MELBOURNE'S GRAND PAST...

The architecture of Melbourne is characterised by an extensive juxtaposition of old and new architecture. The city is noted for preserving a significant amount of Victorian architecture and has some of the largest in the country. Additionally, it features a vast array of modern architecture, with around 60 skyscrapers over 100 m in the city centre which have deliberately been set back from thoroughfares and streets to preserve historic architecture—leading to the title of "Australia's most European city".

The juxtaposition of old and new has given Melbourne a reputation as a city of no characterising architectural style, but rather a city possessing an accumulation of buildings dating from the present back until the European settlement of Australia. The city is also home to Eureka Tower (2006), which was the tallest residential tower when measured to its highest floor for some time. Here are some Victorian gems, landmarks of our city.

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Como House, South Yarra 1840s

Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton, 1880 (World Heritage Site)

Melbourne General Post Office, begun 1859

Melbourne Town Hall, 1870, and St Paul's Cathedral, 1891

Melbournia Terrace, Carlton, 1876

Victorian Parliament House, 1855

Royal Terrace, Sth Yarra, 1890

St Patrick's Cathedral, begun 1858

RIPPON LEA ESTATE

Located only 20 minutes from Melbourne’s CBD, Rippon Lea Estate is one of the last of Australia’s grand suburban estates. It is a grand property that is National Heritage listed and a visit there is like peeking through a window that allows you to travel back in time and offers a unique glimpse into the lifestyles of the wealthiest Australians of the Victorian era.

Rippon Lea Estate consists of a lavish urban mansion, a large garden, orchard and associated outbuildings (including the stable complex, the lodge, the conservatory and glasshouses, the fernery, the porte-cochere, the 1930s swimming pool, and the 1930s ballroom). The property has integrity as an uncommonly large and intact suburban estate, which survived subdivision and encroachment by suburbia.

In 1868, Marian and Frederick Sargood bought 11.3 hectares (23 acres) of scrub land at Elsternwick, naming it after Frederick’s mother Emma Rippon (Lea is an old English word for meadow). Frederick had arrived in the colony as a 15 year old, first working for the Public Works Department and then joining his father’s expanding clothing and drapery importing firm which supplied soft goods to the diggers. Like many of the merchants active during the gold rush, Sargood made his fortune and Rippon Lea was the result of his newfound prosperity.

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COOK'S COTTAGE, MELBOURNE

Cooks' Cottage is located in the Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne, Australia. The cottage was constructed in 1755 in the English village of Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, by the parents of Captain James Cook, James and Grace Cook. It is a point of conjecture among historians whether James Cook, the famous navigator, ever lived in the house, but almost certainly he visited his parents at the house.

In 1933 the owner of the cottage decided to sell it with a condition of sale that the building remain in England. She was persuaded to change "England" to "the Empire", and accepted an Australian bid of £800, by Russell Grimwade as opposed to the highest local offer of £300. The cottage was deconstructed brick by brick and packed into 253 cases and 40 barrels, for shipping on board the Port Dunedin from Hull.

Cuttings from ivy that adorned the house were also taken and planted when the house was re-erected in Melbourne. Grimwade, a notable businessman and philanthropist, donated the house to the people of Victoria for the centenary anniversary of the settlement of Melbourne in October 1934. The cottage immediately became a popular tourist attraction. In 1978 further restoration work was carried out on the cottage. An English cottage garden has been established around the house, further adding to its period reconstruction. Very few of the items in the house are from the Cook family, but all are representative furnishings of the period.

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Front view of the Cottage. A souvenir shop is located in the front single storey part of the house 

Back view of the Cottage with its delightful cottage garden

The kitchen/living room with its period furniture and implements

The main bedroom upstairs. One cannot be but impressed with how compact and small everything seems

Portrait of Captain Cook and a model of the "Endeavour", his most famous ship used in his exploration journeys

Back garden and a statue of Cook

Traditional plants popular in 18th century English gardens have been planted in the back yard. Here is a delightful hollyhock

The Fitzroy Gardens is a delightful setting for the cottage

MELBOURNIA TERRACE, CARLTON

Melbournia Terrace is situated in 1-13 Drummond Street Carlton, an inner city suburb. It is a National Trust classified terrace of seven houses in a key position in Drummond Street, corner of Victoria Street. They are presently private houses and interesting as one of the known works of Norman Hitchcock.


Norman Hitchcock a Victorian architect,  had established a reputation in Melbourne for his distinctive use of decorative details in speculative terrace housing in the suburbs of Carlton and Parkville. Caught up in the collapse of the Melbourne housing market and financial "crash", Hitchcock was declared insolvent in May 1891.4 Hitchcock was later listed in partnership with O N Nicholson in Melbourne, but then disappeared from sight, until he turned up practising architecture in Western Australia, where he specialised in the design of small speculative housing, particularly in the Fremantle area. For many years he lived in Hubble Street, East Fremantle. Hitchcock's work is notable for his repeated use of distinctive design and decorative details that makes his architecture easy to identify.


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TRADES HALL BUILDING

The Victorian Trades Hall building is located in the suburb of Carlton, and home to the Victorian Trades Hall Council. It is located on the corner of Lygon Street and Victoria Street, just north of the Melbourne central business district. The original Trades Hall was opened in May 1859 after being built by workers as an organising place for the labour movement in Melbourne.


The workers financed the construction of the building themselves. The hall underwent an upgrade from 1874 to 1925 at the hands of architectural firm Reed & Barnes and it remains one of the most historically important sites in Melbourne today, being classified by the National Trust and included in the Register of Historic Buildings (Victoria). The hall is located across the road from the eight hour day monument which was erected to honour the Victorian workers who won the first 8 hour working day in the world in 1856.


It is the birthplace of organisations like the Victorian Labor Party and Australian Council of Trade Unions. Four flags fly from the roof of the building; the Australian Flag, the Eureka Flag, the Australian Aboriginal flag, and the red flag. Trades Hall is home to many of the Victorian trade unions, left-wing political parties and radical organisations. It also serves as the headquarters of the National Union of Students. The various rooms of the hall can be hired out for functions, meetings or conferences and it is often used for theatrical productions and to display artwork. The hall has a bar which is patronised by trade union members and political activists and a bookshop which sells radical texts. In recent times, as well as being the centre for union activity, the Trades Hall Council has opened the Trades Hall building to many cultural events, plays, and concerts.


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RIPPON LEA GARDENS

Rippon Lea Estate is a historic property located in Elsternwick, Victoria, Australia. It is under the care of the National Trust of Australia. See my post on Rippon Lea Estate on my other Photoblog for more history and photos of both mansion and gardens.


An extensive pleasure garden was laid out around the mansion, together with glasshouses, vegetable gardens and orchards. The gardens were designed to be self-sufficient as regards water, and the large man-made lake on the property was designed to store stormwater run-off from the surrounding area. By the late 1870's Rippon Lea was a total of 45 acres (180,000 square metres) with the 'kitchen garden' alone taking up 2 acres (8,100 square metres).


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