Shop
51 (3) McKillop Street, GEELONG VIC 3220 - Property No 215824
City South Residential Heritage Area
Statement of Significance
A Listed - State Significance
The former Congregational Chapel was erected in 1853-54 for the McKillop Street Independent Congregation to designs by pioneer Geelong architect Benjamin Backhouse. This stucco masonry structure was designed as preaching hall with a classically derived facade of most unusual proportions and detail and surmounted by a restrained central pediment and parapet entablature. The building is one of the earliest surviving works of Backhouse and has important links with the history of the Congregational Church in Victoria. The chapel is now used as a dry cleaning works.
RECOMMENDATIONS: PROTECTIVE MEASURES
Geelong Regional Commission Register.
Australian Heritage Commission Register of the National Estate.
National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Register.
REFERENCES
Geelong Advertiser
25 November, 1853
15th December, 1953
2nd May, 1854
7th July, 1854, tenders called in parts for erection of Independent Chapel.
21st April, 1859, tenders for cement rendering and certain alterations.
12th November, 1878, 'Town Talk' Government intends purchasing the Congregational Church for an orderly Room for the Geelong Artillery Corps, cost ₤1000.
Geelong Historical Society, Investigator, Wynd, Ian (ed) 1964-66, vol 1. Sec 3. p.27. 1967. Vol 2 pp 91-92.
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE - REAR OF 51 MCKILLOP STREET, GEELONG
The rectangular plan gable structure of prefabricated iron construction at the rear of 51 McKillop Street was originally manufactured by iron founder Charles D Young and Co. of Edinburgh on the Artillery Reserve in Ryrie Street. As the Drill Hall for the recently formed Royal Victorian Volunteer Artillery Corps. This eight bay structure of cast iron staunchions and horizontal 5" pitch corrugated iron infill panels was later re-erected at McKillop Street in 1879 as the Gun Room behind the Orderly Room of 1853-54. This iron structure is of paramount importance to the history of industrial technology and has similarities with the rear of 'Corio village'
RECOMMENDATIONS: PROTECTIVE MEASURES
Geelong Regional Commission Register.
Australian Heritage Commission Register of the National Estate.
Historic Buildings Council Register.
National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Register.
REFERENCES
Herbert, G - Pioneers of Prefabrication: The British Construction in the Nineteenth Century. John Hopkins University Baltimore 1978 for a discussion of the work of Charles D Young and Co. iron founders of Edinburgh; refer pp. 52, 72, 104-106, 164-165.
Alsop, P. F. - Unpublished measured drawing and research notes.
Geelong Advertiser - 30 October - report that Old Orderley Room has been removed from the Artillery Reserve and erected behind the McKillop Street Congregational Church earlier acquired by the government for use as a R.V.V.A. Orderly Room. The iron buildings housed the complement of guns belonging to the Geelong detachment (guns described in detail).
Brownwhill, W. R. - The History of Geelong and Corio Bay, Wilke and Co, Melbourne, 1955, pp 638-639.
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FORMER GEELONG WOOL EXCHANGE
Victorian Heritage Register H0622 -
GEELONG TOWN HALL
Victorian Heritage Register H0184
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ANZ BANK
Victorian Heritage Register H0191
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