CITY FORD NORTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL AREA
712-764 ELIZABETH STREET MELBOURNE, MELBOURNE CITY
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Statement of Significance
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CITY FORD NORTH ARCHAEOLOGICAL AREA - History
This site comprises properties on the eastern side of Elizabeth Street, to the south of Haymarket Lane, and are part of the property known as 716 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. There are no heritage inventory sites (HI) on at this location. This site was not originally investigated as part of the broader Parkville site in November 2015.
As with the balance of the Parkville site, this site developed from the late 1850s and 1860s. During the gold rush period, Elizabeth Street was part of the main route north from the city to the goldfields and Sydney. Elizabeth Street at the Haymarket was sometimes referred to as Sydney Road. By 1864, a small number of businesses were in operation in this section of Elizabeth Street, including a chemist, an oil and colour store and a blacksmith.1 The 1866 municipal rate books list a four-roomed brick residence and stable, a four-roomed brick house with kitchen, three-roomed wood house and stables and wheel wright with residence as occupying the site.2 The New Haymarket Hotel was constructed at the southern portion of the subject site in 1873, with the initial application for a licence by John Sampson postponed in September as the building had not been completed.3 A licence was granted in December 1873.4
By the 1880s, the rate books reflect further development in the subject site, with the nine roomed brick hotel, and adjacent brick residence at the south of the site, with a two-roomed brick house, a four-roomed brick shop with stable, two two-storey brick houses, and a brick workshop to the right-of-way, now Haymarket Lane. A three-roomed wooden house is listed as 'off-Elizabeth Street', but does not appear to have been located within the subject site.5
This development can largely be seen in the MMBW plans of 1896 (Figure 1, Figure 2), with the exception of the replacement of the two-roomed brick house with a brick shop.6 As can be seen in these plans, particularly the 160':1" plan (Figure 2), the buildings constructed on the site were generally of brick to the street frontage, with timber outbuildings to the rear of properties, mostly stabling. The workshop at the north of the site was a complex of mainly timber buildings around the property perimeter, with a central yard. The buildings on the site are also visible in the background of a c. 1895 photograph (Figure 3). The residences and the hotel can be seen as two-storey brick buildings of varying sizes. The front facade New Haymarket Hotel also appears to extend across the access driveway shown on the MMBW detail plan (Figure 1) to directly abut the two-storey residence to the north. The New Haymarket Hotel operated until 1915, when it was closed as part of the work undertaken by the Licenses Reduction Board, after which it appears to have been occupied as a private residence.7
The site can be seen in aerial photographs of the 1940s (Figure 4- Figure 8). The buildings at the subject site appears to have remained generally the same as shown in the MMBW plans of the 1890s.
An oblique aerial photograph of 1955 (Figure 9) indicates that there was some immediate post-war development on the site. The former New Haymarket Hotel and adjacent residence were altered and a new structure constructed immediately to the south. As it appears in this image, this is a two-storey addition with a ground level car entry, and possibly included a building on what was previously vacant land. The nineteenth century hotel and residence appear to have been retained behind the new facade. The two pairs of brick nineteenth century residences to the north of the hotel also appear intact, while the former coach factory is enclosed by hoarding and appears unoccupied.
By the 1970s, the majority of the subject site, then known as 748-764 Elizabeth Street was listed as vacant land, under the ownership of Melbourne City Council. The adjacent property at nos 740-746 is listed as a brick office, occupied by the Hi Mile Tyre Wholesalers.8 The City of Melbourne appears to have operated the former coach workshop/factory to the south of Haymarket Lane. The council advertised for tenders to lease this site as a car park in 1960.9 In 1984, an application was made to the City of Melbourne to construct a two-storey warehouse, likely the building at the north of the site. This work, along with the creation of an asphalted car park, would have required the demolition of all the buildings on the subject site. The former coach factory, and the two residential pairs immediately to its south were located where the 1984 building now stands. The former hotel and adjacent residence to the south were replaced by the carpark.
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FORMER CARLTON AND UNITED BREWERYVictorian Heritage Register H0024
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DRUMMOND TERRACEVictorian Heritage Register H0872
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LOTHIAN BUILDINGSVictorian Heritage Register H0372
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