Melbourne A'Beckett Street 104, Hoffman's flour stores CAD 1984 sheet 31 017
Melbourne Central Activities District (CAD) Conservation Study 1984-5 survey images: approx 1200 Kodak colour negatives
See librarysearch.melbourne.vic.gov.au/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ...
_______________
DATE: 1853, 1901;
ASSOCIATIONS: Hoffman, William estate;
DESIGNER: Russell, H.D.G. 1853?, Knight, W 1901;
BUILDER: Simmie McLaughlin & Adamson 1853; Cooper, W.B. Hawthorn 1901
____________
Graeme Butler & Associates 2011, Central City (Hoddle Grid) Heritage Review .
Statement of Significance
What is significant?
This site is part of CA8 /41 North Melbourne, a land package of Elizabeth and A'Beckett Street frontages sold to Port Phillip pioneering merchant and speculator William Hoffman in 1851-2 for ₤580. Builders Simmie McLaughlin & Adamson erected two stores near the corner of Elizabeth and A'Beckett Streets in 1853 for William Hoffman; the high application fee of ₤4 suggests substantial buildings. The architect HDG Russell called tenders for the construction of two stores for Hoffman in Elizabeth St in the same year, suggesting he was the designer.
Rate records from 1854 describe two 2-storey stone buildings, one a store and the other a store and stable, on the site. The plan size of each was about 20x80'. Hoffman leased the buildings to corn and flour factors, Shields, Garratt & Horely (Shields & Co), from 1858 for seven years. The property was described in the 1860s as two stone flour mill complexes, one occupied by Wright, as stone flour mills and engine off A'Beckett, and as Finlayson & Co, at 6 A'Beckett St, with stone mill and engine. Later one building was termed as a stone brewery occupied by Woolf Isaacs. In 1880 a probate description of this holding was part of CA8/41, with a 30' frontage to Elizabeth St and 72' to A'Beckett, and included a stone store of 8 rooms and bathroom…`the building is old'.
In the Edwardian-era, the estate of William Hoffman commissioned architect W Knight to design the basalt and brick warehouse facing A'Beckett Street; W.B. Cooper of Hawthorn was the contractor. It appears that the A'Beckett Street stone façade of one of the 1853 stone buildings was reused in the new façade, with existing openings refashioned and the parapet built up using red brickwork. This is evident from the cut bricks used to engage the quoining on the side wall.
The second 1850s blue stone mill or store remains behind and adjoining the new brick section of this structure. The rate description of the front building changed in 1901 to `brick store' after years listed as a stone store: the valuation increased by 50% suggesting that this building was re-erected then. The Hoffman estate also commissioned a warehouse design from architect Gerald Wight in 1906 for the adjoining `106' A'Beckett St.
In 1917 the estate spent ₤800 to reinstate the rear or northern store after a fire at the warehouse: this store adjoins the rear of the A'Beckett Street building and, at that time, had an attached residence on the east side facing south into the stone paved side yard, since removed. The architect or engineer for the reconstruction was George Parsons & Son, and the builder was the renowned Clements Langford of Bridge Road, Richmond.
Charles Smith importer and later McLennan were early tenants for the A'Beckett St building but the nationally known Henry Box & Son Company and later, A Pardy & Company, both importers of carriage building materials, were long-term occupiers of what was termed a workshop or factory. Hurst Bros., wire mattress and bedding manufacturers, had the northern stone store and stable adjoining at the rear, accessed from the pitched side yard east of 104.
This complex was an example of the concentration of `metals and engineering' trades in this part of Melbourne in the late Victorian-era, as observed by historian Graeme Davison and as evident in the concentration of the subsequent rise of the motor trade there by the 1920s. Carriage building merged into car building. The transition was complete by the advent of Geo Morgan & Co Ltd motor accessories at the complex who remained there from the 1930s into the 1950s. This historical perpetuation and concentration of uses has been identified as one of the contributory elements in the significance of the Capital City Zone.
The street elevation of the southern two-storey warehouse has distinct Edwardian-era character achieved by the segmental archways on both levels as red brick infill within a more conservative stone façade of axed and quarry faced blue stone. The arches spring from stone haunches and the thick timber sections used in the window and doorway joinery take on a typical muscular Edwardian form. The pressed red brickwork is strongly modelled by use of bullnose, squint shaped bricks and regular bricks used as a bold keystone over the entry. The building plinth is fine axed stone with radiuses and battered sills. Corbelled ovolo profile terracotta mouldings provide a string mould at first floor level and a cornice at the parapet. This combination of stone and red brick is very effective as an expression of contrasting natural materials with uncommon but simple detailing which distinguishes this from other similarly scaled Edwardian-era warehouses or the early Victorian-era stone examples. The façade design also possesses the honesty of materials sought after in the contemporary Arts & Crafts influenced approach to architecture. The warehouse behind the façade is basic red brick with concrete lintels over segmentally arched openings, some infilled with brickwork. A new matching entry has replaced the former window at the west end of the ground level façade and the existing entry doors on the east appear to be sympathetic replacements of the original.
The southern half of the northern or rear 1853 store and stable survives with a gabled roof and rubble bluestone façade walling set within a dressed stone framework of piers, string-moulds and parapet mouldings. A similar string mould (semi-circular in section) is used at the parapet to that used on the A'Beckett Street façade. Stone quoining and lintels are set over double-hung quoined sash windows, flat arched on the upper level and fully-arched on the lower. Keystones and margin tooling of the architraves adds a custom design aspect that suggests an architect's involvement. This façade is a highly valuable part of City's history which is complemented by the infill brickwork of the rebuilt southern store. Another wing to the north of this building has the monitor roof seen in the 1917 drawings but a red brick east wall which may have been part of the reconstruction: this wing should be inspected and assessed.
How is it significant?
Hoffman's warehouses are significant historically and aesthetically to the Melbourne Capital City Zone
Why is it significant?
The southern Hoffman warehouse is significant aesthetically for the distinctive combination of dressed and quarry-faced blue stone and shaped red brickwork in the A'Beckett St façade, the use of brick allowing easier formation of the Edwardian segmental arch in the existing stone façade openings but also providing a distinct architectural Arts & Crafts character from use of moulded brickwork and juxta-positioning with another natural material, such as the stone. The northern warehouse is also significant architecturally for its articulate stone façade and detailing which is uncommon in the Capital City Zone for that date.
Historically the southern building is a well-preserved exemplar of the transition of the carriage building in the northern part of the City into buildings used by the emerging motor trade. The southern warehouse also has some historical interest from a long and early association with the Henry Box & Son company of carriage building suppliers. The stone parts of both warehouses are significant for their great age, as part of a small group of stone flour mills, breweries and stores from the 1850s in the Capital City Zone, a period which meant massive growth of service industries such as these as a result of the gold rush.
Melbourne A'Beckett Street 104, Hoffman's flour stores CAD 1984 sheet 31 017
Melbourne Central Activities District (CAD) Conservation Study 1984-5 survey images: approx 1200 Kodak colour negatives
See librarysearch.melbourne.vic.gov.au/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ...
_______________
DATE: 1853, 1901;
ASSOCIATIONS: Hoffman, William estate;
DESIGNER: Russell, H.D.G. 1853?, Knight, W 1901;
BUILDER: Simmie McLaughlin & Adamson 1853; Cooper, W.B. Hawthorn 1901
____________
Graeme Butler & Associates 2011, Central City (Hoddle Grid) Heritage Review .
Statement of Significance
What is significant?
This site is part of CA8 /41 North Melbourne, a land package of Elizabeth and A'Beckett Street frontages sold to Port Phillip pioneering merchant and speculator William Hoffman in 1851-2 for ₤580. Builders Simmie McLaughlin & Adamson erected two stores near the corner of Elizabeth and A'Beckett Streets in 1853 for William Hoffman; the high application fee of ₤4 suggests substantial buildings. The architect HDG Russell called tenders for the construction of two stores for Hoffman in Elizabeth St in the same year, suggesting he was the designer.
Rate records from 1854 describe two 2-storey stone buildings, one a store and the other a store and stable, on the site. The plan size of each was about 20x80'. Hoffman leased the buildings to corn and flour factors, Shields, Garratt & Horely (Shields & Co), from 1858 for seven years. The property was described in the 1860s as two stone flour mill complexes, one occupied by Wright, as stone flour mills and engine off A'Beckett, and as Finlayson & Co, at 6 A'Beckett St, with stone mill and engine. Later one building was termed as a stone brewery occupied by Woolf Isaacs. In 1880 a probate description of this holding was part of CA8/41, with a 30' frontage to Elizabeth St and 72' to A'Beckett, and included a stone store of 8 rooms and bathroom…`the building is old'.
In the Edwardian-era, the estate of William Hoffman commissioned architect W Knight to design the basalt and brick warehouse facing A'Beckett Street; W.B. Cooper of Hawthorn was the contractor. It appears that the A'Beckett Street stone façade of one of the 1853 stone buildings was reused in the new façade, with existing openings refashioned and the parapet built up using red brickwork. This is evident from the cut bricks used to engage the quoining on the side wall.
The second 1850s blue stone mill or store remains behind and adjoining the new brick section of this structure. The rate description of the front building changed in 1901 to `brick store' after years listed as a stone store: the valuation increased by 50% suggesting that this building was re-erected then. The Hoffman estate also commissioned a warehouse design from architect Gerald Wight in 1906 for the adjoining `106' A'Beckett St.
In 1917 the estate spent ₤800 to reinstate the rear or northern store after a fire at the warehouse: this store adjoins the rear of the A'Beckett Street building and, at that time, had an attached residence on the east side facing south into the stone paved side yard, since removed. The architect or engineer for the reconstruction was George Parsons & Son, and the builder was the renowned Clements Langford of Bridge Road, Richmond.
Charles Smith importer and later McLennan were early tenants for the A'Beckett St building but the nationally known Henry Box & Son Company and later, A Pardy & Company, both importers of carriage building materials, were long-term occupiers of what was termed a workshop or factory. Hurst Bros., wire mattress and bedding manufacturers, had the northern stone store and stable adjoining at the rear, accessed from the pitched side yard east of 104.
This complex was an example of the concentration of `metals and engineering' trades in this part of Melbourne in the late Victorian-era, as observed by historian Graeme Davison and as evident in the concentration of the subsequent rise of the motor trade there by the 1920s. Carriage building merged into car building. The transition was complete by the advent of Geo Morgan & Co Ltd motor accessories at the complex who remained there from the 1930s into the 1950s. This historical perpetuation and concentration of uses has been identified as one of the contributory elements in the significance of the Capital City Zone.
The street elevation of the southern two-storey warehouse has distinct Edwardian-era character achieved by the segmental archways on both levels as red brick infill within a more conservative stone façade of axed and quarry faced blue stone. The arches spring from stone haunches and the thick timber sections used in the window and doorway joinery take on a typical muscular Edwardian form. The pressed red brickwork is strongly modelled by use of bullnose, squint shaped bricks and regular bricks used as a bold keystone over the entry. The building plinth is fine axed stone with radiuses and battered sills. Corbelled ovolo profile terracotta mouldings provide a string mould at first floor level and a cornice at the parapet. This combination of stone and red brick is very effective as an expression of contrasting natural materials with uncommon but simple detailing which distinguishes this from other similarly scaled Edwardian-era warehouses or the early Victorian-era stone examples. The façade design also possesses the honesty of materials sought after in the contemporary Arts & Crafts influenced approach to architecture. The warehouse behind the façade is basic red brick with concrete lintels over segmentally arched openings, some infilled with brickwork. A new matching entry has replaced the former window at the west end of the ground level façade and the existing entry doors on the east appear to be sympathetic replacements of the original.
The southern half of the northern or rear 1853 store and stable survives with a gabled roof and rubble bluestone façade walling set within a dressed stone framework of piers, string-moulds and parapet mouldings. A similar string mould (semi-circular in section) is used at the parapet to that used on the A'Beckett Street façade. Stone quoining and lintels are set over double-hung quoined sash windows, flat arched on the upper level and fully-arched on the lower. Keystones and margin tooling of the architraves adds a custom design aspect that suggests an architect's involvement. This façade is a highly valuable part of City's history which is complemented by the infill brickwork of the rebuilt southern store. Another wing to the north of this building has the monitor roof seen in the 1917 drawings but a red brick east wall which may have been part of the reconstruction: this wing should be inspected and assessed.
How is it significant?
Hoffman's warehouses are significant historically and aesthetically to the Melbourne Capital City Zone
Why is it significant?
The southern Hoffman warehouse is significant aesthetically for the distinctive combination of dressed and quarry-faced blue stone and shaped red brickwork in the A'Beckett St façade, the use of brick allowing easier formation of the Edwardian segmental arch in the existing stone façade openings but also providing a distinct architectural Arts & Crafts character from use of moulded brickwork and juxta-positioning with another natural material, such as the stone. The northern warehouse is also significant architecturally for its articulate stone façade and detailing which is uncommon in the Capital City Zone for that date.
Historically the southern building is a well-preserved exemplar of the transition of the carriage building in the northern part of the City into buildings used by the emerging motor trade. The southern warehouse also has some historical interest from a long and early association with the Henry Box & Son company of carriage building suppliers. The stone parts of both warehouses are significant for their great age, as part of a small group of stone flour mills, breweries and stores from the 1850s in the Capital City Zone, a period which meant massive growth of service industries such as these as a result of the gold rush.