | CONSERVATION 1 STUDY • UNDERTAKEN FOR THE CITY OF RICHMOND, THE AUSTRALIAN HERITAGE COMMISSION, m AND THE MINISTRY FOR PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT I VOLUME 2. INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND HISTORY RECOMMENDATIONS GUIDELINES APPENDICES BY JOHN & THURLEY O'CONNOR, ARCHITECTS, 10 SEFTON PLACE, CAMBER WELL AND ROS COLEMAN & HEATHER WRIGHT, ARCHITECTS, 14 AILSA GROVE, IVANHOE JANUARY 1985 1 I I I I VOLUME 2 PAGE I I 6.0 CONSERVATION AREA SCHEDULE, DESCRIPTION & I STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE 6.1 Richmond Hi 11 1 6.2 West Richmond 18 I 6.3 Bridge Road 29 6.4 Swan Street 40 6.5 Elm Grove 49 I 6.6 Malleson Street 52 6.7 Barkly Gardens 56 6.8 Golden Square 63 6.9 Richmond Riverbank 68 1 6.10 Graphic Documentation Sources 86 7.0 INDIVIDUAL BUILDING SCHEDULES, DESCRIPTIONS & I STATEMENTS OF SIGNIFICANCE 7.1 A Buildings 90 I 7.2 B Buildings 132 I I I FOR C & D BUILDINGS REFER TO CITY OF RICHMOND I TOWN PLANNING DEPARTMENT I I t I 6.0 CONSERVATION AREAS I 6.1 RICHMOND HILL I I I KEY I CONSERVATION AREA BOUNDARY STREETSCAPE I LEVEL 1 STREETSGAPE I LEVEL 2 MAP A BUILDING I B BUILDING C BUILDING I I 400 500 METRES I I I I I I I I The Crofts, looking east, 1984. I 6.1.1 History and Description The land in this area was purchased from the Crown in 1839, and consisted I of eight allotments each of 25 acres. The purchasers were Dr. Farquhar, McCrae (surgeon), Rev. Joseph Docker (squatter), W.H. Yaldwyn (squatter, banker), H.G. Brock, J. McNall (Melbourne's first butcher) and I Charles Williams (auctioneer), (fig. 6.1). In 1840 McCrae sold two acres of his allotment, to Charles Williams who I erected 'Jasmin Cottage' on the east side of what later became Strode Street. This was sold to George Arden, then Thomas Strode who were the proprietors of the Port Phillip Gazette.' Also in 1840, McCrae had 36 I half acre blocks subdivided and Rowena Parade, Sherwood and Rotherwood Streets were laid out (figs. 6.2, 6.3). His brother Alexander McCrae, who became Victoria's first Post Master General in 1851, I purchased an acre on the corner of Rotherwood and Sherwood Streets and erected a prefabricated timber house there in 1840 (figs. 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7). 2 Another purchaser was Alfred Woolley who built a timber cottage on the north corner of Rowena Parade and Punt Road in 1842.3 Judge I Pohlman lived here from 1843-77 (fig. 6.8).^ Similar early timber cottages still exist at 5, 7, 9 and 37 Rotherwood Street. Further subdivisions had occurred to McCrae's allotment by the I870's (fig. 6.9) I and 1880's (fig. 6.10). Farquhar McCrae died in Sydney in 1855. I I 1. White, J.U. Early Residents & Property Owners in Richmond, 1979, pp. 1, 14. 2. McCrae, Hugh. ed. Georgiana's Journal, p. 169. 3. Port Phillip Gazette, 12.5.1842. I 4. White, op.cit. p. 12. I I 3. I Yaldwyn sold his allotment to W. Meek in 1840, and by 1853 the Waltham Street and Darlington Parade areas were subdivided (figs. 6.2, 6.3) and A further subdivided in the 1880's (fig. 6.10). The Vaucluse area was laid out • in the 1860's and a private street was created to link Rowena Parade and Church Street. It was further subdivided in 1874 (figs. 6.11, 6.12). The Vaucluse remains as the only private street in the inner suburbs, and it has • at its eastern entry the cathedral of St. Ignatius which in 1867 replaced a • prefabricated timber house dating from the I840's (fig. 6.13). The mansion 'Richmond Hill' belonging to James Henty (merchant) was built in A Waltham Street in 1851 (figs. 6.14, 6.15), and was demolished in 1928 to | make way for the Pelaco factory. Next door the distinguished architect James Blackburn junior constructed his two storey Italianate house which ^ still stands with a block of modern flats in its front garden at 42 Waltham • Street (fig. 6.15). • Docker had subdivided his two allotments by 1853 (figs. 6.2, 6.16) and the • 1857 ratebooks record that he owned many of the houses built on these | allotments. His own townhouse was at 370 Church Street (fig. 6.17), while his principal residence was at Bontharambo', Wangaratta. By the I880's « this area was almost fully developed (fig. 6.18). • Brock's allotment was purchased by overlander John Gardiner5 who erected a villa on it to retire from his grazing activities and to take up • the position of managing director of the Port Phillip Bank in I840.6 By • 1853 Lennox Street, Rowena Parade and Goodwood Street had been laid out. Further subdivisions occurred in the 1870'sand 1880's. The mansion M 'Pine Grove' was built for Dr. Thomas Black in 1844 (figs. 6.15, 6.19). | Black and Farquhar McCrae were the first to administer chloroform in Victoria. George Coppin, actor and entrepreneur, extended the house and ^ lived there from 1864 to 1906. Pine Grove was also demolished for the • Pelaco factory. ™ The allotment purchased by McNall had undergone minor subdivision by • 1853 (fig. 6.2). McNall erected his house here, in which his widow | continued to live following his death in the I850's.' In 1859 the railway and Richmond station were constructed on the allotment and major M subdivisions had occurred by the I870's and I880's (figs. 6.9, 6.10, 6.20). • Most of the streets in the two allotments owned by Williams were laid out by 1853 (fig. 6.2). By 1855 villas with large gardens and orchards had been • established in Church Street between Brougham and Elm Streets w (fig. 6.3). Of these villas, numbers 353 (Doery House) and 333 (Messenger House, formerly Stonehenge) have survived, although the latter which was A built pre 1843 for Capt. John Roach8 and remodelled in the Edwardian | period has been drastically defaced (fig. 6.63). 6.1.2 Statement of Significance • The special character of the Richmond Hill area is due to the irregular street patterns dating from the early I840's; the diversity of form, scale • and style of its buildings; and its associations with some of Melbourne's J| most prominent early settlers and their residences. The hilltop is dominated by three very fine churches - St. Ignatius (1867-1927), St. M 5. Port Phillip Patriot, 29.8.1 839. 6. Ibid, I 1.6.184. • 7. White, op.cit. p.10. • 8. White, op.cit. p. 13. I I I Stephens (1850) and the Uniting Church (1853). Other individual buildings fl of the highest significance are houses at 12 Union Street, 207 Lennox Street and 293 Church Street. 'Orwell Cottage1 built c. 1848 is probably the oldest surviving house in Richmond that is substantially intact. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I o 3 f r a 4 * * - *1 6. X." ~ • •»-. 7B -.uw — 9 COLLINCWOOD,: RICHMOND, j II CP» TJ^^^" 1 •"-1 j Fig. 6.2 Green's 1853 map 7. I I I I I I I I Fig. 6.3 RichmondHill, 1855 I I I I I I I I I Fig. 6.4 Alexander McCrae's prefabricated timber house, cnr. Rotherwood and Sherwood Streets, photo c. 1870 (demolished) I I I I I I I I I I I Fig. 6.5 Alexander McCrae's prefabricated timber house, I cnr. Sherwood and Rotherwood Streets, I during demolition, I 970's I I I I I I I I I Fig. 6.6 Front verandah of Alexander McCrae's I prefabricated house, 1970's 9. Front verandah detail of Alexander McCrae's prefabricated timber house, I 970's Fig. 6.8 Judge Pohlman's house, cnr.