, A SHORT HISTORY OF GORDON PLACE FROM 1884 ID THE PRESENT DAY. of the new Scots Church in Collins Street, The architect commissioned to design the project In 1884 the first section of the building was ready Melbourne. was William Pitt. Pitt was Australian born and for occupation. A memorial stone was laid and the trained, and though only twenty-eight years old, building officially opened by His Excellency the These two men, despite differences in age and was already renowned as one of the colony's most Governor on 22nd July. It was sad that Charles background . had much in common, and they successful architects. His prize winning designs Strong was absent from Melbourne for this shared a passionate concern for the welfare of their included several of the new, fashionaMe Coffee ceremony, but a moving tribute was paid to his part fellow men. One of their dreams was to provide Palaces, and the Falls Bridge over the YarraRiver. in the project by Coppin. cheap but comfortable housing for working class families in Melbourne, and shelter for indigent he origins of Gordon Place are to The original design of the building incorporated and transient members of the city's population. be found, 100 years ago, in a dream shared by two In 1883 the foundation stone of' Coppin 's Lodging two separate, but adjoining complexes. The name They believed that tenement dwellings for the remarkable Victorians - George Seith House' was laid, and the company - with the of the Company indicated the distinction: The poor need not be dark, dirty and sub-standard, but Coppin and the Reverend Charles Strong. impressive title of 'Our Improved Dwellings and 'Improved Dwellings' were self-contained family that, with planning, sound management and Lodging House Com_paf!y' -was formed. At first apartments or tenements, while the 'Lodging Coppin, then in his sixties, had been actor, theatre goodwill, ' improved" accommodation could be the shares were not taken up as readily as might House' provided dormitory accommodation for manager, speculator, entrepreneur and spacious, airy, bright and convenient. have been expel.led, and Coppin made himself single men. parliamentarian. As a child he had attended personally liable for large sums of money. In village schools in England, while travelling with Their plan was to raise money by forming a public addition, he found himself under atta.:k for the The Improved Dwellings, fronting Little Bourke his parents in a troupe of itinerant actors. At company, offering 3600 shares at £10 each. location of his model dwellings. True, Little Street, was a three-storey brick building faced sixteen he left home to seek his fortune, and in (Shareholders might hope for a material gain of Bourke Street - east of Swanston Street - was with cement. It contained thirty-nine 3 or 1843 he arrived in Australia, atthe age of twenty­ 10% per annum, plus a spiritual bonus in the the Chinese quarter of Melbourne, and though 4-roomed family apartments, built round a four. By the time he met Charles Strong around knowledge that they were helping the needy.) many of the premises were occupied by quadrangle. Galleries ran around each floor; and 1876, he had made -andlost-severalfortunes, Land was to be purchased in the city, an architect industrious and respectable Chinese merchants, it the building, staircases and approaches were been elected to both Houses of Parliament and commissioned, and the model dwellings built. was well known that gambling houses and opium fireproof. Water and gas were laid on to each personally instituted a number of social welfare dens lay behind the facades of others. At the rear tenement, and the sunken basement contained schemes in Victoria. The site sell!cted was a vacant pieceofland, about of the Lodging House, in Lonsdale Street, were additional facilities such as baths, wood-cellars, one acre io extent, at 175 Little Bourke Street a number of 'houses of ill-fame', and it was washing-troughs, coppers and drying lines. Strong, an earnest young man in his thirties, had East, just west of Spring Street. This property ran suggested by an honorable member of Parliament received his education at Scottish academies through to Lonsdale Street, and had already been that Coppin hoped to derive "some pecuniary Behind the tenements was the sixpenny Lodging before taking his degree in Divinity at the partly excavated below street level for the benefit" from their proximity. On the contrary, House - also of brick and similarly fireproof. It University of Glasgow. He was making a name for foundations of what was to have been Covent Coppin, Rev. Strong and others were attempting consisted of a basement with large cooking room, himself as a preacher in Glasgow, when he was Garden market. Coppin purchased the whole area to clear up the area by providing cheap, dining room and smoking room, bathrooms, invited to come to Australia in 1875 to be minister for£8,000. respectable accommodation. dressing rooms and store rooms. In the yard were a ' In the Quadrangle. Photographs from 'The Australasian', June 2. 1906. laundry, drying room, wood house and fumigating The dream of Coppin and Strong had faded, but chamber. The ground floor contained the Gordon House remained. Over the years it superintendent's quarters, a large reading room survived changes of ownership, and continued to furnished with bookcase, writing tables and provide accommodation for needy men until stove. On the first and second floors were the 1976. When it was bought by Lawhill Securities dormitories, providing sleeping room for 375 Ltd. in 1969, the Building and Construction persons, with about 120 beds in each dormitory. Workers Federation banned work on it till a new shelter for homele s men was provided. It was leased to Hanover \\elfare Service • a non-profit organization, who continued to run it until the new Gordon House for homeless men was opened in South Melbourne in 1976. With that event, the old Coppin 's Lodging House was able to embark on a new stage in its career. his Lodging Hou e was com­ pleted first, and was an immediate success. On its opening night in 1884 there were 65 lodgers, and this number quickly increased to an average of300 per night. During the first year, 75,769 beds were 'let'. And no wonder - for 6d. a night you were provided with an iron bed tead, straw mattress, kapok pillow, sheets, three single blankets and a counterpane! The sheets and pillowslips were changed every night, having been laundered and fumigated. For 9d. one could have greater privacy inacompartmentwithonly two beds, and a luxury of a kapok mattress and superior quality blankets. Manager's omce and Key-Room. Unlike the Lodging House, the Improved Dwellings - which opened at the beginning of 1885 - were not a success. Jn pile of their '''' modem facilities and moderate rentals (from 9/­ to 12/6 a week depending on size and position) only nine of the thirty-nine apartments were let. Various reasons were proposed for the failure of the working man to appreciate the benefits being offered to him: his unwillingness to accept the very reasonable conditions of occupancy; his preference for the suburbs, even if in less comfortable accommodation; and his problems over the womenfolk, who, it was claimed, were quarrelsome and ~ ·couldn't make a go of it at all." The company directors reluctantly decided to conven the building to another purpose - furnished bedrooms for single men - and initially the empty apartments were altered, into separate bedrooms, and comfortably furnished. Another entrance, nearer to Spring Street, was provided for the men, and the rooms were quickly occupied at a charge of 1/- per night or 5/- per week. Such was the success of this venture that it was predicted that the entire block would soon be used for the same purpose. The single men in their furnished rooms were considered the aristocrats • of the place, not to be confused with those in the Lodging House in the rear. Their occupations indicated their higher statu :- clerks, artisans, A Single Bedroom. George Seith Coppin. shopmen, and even an artist and a civil servant. In the family apartments, the records list the tenants as:- cook, labourer, restaurant keeper, widow with small means, brass-polisher, hafrdresser and compositot There was a total of twenty children between the families. In 1886, the section of Little Bourke Street between Exhibition and Spring Streets was renamed Gordon Place, in honour of General Charles Gordon, whose heroic exploits in the Crimea and China, and tragic defense of Khartoum in 1885, had made him a national hero. The following year, the Coppin Lodgings were also renamed, as 'Gordon Chambers', but they were more familiarly known as 'Our Lodgings', an abbreviation of the cumbersome company title. During the following years, both Coppin and Strong became less involved with the model housing project. The Rev. Strong had incurred the displeasure of the Presbyterian Assembly through his outspoken attacks on social evils, and his open sympathy for the under-privileged. Refusing to modify his behaviour, he had resigned from the ministry of Scots Church in 1883 and returned to Scotland. In 1885 he was invited to become the first minister of the new, liberal and non-sectarian Australian Church in Melbourne, and retained this position until his death, at the age of 98 , in 1942. Coppin, with advancing age, retired from public life and business management. As shares in "Our Lodgings" changed hands, control passed from Coppin and Strong, and in I 904 the Company became 'Gordon House Ltd'. The building was now known as the 'Gordon Lodging House'. By this time, it had - as predicted - become a lodging house for men only.