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.