Whelan the Wrecker Notes

1. ALEXANDER’S/NICHOLAS BUILDINGS 25/3 PicDemolishing Monahan’s BuildingsHumorously referred to by their employer as ‘Whelan’s Birds,’ the men who are now engaged in demolishing Monahan’s Buildings, Swanston street, seem to have no ‘nerves’, but fearlessly pick the bricks from under their feet, four stories above the pavement. [Two workmen atop steel girder above front parapet, picking at brickwork] (Argus, 10/3/25, p.9) 1926 Buildings of the 1920s include Nicholas Building in Swanston Street (1926) by Harry Norris… (Wilson & Sands, Building a City, pp. 146-7) 1930 Monahan’s Building, which stood on the site of Nicholas Building, had base walls six feet in thickness. The present building, constructed in steel framing to the third floor, has columns of 2.5in base, with little or no wall between them. Because of the high cost of steel in Melbourne, reinforced concrete has been employed from the third floor, where the column thickens to 3ft. (Argus, 13/3/30, Camera Supplement p. 3) 32/1 Mr Whelan said that the demolition work on the site of the Nicholas Building was a bigger feat than [Stewart Dawson’s] for his team. (Herald, 1/1/32) 32/1 Then came… Monahan’s building in Swanston Street, where the Nicholas building now stands, and hundreds of others in various parts of Melbourne. (Sun, 9/1/32) 39/5 WW tendered for demolition (£300) of ‘the buildings known as “Alexanders”’tender accepted. (Letter dated May 1939SLV/WW, 65/2) 39/5 Liquor signs that twinkled from the wall of a city building at travellers journeying across Princes Bridge along Swanston Street will be seen no more. Their passing indicates… the demolition of a building that was once looked upon as a comparative skyscraper in the locality. Quite recently Mr John Wren sold the Alexander Building to Mr G.R. Nicholas, who owns the adjoining landmark known as Nicholas Building. Wreckers will soon be at work demolishing the Alexander Building and in its place will rise a two-storeyed shop to be occupied by G.J. Coles and Co. Ltd.… The building was given its present name by Mr Alexander, the tobacconist, when he bought it many years ago. Later it came into the possession of the late Jimmy Mason, but was afterwards sold to the Rev. Ah Cheong. As the location of the office of Mr Dick Lean, manager of the Stadium, all the boxers, wrestlers and athletes to visit Melbourne during the past 14 years have ascended in the lift to sign articles and transact other business. (Sun, 25/5/39) 39/? WW wrote to architect, Harry A. Norris: ‘The reason for delay in not completing our contract at 27 Swanston St on time was due entirely to our inability to use Cocker Alley as means of carting our debris and bricks away. As you are aware the retaining wall of Softgoods Club along the R.O.W. collapsed taking with it parts of same, hence the Council’s decision to close the R.O.W. against our heavy traffic. This necessitated us using one entrance with one truck only at a time.’ (Letter, n.d., in WW/SLV, 65/2) STATE BANK/CHAMPION HOUSE, 45-63 Swanston Street (NW cnr Flinders Lane) 19thC The half-acre allotment at the north-west corner of Swanston-street and Flinders-lane was the site of the first Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Port Phillip. It measured 30ft x 16ft, and was built of bricks made by Mr Horatio Cooper, at his kiln on the south bank of the Yarra. The builder was Mr John James Peers, owner of the site an an active member of the Wesleyan Methodist Society [‘a philharmonic building contractor’—Garryowen], who ‘bore the total outlay of expense, stipulating only that he should be repaid when the congregation moved to more commodious premises.’ According to a MS diary of the period (that of the Rev. William Waterfield, first minister of Collins-street Independent Church), the chapel was opened for public worshop on March 10, 1839… The building was used by the [London Wesleyan Missionary] society as their place of meeting for religious services and work until June 20, 1841, and was ‘literally crowded at each service on the Sunday, especially in the evening.’ On Thursday, June 24, the society opened their new building at the corner of Collins and Queen streets, where the Bank of Australasia now stands; and the brick makeshift—the cradle of Methodism—in due course became ‘the kitchen to Mr Monahan’s public-house’. [pic—(photo) of hotel kitchen] (Australasian, 3/3/1906, p.508) …it remained to be put to the ignoble use of kitchen to the hotel, and as such remained for several years. (Garryowen, p. 160) Champion’s Queen’s Arms Hotel licensed 1847closed 31/12/1923. (Cole Collection) 19thC Monahan’s Queen Arms Hotel, built in 1845, and whose licensee, Thomas Monahan, died a millionaire in 1889. (Age, 8/6/1940) 1895 Queen’s Arms Hotel ‘generally known as “Champions”’—bar men instead of bar maids are employed here. ‘There is a series of bars here. The one known as the “private bar” is a model of an American drinking place. …Flinders-lane, from a private door in the right- of-way, comes here exclusively. the best drinking men of Melbourne are to be seen here, for here they get the best drink.’ (‘The Vagabond’ in Leader Supplement, 16/11/1895) pic on file 06/2 In a 1906 article detailing the renovations [to be] carried out to the Queen’s Arms Hotel, Swanston Street, the [Australian Brewers’] journal reported that the hotel had once been licensed to Mr Hawkins, who had sold the business to Mr Ben Champion ‘whose widow, Mrs E. Champion (Mr Hawkins’ niece), has carried on the business to the present day in a manner that has earned the profound respect of the whole community, which respect is also shared by her family of good citizens.… As a record place of business, having been conducted by members of one family for just half-a-century, the Queen’s Arms has, we think, but one rival in Victoria—the Sir John Franklin Hotel, Collingwood, for about as many years in the Davison family. Mrs Davison, like Mrs Champion, is still with us, and both ladies amply give the lie to the aspersions cast at members of the trade by teetotal agitators.…When the new up-to-date and palatial building throws open its doors to the public, it will be the fervent hope of all of us that the present estimable licensee may long be spared to continue its management.’ Mrs Elizabeth Champion… held the licence for the Queen’s Arms Hotel for twenty years, passing it to her son William in 1916. (Clare Wright, Beyond the Ladies’ Lounge, pp. 95-6, quoting Australian Brewers’ Journal, 20/2/1906, p.283) 06/3 The new buildings [pic] to be erected in Swanston-street will have a frontage of 136.5ft, and to Little Flinders-street of 61ft, extending back to a lane known as Monahan-place. The corner of Swanston and Little Flinders streets will be occupied as at present by Champion’s Hotel. This will have a frontage to Swanston-street of 53ft, and will consist of basement and ground floor and five upper stories, with an octagonal tower on the angle, the total height from the pavement to the top of the tower being 128ft. The rest of the site will be occupied by four shops and a central entrance to the rooms on the upper floors. Each shop will have a clear width of 17ft, and will extend the full depth of the site, with a back door and windows abutting on Monahan-place. The shop fronts in Swanston-street will be handsomely treated with metal-lined framing and curved glass angles to entrances. The basements under each shop will have direct approaches from Monahan-place, and will be lighted by prismatic pavement and stall-board lights in Swanston-street. The four floors over the shops will be reached by two lifts and a stone staircase from the central entrance. They will be available as offices, chambers or clubrooms, and the building is so planned that the superimposed floors over any particular shop may be let with that shop if required. In the tenancies already effected the whole of the first floor is let—the southern half to the hotel for billiard-rooms and offices, and the northern half as the factory and show-rooms of Messrs Ingram Bros, jewellers, who will occupy one of the shops. The facades are to be treated in red brick, with cement dressings, and with polished marble facings to the ground floor. The details are classic in character, and the front is broken by bold oriel windows and balconettes in Swanston-street, and there are recessed arcades to the upper floors of the hotel, the corner being emphasised by an octagonal oriel, surmounted by a turret with pyramidal copper roof. The buildings are being erected by the Equity Trustees Company of Queen-street, as trustees for the estate of the late Thomas Monahan. The architects are Messrs Oakden and Ballantyne. The contractors are Messrs Murray and Crow. The total cost will be over £30,000. (Australasian, 3/3/1906, p.508) [pic (photo) of old buildings on the site] 23/11 New premises for State Bank in Swanston Street planned for 1924. (Herald, 27/11/23) 71/12 Demolition permitChampion House & State Savings Bank (ex-Champion’s Queen’s Arms Hotel)6-storey brick office buildingwrecked for State Bank (further permit Oct 1972), $50,000.

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