Former HM Prison Pentridge Heritage Interpretation Masterplan Pentridge Heritage Interpretation Masterplan 1 CONTENTS 3 SECTION 1: HERITAGE INTERPRETATION 31 Target markets MASTERPLAN 34 The market value of heritage at Pentridge 40 The non-market value of heritage at Pentridge 4 Executive summary 5 Acknowledgements 43 PART FOUR: RECOMMENDATIONS 44 Public realm interpretation 6 PART ONE: PLANNING OVERVIEW 51 Adaptive reuse of buildings: A & B Divisions 7 Brief 51 Adaptive reuse of buildings: cells 8 Background 53 Adaptive reuse of buildings: H Division 11 Review of current situation 54 Adaptive reuse of buildings: E Division & Chief Warder’s 12 Assessment of current interpretation residence 55 New buildings: C Division 6 PART TWO: INTERPRETATION 56 New buildings: Car park and apartment foyers 17 ‘Best practice’ interpretation 20 Interpretive vision 57 ENDNOTES 21 Theme 1: The establishment of HM Prison Pentridge 63 APPENDIX: GRID OF THEMES AND STORIES 22 Theme 2: The history of penal reform at Pentridge 23 Theme 3: Peopling Pentridge 24 Theme 4: Life behind the walls 70 SECTION 2: INTERPRETIVE DESIGN 25 Theme 5: Uncovering the foundations: archaeology CONCEPTS 29 PART THREE: BUSINESS CASE FOR UNDERTAKING 93 SECTION 3: INTERPRETIVE SIGNAGE INTERPRETATION STYLE GUIDE & TEMPLATES 30 Overview Pentridge Heritage Interpretation Masterplan SECTION 1 Heritage Interpretation Masterplan Pentridge Heritage Interpretation Masterplan 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ‘This history-laden VHR imposes mandatory requirements not only for the retention of some built fabric bluestone complex has and archaeology but also for heritage now begun a new interpretation by the site developers. chapter in its very public Heritage interpretation, however, can do life’. much more than fulfil permit requirements. This Interpretation Masterplan will The Pentridge Market demonstrate how heritage interpretation can deliver social, economic, cultural and The former HM Prison Pentridge (known as environmental benefits as well as providing ‘Pentridge’ in this document) is a famous engaging and profitable tourist experiences. landmark and heritage site located in Coburg, The Plan includes a business case, ‘best Victoria. From its beginnings as a stockade practice’ principles, recommendations for in 1850, when it held 16 prisoners from the interpretation in built and digital formats overcrowded Old Melbourne Gaol, Pentridge and recommendations for branding and had been transformed into a Pentonville- interpretive concepts. It is accompanied style Prison by 1864 and went on to become by a series of briefs for tendering the Victoria’s longest-running prison. At different interpretation. stages in its history Pentridge was home to women and children, condemned men and some of Victoria’s most notorious criminals. Pentridge closed in 1997 and the site was sold to private developers in 1999. After its sale, the site was divided into two separate sites, Pentridge Piazza (known here as ‘Pentridge’) and Pentridge Village.1 The Pentridge site is the subject of this Heritage Interpretation Plan. The former Pentridge Prison complex is on the Victorian Heritage Register (H1551) and is part of the City of Moreland’s Heritage Overlay (HO47). The site’s listing on the Pentridge Heritage Interpretation Masterplan 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS MASTERPLAN AUTHORSHIP Robert Cogoi, Shayher Group P/L Authors Shirley Hsieh, Shayher Group Felicity Coleman John Lin, Shayher Group Sue Hodges Anna Martiniello, Shayher Group P/L Scott Tseng, Shayher Group P/L Design concepts Peter Brookes, Heritage Victoria Joe Calvert Brandi Bugh, Heritage Victoria Felicity Coleman Jeremy Smith, Heritage Victoria Sue Hodges Jhana Pfeiffer-Hunt Angela Arango, Aspect Studios P/L Kirsten Bauer, Aspect Studios P/L Interpretive design Andrew Chau, Aspect Studios P/L Joe Calvert Heath Gledhill, Aspect Studios P/L Ian Rooney, Aspect Studios Erwin Taal, Aspect Studios P/L Carolynne Baker, Bryce Raworth P/L © SHP (Sue Hodges Productions) Bryce Raworth, Bryce Raworth P/L for Shayher Group 2013 Ben Cubby, NH Architecture P/L Sarah Delamore, NH Architecture P/L Pentridge Heritage Interpretation Masterplan 5 PART ONE: PLANNING OVERVIEW Pentridge Heritage Interpretation Masterplan 6 THE BRIEF In 2013 Shayher Group commissioned SHP implementation; that is, Shayher is seeking to 6. Liaison (Sue Hodges Productions Pty Ltd) to develop understand how value for money can be a Heritage Interpretation Masterplan for derived through the implementation of the Necessary liaison with relevant authorities. Pentridge. The Project Brief states that HIM. This could be achieved via the inclusion the aim of the plan is to ‘not only meet of updated target audiences, volumes of legislative requirements governing the visitors, average spend for each visitor group, site, but also to demonstrate how heritage cost plans, etc. interpretation can enhance urban amenity and provide marketable tourist experiences.’2 3. Integration with built form A key aim of the plan is to ensure that the interpretation of the site’s former use can The Heritage Interpretation Masterplan ‘be carefully managed to ensure negative should seek to package up the interpretation connotations are played down or treated initiatives into trade packages for initiatives more subtly’ in order to position the site as that can be integrated into the built form an urban precinct for people to work, live and fabric; ie. Soft and hard landscaping play.3 treatments, public lighting effects, architecture, signage etc. The Scope of Works was as follows: 4. Theming and branding 1. Visioning workshop A discussion around unifying the heritage A visioning workshop with key stakeholders interpretation themes for the site with the seeking to establish a vision for the site’s future brand thereby giving it meaning. precinct; the desired objective of the heritage interpretation elements; and 5. Integration with an events examples around the world established as a management program benchmark. An aspect of the heritage interpretation 2. Business case initiatives could include its integration with an events management programme. This A Heritage Interpretation Masterplan which should be explored in context of possibly seeks to demonstrate a business case for its making a separate business case for it to be separately sold off. Pentridge Heritage Interpretation Masterplan 7 BACKGROUND THE SITE BRIEF SITE HISTORY enclosed...every opportunity is offered to confinement, influenced this belief, as did them to run away.6 the design of the 1829 Eastern Penitentiary in Philadelphia, America. It was in America The site of the former Pentridge Prison is Pentridge Prison was established in 1850 The most notorious area of this moveable that the system of solitary confinement was located eight kilometres from the Melbourne when Victoria’s separation from the Colony stockade was the ‘Crystal Palace,’ devised by fully developed. Prisoners were left alone CBD in the suburb of Coburg, City of of New South Wales, combined with the Pentridge’s second Inspector-General, John for years, without seeing anyone other Moreland. The precinct has been divided population explosion caused by the gold Giles Price, to control the most troublesome than the prison warden, in the hope that into two sites, with the northern prison being rush, increased pressure on the already- prisoners in the complex.7 Conditions here solitude would produce moral reformation. developed by Shayher Group Pty Ltd and stretched penal system..4 Coburg (originally were appalling, reflecting Price’s concept of With this belief in mind, Champ oversaw the the remainder by Pentridge Village Pty Ltd. known as ‘Pentridge’) was chosen as the punishment as a means of deterrent rather construction of A Division (c.1858) which The prison complex is bounded by Champ location due to the potential for prisoners than an agent of reform. It was during this he called the ‘Panopticon’: a model prison Rd to the west, Gaffney St/Murray Rd to to work on the construction of Sydney Road. early phase that the boundaries of the prison based on the design of Pentonville Prison in the north and Stockade Avenue to the east, The prison began its life as a stockade made complex were also established, although Britain.11 A panopticon enables prisoners with Pentridge Boulevard forming the divide of log huts on wheels surrounded by a low none of these buildings survives today.8 to be stationed around the perimeter of the between the two separate sites. 1.2 metre fence, leading outraged residents circle while prison officials are stationed at to complain about inadequate security. Soon As Victoria’s population continued to an ‘inspection house’ at the centre.12 From The precinct is 6.8 hectares in size. It retains these same residents forced a change of increase, so too did its criminal population. this position, prison staff have a ‘birds-eye’ a number of heritage-listed structures, suburb name from ‘Pentridge’ to ‘Coburg’, in This led to a need for a more permanent view of the inmates. Prisoners housed in A including two of the original cell blocks, order to distance themselves from the prison. complex of prison buildings and a second Division were isolated in their cells for 23 A Division and B Division, and the outer phase of construction was undertaken hours a day, with just one hour’s exercise perimeter bluestone walls. The early On 5 December 1850, 16 prisoners were between 1857 and 1864. Set in motion under direct supervision in a segregated yard. buildings were mainly developed