PRESTIGE HOSIERY MILL COMPLEX (FORMER)
159-165 DONALD STREET,, BRUNSWICK EAST VIC 3057 - Property No 18393
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The former Prestige Limited textile mill at 159-165 Donald Street, Brunswick East, built between 1922 and 1925 and comprising a subsidiary company, Johnson Bros silk hosiery manufacturers, is significant. Non-original alterations and additions to the buildings are not significant.
How is it significant?
The former Prestige Limited textile mill complex 159-165 Donald Street, Brunswick East, is of local historical, representative and aesthetic significance to the City of Moreland.
Why is it significant?
It is historically significant as one of the first, and certainly one of the largest textile mills in the City of Moreland, where hosiery and clothing manufacturing was a major land use during the interwar period. Brunswick and Coburg were the centre of the Australian hosiery industry with Prestige and Holeproof providing the largest component of this for over thirty years. With the aid of Government incentives, Prestige expanded operation, opening a further three factories in Victorian country towns. Prestige Limited was known as a major employer (especially for women) through the Depression years, and for the high quality of their products, their export trade and enterprising approach up until their takeover by Dunlop Australia in 1968 and the discontinuation of the brand in 1978. This complex provides a tangible reminder of Prestige Limted and the important role it played in the textile industry in the City of Moreland. (Criterion A)
Prestige and Johnston Bros. Pty. Ltd, hosiery and silk hosiery manufacturers combined operations at the Donald Street mill between 1922 and 1925 and are historically significant as a major employer (especially of women) through the Depression years. ,It is a representative example of a large interwar industrial complex, built in stages, that still retains large areas of the factory under saw tooth roofs with characteristic side elevations showing the roof and wall profiles to achieve clerestory glazing. (Criterion D)
It is aesthetically significant for its consistent rendered facade with simple austere interwar classicism detailing across the three buildings andfor the views down two driveways of the vast expanse of sawtooth roofed building form bordered by masonry walls, either in their original unpainted state or painted. (Criterion E)
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PRESTIGE HOSIERY MILL COMPLEX (FORMER) - Physical Description 1
Modern. Red brick walls divided by pilasters and with a low parapet surround an extensive area of single storey sawtooth roof factory. Windows are steel hopper sash with concrete lintels. There are two mature conifers at the street frontage.
Context:
A medium sized textile factory close to Spicer Paper and Lincoln Mills. The adjacent Streets, Lincoln and Lanark, recall the textile industry and in particular, the Lincoln Mills was only just established when this area developed.
Condition:
Good
Comparative Analysis:
Typical red brick saw tooth roof textile factory of the 1920s closely resembling the older parts of Lincoln Mills.PRESTIGE HOSIERY MILL COMPLEX (FORMER) - Physical Conditions
Good
PRESTIGE HOSIERY MILL COMPLEX (FORMER) - Integrity
Minor Modifications
PRESTIGE HOSIERY MILL COMPLEX (FORMER) - Historical Australian Themes
Historical associations: Textile Industry
PRESTIGE HOSIERY MILL COMPLEX (FORMER) - Physical Description 2
The former Prestige textile mill is located on land reclaimed from a former quarry between Donald Street to the south, Moreland Road to the north, Clara Street to the east and Lincoln street to the west. Several other industrial buildings are in this vicinity.
159 Donald Street is the largest of the buildings, occupying approximately three quarters of the large site with industrial saw tooth roof structures. Approximately half of the building has been converted for an alternative manufacturing use and the roof has been rebuilt as a shallow gable, removing the south facing clerestorey windows. The remaining part of the building leading down to Moreland Road retains its sawtooth roof however the glazing has been removed or concealed and some new openings have been made in the side wall.
The facade is an example of austere Classicism with rendered masonry wall with a projecting porch and a row of domestically scaled windows. Rendered features include pilasters that project above the former parapet level to both the porch and the main building. The new roof is visible above the parapet level and appears to have been extended over a laneway. Side walls which once would have been red brick have been painted. The other side of the driveway to the west of 159 has another large factory complex at brick factory 155 Donald Street that is concealed behind a newly constructed frontage.
161 Donald Street would have had a similar facade to that of 159 however it has been altered by the addition of a first floor and changes to the window openings and glazing so is the least intact of the three buildings that make up the complex. 165 has a similar facade treatment to the other two buildings and has window glazing changes however the entrance doorway appears to be intact. It is separated by a driveway from 161 where the original red brick is visible and has a form of saw tooth roof construction with south facing skylights.
Heritage Study and Grading
Moreland - Moreland Heritage Gaps Study 2017
Author: Context Pty Ltd
Year: 2017
Grading: LocalMoreland - Northern Suburbs Factory Study
Author: Vines, G and M, Churchward
Year: 1992
Grading:Moreland - Moreland City Council: Local Heritage Places Review
Author: Context Pty Ltd
Year: 2004
Grading:Moreland - Keeping Brunswick's heritage: A Report on the Review of the Brunswick Conservation Study
Author: Context Pty Ltd
Year: 1990
Grading: Local
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RESIDENCEVictorian Heritage Register H1219
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SOUTH BRUNSWICK BRICKWORKSVictorian Heritage Inventory
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BATMAN PARKVictorian Heritage Inventory
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"1890"Yarra City
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"AMF Officers" ShedMoorabool Shire
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"AQUA PROFONDA" SIGN, FITZROY POOLVictorian Heritage Register H1687
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