The Lonsdale House Story
The buildings at 269-273 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne have been part of Melbourne's retailing fabric for over 120 years. Lonsdale House has a strong association with Melbourne's iconic department store Myers. What we see as a spectacular example of art deco architecture is the result of a skillful remodelling of two Victorian era buildings (Ullathome & Company building and Wertheim/Levy Bros building) by architect Illiffe Gordon Anderson between 1934 and 1936. Myers extended its roots to Lonsdale Street in 1925 after its rapid expansion from Bourke Street. Lonsdale House is of historic importance to Myer in that it was built by the Myer family the year that Sidney Myer, founder and philanthropist, died. It was home to the growing retailer's advertising department for many years.
Two storeys were added to the 1880s Wertheim piano store to become the steel framed Levy Brothers warehouse by 1870. Photo from the State Library of Victoria.
Lonsdale House took its name from Lonsdale Street, which in turn was named after William Lonsdale (21 October 1799 - 28 March 1864) who supervised the founding of the official settlement at Port Phillip. The words "Lonsdale House" were emblazoned to the facade in a moderne art deco stylistic font. Anderson applied the popular at the time streamline moderne style to create an asymmetrical composition of horizontal steel framed windows five storeys tall. The art deco style represented Melbourne's new optimistic spirit during the recovery from the Great Depression. Lonsdale House was the largest and most prominent of Anderson's work and the only example of his work in the CBD. Among Anderson's early commercial works are the distinctive Mildura landmark Mildura Club (1920) Geelong's landmark C.M.L. Building and clock tower (1925-27) and the quirky Brunswick Market (1930). His residential apartment buildings - Dorijo 458 Victoria Parade East Melbourne (1934) and Ostend Flats in Brighton (1934-35) share similar design experiments with Lonsdale House - notably visually striking geometrical decorative towers. The crystalline form of the tower of Lonsdale House is perhaps the building's most unique and interesting feature along with its wide open strip windows. In shifting to the futurist art deco style, Anderson may have been influenced by peers such as the innovative architect Walter Burley Griffin. While few of Burley Griffin's commercial buildings remain, Lonsdale House is a legacy of this era of design experimentation. The motif of the stacked square elements of the tower also bears a resemblance to the Hall of Science at the Century of Progress Exhibition (1933), while the style itself did not become popular until later exhibitions at Cleveland (1937), Paris (1937) and Scotland (1938).
The Lonsdale streestcape in the 1950s with remodelled Lonsdale House mid left. Photo from the State Library of Victoria
Heritage Listing
The heritage significance of Lonsdale House was first recognised in 1984 as part of a heritage study commissioned by the Melbourne City Council. It was added to a Heritage Overlay (HO509) as part of the Post Office Precinct in recognition of its cultural and aesthetic value to the city. Coincidentally, that was also the last major heritage study undertaken by the council.
In the 1990s, Caledonian Lane become one of Melbourne's centres of laneway culture. The St Jerome's Bar became especially popular. Lonsdale House formed a key part of the laneway, with a number of small independent retailers occupying the building.
Lonsdale House Caledonian Lane 2004 Photo copyright Butterpaper.com
In 2004, the building's owners decided not to renew commercial leases along the Caledonian lane streetfront in preparation for vacant possession sale. Over the next few years, nationally Myer was divested from Coles Myer and began a program of rationalisation. Having survived competition from nearby Diamaru and David Jones it was also preparing to downsize Myer Melbourne and leave its Lonsdale home.
Lonsdale House Caledonian Lane all boarded up 2009 Photo copyright Butterpaper.com
In March 2007, Myer sold its holdings on its Lonsdale Street buildings. The title was transferred to a consortium of the Myer family, Colonial First State and GIC Real Estate (Singapore) which had well advanced plans to redevelop with Myer taking a 60 year lease in Bourke Street.
In April 2007, testament to the quality of Melbourne's art deco heritage the city hosted the Ninth World Congress on Art Deco. Lonsdale House was one of the buildings featured at the congress.
Development Threat
With a threat to the art deco Lonsdale House, Robin Grow, president of the Art Deco Society (est 1992) nominated Lonsdale House to the Victorian Heritage Register in January 2008. The Victorian Heritage Register is maintained by the Heritage Victoria's (a department of the Victorian Government) Heritage Council and is the only legal protection available to buildings in Victoria.
In October 2008, Heritage Victoria deliberated that Lonsdale House was not of state significance and refused to list the building. The decision not to list Lonsdale House was made despite a very small number of streamline moderne buildings being officially heritage registered. However Heritage Victoria recommended that Lonsdale House remain on the City of Melbourne's heritage overlay, which would provide the building with local protection.
During this time, however, the State Government passed new legislation bypassing local councils for projects over a certain size and giving the planning minister full powers to approve developments.
In mid 2008, the state government granted approval for the demolition of the Eastern Arcade (1896) despite protests from the National Trust and recommendations from Heritage Victoria for it to be included in the City of Melbourne's heritage overlay. This was one of the first real tests (in the CBD at least) of the new ministerial planning powers.
Between 28 June to 5 October 2008 the National Gallery of Victoria hosted an international art deco exhibition of which Lonsdale House was featured. Shortly after, Robin Grow released a new book "Melbourne Art Deco" which featured the tower of Lonsdale House on its cover.
Lonsdale House tower featured on Robin Grow's "Melbourne Art Deco"
In January 2009, Colonial First State began demolition of much of the Post Office Precinct for its new commercial shopping development. Although Heritage Victoria granted protection to the Bourke Street facades, the City of Melbourne allowed most of Little Bourke Street to be demolished, tall Edwardian buildings in the Post Office Heritage Overlay including Post & Telegraph Building (1908), Robertson & Moffat store (1888) and an interwar building were all progressively demolished. The first renders showing Lonsdale House being replaced were released to the public, which were a significant clash of styles with and completely out of scale to the existing streetscape.
First artists concept impression of the new redevelopment which controversially proposed to replace Lonsdale House
A formal request was later made directly to the planning minister by the developer Colonial First State to also demolish Lonsdale House to widen Caledonian Lane for truck loading access. The developers made an emotional appeal with the new development to be called "Emporium", and claiming that the late Sidney Myer would have approved of the development.
A few weeks later, the awning, badly damaged over the years by trucks - was repaired giving some a false hope that the developer might have had a change of heart. It seems ironic that the awning was left in disrepair for so long only to be fixed on the eve of its demolition.
Despite the building having City of Melbourne heritage status, the council ignored its own heritage controls in deciding not to uphold the building's status when consulted by the State Government and instead backed the decision to grant demolition approval to Colonial First State.
The proposed Emporium Melbourne design featuring the removal of Lonsdale House signed off by the City of Melbourne (photo from the National Trust)
The Art Deco Society and National Trust launched a joint appeal aimed at a compromise - to adaptively reuse elements of Lonsdale House. The proposal allowed for the lane to be widened by 4 metres to satisfy the developer's wishes by sacrificing some of the facade but retaining the tower. One of the lower levels of the facade would be removed to widen the entryway and faciliate the large neon "Emporium" sign desired by the developer. The new building would be setback by 10 metres (a 1990s City of Melbourne policy for heritage buildings) to minimise the appearance of "facadism". Large open air spaces desired by the developer would be incorporated on the laneway side. The television billboard screen, also part of the redevelopment proposal would have been just as prominent cantilevered above the heritage buildings.
An adaptive reuse proposal put forward by preservationists (the green area was the proposed location of the digital billboard)
Such a proposal (retaining only the facade), while not ideal, would have satisfied both parties and is not believed to have unreasonably added to the costs of the development. An extract of the response from Colonial First State Property Management dated 1 June 2009 appears below:
We only have one opportunity to create an entry statement to this new development and that would be where Lonsdale House currently stands ....
the only way we would be able to proceed with the development and deliver the required financial returns would be if the Authorities were to provide the Developers with some form of taxation relief to offset the lost income from the retention of Lonsdale House ...
This option has been fully explored and abandoned as being unfeasible
Demolition Permit
On July 26th, 2009 the Planning Minister announced that he had approved complete demolition of Lonsdale House. Despite claiming in a press release that heritage was protected, this was in reference to adjoining Victorian buildings and not Lonsdale House. The Planning minister's argument for the development was so that Emporium would provide consumers with a diagonal vista to the other shopping mall in the area - QV, despite the fact that media commentators have rightly pointed out that this is not actually possible in the proposed design configuration.
Just days after the decision, massive amounts of graffiti appeared on the condemned building's windows, tower and upper walls. As often is the case defacement of heritage buildings makes their demolition look more acceptable to the public. Also shortly following the government approval, the developer submitted new watered down designs for the replacement building which were far more plain and boxy.
Revised Emporium design shown in The Age
It was later revealed by the media that the City of Melbourne stands to profit over $1.4 million from the sale of laneways to the developer.
Repercussions
The move to demolish Lonsdale House has set a major precedent. Much of the City of Melbourne is covered by heritage overlays. If the councils and the state government are not willing to adhere to these heritage policies (as in the case of the last two years) and willing to bypass them to push through new developments - then the heritage character of most of the CBD and surrounds is very vulnerable.
Save Lonsdale House
"Save Lonsdale House" was formed on Wednesday 5th August with a mission to raise public awareness of the injustice that has been dealt to this piece of Melbourne's heritage and the wider repercussions for our city.
We are realistic about our chances to save Lonsdale House. To our group Lonsdale House is a symbol for Melburnians standing up for our community rights in the face of developers and the government. We demand that they are remain accountable and maintain our heritage controls.
YOU have the power to shape Melbourne's future
WE have a choice between a Melbourne where
- heritage buildings and laneways are demolished for short term financial gain
OR
- heritage and community values mean something
WE have a chance to save Melbourne's character for future generations