Curtin House

Last updated

Curtin House
Melbourne 2013-Aug 057c.jpg
Curtin House
Former namesTattersall's Club
Tattersalls Building [1]
General information
Architectural style Art Nouveau
Address248–256 Swanston St
Town or cityMelbourne
CountryAustralia
Coordinates 37°48′43.2″S144°57′54.7″E / 37.812000°S 144.965194°E / -37.812000; 144.965194
Opened1922
Cost£50,000 [2]
Dimensions
Other dimensionsFrontage of 81 ft 5 in to Swanston St. by a depth of 88 ft on the southern boundary and 66 ft on the north side. It has a rear frontage of 50 ft 8 into Tattersalls Lane. [1]
Technical details
Structural systemStructure of reinforced concrete (as placed by the Steel Form Supply Co P/L)
Floor count6
Floor area21,360 sq. ft. [1]
Lifts/elevatorsSingle lift within open cage encircled by stairs.
Design and construction
Architect(s) Harry Norris [3]
Architecture firmHarry Norris
Civil engineerHawkins & Bendixsen

Curtin House is a six-storey Commercial Palazzo style building on Swanston Street in the Melbourne city centre, built in 1922 for the Tattersalls Club with offices to rent, and transformed in the early 2000s into a 'vertical laneway', with a range of specialist retailing, dining, and entertainment spaces occupying every floor and the roof.

Contents

History

Curtin House was built in 1922 as the Tattersalls Club, on the site of Nunans's Buildings [4] destroyed by fire on April 13, 1921. [5] The fire claimed one victim, Miss Gertrude K Riley. [6] Morton Parker Pimentel, director of Federation Films on the third floor, was accused of having started the fire deliberately, but the evidence was slight. [7]

The Tattersalls Club building contained shops on the ground floor, bar and dining room and meeting rooms on the next two floors for the Club members, who were from the horse racing world, and offices to let above. [8] It was one of the first major works of architect Harry Norris, who went on to design many important city buildings in the interwar years. The Club either disbanded or merged with another club and left the building in 1937, when their rooms were put up for lease [9] with the bar and other fitting sold off in 1940. [10]

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the building housed the offices of the Victorian Branch of the Communist Party and its youth wing the League of Young Democrats. As supporters of Stalin, who had made a pact with Hitler, the CPA Australia was anti-war, and so seen as unpatriotic, and their offices and library here were famously raided on 17 June 1940 minutes after the Federal Cabinet decided to ban the party, 'seizing enough literature to fill two vans'. [11] The League of Young Democrats had been spared, but were also raided on 25 February 1941 minutes after it too was declared illegal by Cabinet. [12]

By 1948, the name had been changed to Curtin House, when it was reported as having become the new home of the National Secretariat of Catholic Action, which included a range of Catholic organisations and a bookshop, in the old Club rooms on the first floor. [13] It is presumed that the new name commemorated the wartime Labor Prime Minister John Curtin, who had died in office in 1945. He was a lapsed Catholic, but it is not known exactly why or when the name was changed.

In 1967, it was leased by the Academy of Modern Greek (the Academy), a private Greek language school established by a group of community leaders to address the language, history and culture learning-needs of the school-aged children of the growing Greek community. Spiro Liolios was appointed Principal of the Academy and within a few months, he and his wife, Koula Liolios, took over the ownership of the school. The school flourished under their educational leadership and was the largest Greek school in Melbourne for many years, outgrowing all six floors of Curtin House by 1977; subsequently moving to the Theosophical Society Building, 187 Collins Street, Melbourne, where it continued to operate successfully until the 1990s.

During the 60s and 70s, Spiro Liolios also operated a number of other businesses within the building, such as Golden Guide Publishing, which distributed the free community telephone book and community services guide, the Greek Golden Guide, to the Greek community; as well as the Italian Golden Guide, to the Italian community. He also established (with his accountant, Andrew Petrakis, as partner) and successfully operated a secretarial college, Swanston College, offering typing, shorthand, and office administration certificate and diploma courses. Spiro and Koula Liolios also successfully operated the Academy Interpreting and Translating for many years. All from within the six storeys of Curtin House.

Through the 1980s and 90s, Curtin House was occupied by a range of business and organisations attracted by the cheap rent, such as the Genealogical Society, [14] and eventually used for pop up exhibitions and not quite legal residential space. The esteemed May Downs School of Dance ran classes on level 6 in the early 80’s.

Famous residents included Barrie Kosky and Chunky Move dance company's artistic director Gideon Obarzanek. [15]

Transformation

In 2000 it was bought by group of investors led by Tim Peach. [15] Following some restoration the rejuvenated Curtin House was progressively leased to a range of 'creative industries' and multiple food and entertainment venues. In 2003, the first to open was the bar-cum restaurant Cookie, occupying the high-ceilinged former club room on the first floor, developed by Camillo and Monika Ippoliti. The design by Phillip Schemnitz retained the main surviving features and combined them with careful interventions, and won a Hall of Fame gong in the 2018 Eat Drink awards. [16] Melbourne's first rooftop cinema simply called Rooftop Cinema opened in 2006, [17] and the Toff in Town live music and performance venue opened on the second floor in 2007. [15]

Other tenants include Metropolis Bookstore [18] which relocated from St Kilda in 2001. In 2019 tenants included the four street level shops, Cookie, the Toff, Metropolis, a rare record store, [19] a hair salon and two clothes retailers on the 3rd floor, another clothes retailer, an architecture office, [20] and brand designer in the 4th floor, a whole floor residence on the 5th, and Mesa Verde restaurant on the 6th, and the Rooftop Bar and Cinema. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swanston Street</span> Street in Melbourne, Australia

Swanston Street is a major thoroughfare in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in 1837 as part of the original Hoddle Grid. The street vertically bisects Melbourne's city centre and is famous as the world's busiest tram corridor, for its heritage buildings and as a shopping strip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen Victoria Village</span>

Queen Victoria Village, generally known as QV Melbourne or just QV, is a precinct in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. Covering the city block bounded by Lonsdale, Little Lonsdale, Swanston, and Russell Streets, and located directly opposite the State Library of Victoria and Melbourne Central, QV comprises a large shopping centre, a central plaza, an underground food court, Melbourne central city's first full-size supermarket and apartment buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squizzy Taylor</span> Australian gangster

Joseph Theodore Leslie "Squizzy" Taylor was an Australian gangster from Melbourne. He appeared repeatedly and sometimes prominently in Melbourne news media because of suspicions, formal accusations and some convictions related to a 1919 gang war, to his absconding from bail and hiding from the police in 1921–22, and to his involvement in a robbery where a bank manager was murdered in 1923.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Young and Jackson Hotel</span> Historic pub in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Young and Jackson is a hotel in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, at the corner of Flinders Street and Swanston Street. Established in 1861, it is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melbourne Mint</span> Building in Melbourne, Australia

The Melbourne Mint, located on the corner of William and La Trobe Streets in Melbourne, Australia, was first established as a branch of the British Royal Mint, opening in 12 June 1872. The main building houses the administration offices, as well as the living quarters for the Deputy Master, his family and domestic servants in the right hand section. There is a pair of guard houses, one by each gate, and the assay and smelting works were in a range of buildings behind. It minted gold sovereigns from 1872 until 1931, and half-sovereigns (intermittently) from 1873 until 1915. In 1916 it commenced minting Commonwealth silver threepences, sixpences, shillings and florins. From 1923 it minted all pre-decimal denominations. It minted rarities such as the 1921/22 overdate threepence, 1923 half-penny and 1930 penny, as well as Australia's four commemorative florins in 1927 (Canberra), 1934/35, 1951 and 1954. It assisted the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra in producing one cent coins from 1966 to 1968 and two cent coins in 1966. From 1969 all coin production moved to the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra, and the building housing the coin minting equipment was demolished shortly afterwards. The remaining administrative building became the home of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, as well as the civil marriage registry, with many weddings in the large ground floor room. Since 1998 it has been vested in a self funded-government body that manages a number of former government buildings, and it has hosted a range of tenants.

Harry Norris was an Australian architect, one of the more prolific and successful in Melbourne in the interwar period, best known for his 1930s Art Deco commercial work in the Melbourne central business district.

Australian non-residential architectural styles are a set of Australian architectural styles that apply to buildings used for purposes other than residence and have been around only since the first colonial government buildings of early European settlement of Australia in 1788.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shelford Girls' Grammar</span> Girls day school in Caulfield, Victoria, Australia

Shelford Girls' Grammar is an independent Anglican day school for girls living in Caulfield, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwardian architecture</span> Style of world architecture

Edwardian architecture usually means a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular for public buildings in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to the year 1914 may also be included in this style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foy & Gibson</span> Former Australian department store

Foy & Gibson, also known as Foy's and later Cox-Foys, was one of Australia's largest and earliest department store chains. A large range of goods were manufactured and sold by the company including clothing, manchester, leather goods, soft furnishings, furniture, hardware and food.

The Melbourne City campus of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology is located in the city centre of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It is sometimes referred to as "RMIT City" and the "RMIT Quarter" of the city in the media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester Unity Building</span> Building in Melbourne, Australia

The Manchester Unity Building is an Art Deco Gothic inspired office and retail building in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, constructed in 1931–32 for the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows. The soaring stepped corner tower on a prominent intersection opposite the Melbourne Town Hall makes it one of the most prominent and best known buildings in Melbourne.

Marcus Barlow (1890–1954) was a prominent Australian architect in the interwar period, who designed a number of notable central city buildings in his home-town of Melbourne. He is best known for the 1932 Manchester Unity Building, whose Gothic corner spire dominates the major intersection of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lanes and arcades of Melbourne</span>

The Melbourne central business district in Australia is home to numerous lanes and arcades. Often called "laneways", these narrow streets and pedestrian paths date mostly from the Victorian era, and are a popular cultural attraction for their cafes, bars and street art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RMIT Building 8</span> Education in Victoria, Australia

RMIT Building 8 is an educational building, part of RMIT University's City campus in Melbourne, Victoria. It is located at 383 Swanston Street, on the northern edge of Melbourne's central business district.

William Arthur Purnell F.R.A.I.A., generally known as Arthur Purnell, and sometimes A W Purnell, was an Australian born architect who practiced in Canton, China in the 1900s, and from 1910 mainly in Melbourne, Australia. He is most noted for the few designs in Melbourne that include Chinese references.

There were two short-lived Tattersall's clubs in Melbourne, Australia, in the early 1900s: Melbourne Tattersall's Club, associated with bookmaker Sol Green, and John Wren's City Tattersall's Club.

Queen's Hall was a little theatre in Collins Street, Melbourne, situated between Russell and Swanston streets. It operated from 1920 to 1937, when its building was demolished.

In August 1928 the Collins Street Baptist Church was demolished to make way for a nine-storey building, at 203 Little Collins Street, midway between Swanston and Russell streets.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "City building to syndicate for £145,000". The Argus . Melbourne. 31 March 1951. p. 14. Retrieved 29 November 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ "TATTERSALL'S CLUB". The Argus . Melbourne. 29 August 1922. p. 9. Retrieved 29 November 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  3. ↑ Harry A. Norris established his own architectural practice in 1919. Norris's first significant city building was the seven-storey Tattersall's Club premises (now Curtin House) at 252 Swanston Street in 1922 Archived 6 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine p. 131. Moreland North of Bell Street, Heritage Study, Volume 2 – Heritage place and precinct citations, Final, April 2011
  4. ↑ "Advertising". Oakleigh Leader . North Brighton, Vic. 16 December 1893. p. 1. Retrieved 1 December 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ "SWANSTON STREET FIRE". The Argus . Melbourne. 15 April 1921. p. 7. Retrieved 29 November 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ "SWANSTON STREET FIRE". The Argus . Melbourne. 16 April 1921. p. 20. Retrieved 29 November 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  7. ↑ "NUNAN'S BUILDINGS FIRE". The Argus . Melbourne. 23 July 1921. p. 17. Retrieved 29 November 2012– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "Tattersalls Club". Referee. The Referee Sydney 8 Nov 1922. 8 November 1922. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  9. ↑ "Shops etc To Let". The Argus. 3 December 1937. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  10. ↑ "Tenders". The Argus. 9 January 1940. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  11. ↑ "100 Police Raid Pemises". The Argus. 17 June 1940. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  12. ↑ "Headquarters Raided". The Argus. 25 February 1941. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  13. ↑ "New Offices for National Secretariat". The Argus. 29 July 1948.
  14. ↑ "Welcome to the GSV | Genealogical Society of Victoria". www.gsv.org.au. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  15. 1 2 3 Raising the Curtin, By Larissa Dubecki, April 4, 2007, The Age
  16. ↑ "'Magic at work': Cookie's architect on its enduring design". ArchitectureAU. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  17. ↑ "Rooftop cinema to add more stars to city sky". The Age. 23 September 2006. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  18. ↑ CircleSoft. "Home". Metropolis Bookshop. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  19. ↑ "Collectors Corner". Archived from the original on 8 March 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
  20. ↑ SIBLING
  21. ↑ "Curtin House · The Heart of Melbourne" . Retrieved 30 August 2019.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Curtin House at Wikimedia Commons

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.