The Rialto Group of buildings, a notable boom style streetscape in Melbourne. From left: the Olderfleet (1889-90), Record Chambers (1887), New Zealand Chambers (1887), Winfield (1891) and Rialto buildings (1890-91)
"Boom style" (more often termed "Late Victorian" architecture elsewhere) is a term used to describe the Architecture of Melbourne from the Land Boom period (1883-1891). Boom style buildings were often distinguished by being lavishly ornamental. A massive property bubble created wildly speculative values for land and excessive borrowing which was initially aided by generational wealth from the Victorian gold rush. Additional hype generated from the city's growing reputation as a boom town, including being labelled 'Marvellous Melbourne' by George Augustus Sala in 1885, fuelled one of the largest speculative construction periods seen in the southern hemisphere. Owners of residential and commercial property, confident that ever increasing prices would exceed their debts, would often engage architects to create exuberant designs in exotic styles that signified extreme wealth, something fashionable during the 1880s. These contrasted markedly with the much more restrained Georgian and Renaissance Revival and styles of previous construction periods. Its influence in government building, typically more fiscally conservative, was most felt in the educational buildings of the Public Works Department which followed the lead of the prestigous private schools. However at the end of the boom in 1889 prices soared so high that properties pushed skyward to maximise the value of land which was itself excessively overvalued.[1] Borrowings far exceeded the value of the buildings and most of the Land Boomers ended in bankruptcy with most of the cost of construction never recovered, which had a ripple effect which by the early 1890s had crippled the Victorian economy. Some boom style buildings remained incomplete into the 1890s due to the crash and were shortlived due to their impracticality. For a period of time the phrase was used derogatively during a period when the style was "on the nose" due to association with bad debts and corruption, as further justification for their demolition.[2][3]
Though a bubble existed elsewhere and ended with the Australian banking crisis of 1893, the term's use is rare elsewhere (Ballarat and Bendigo experienced relatively moderate speculation during the period but due to their own property booms also have some civic buildings with similar attributes).[4][5] Sydney's architecture the period was generally more modest and contributed to its economy rebounding from the financial crisis whereas Melbourne's did not. The phrase is sometimes used, uncapitalised, to designate similar opulent architecture of overlapping periods across the late British Empire,[6] and to some extent in America.[7]
Background
Grand Hotel Melbourne in 1884
More than doubled in size in just 4 years becoming the Grand Coffee Palace
In the 19th century, there was a significant increase in the construction of civic buildings in urban areas throughout the British Empire supported by the rise of the middle class and its leisure activities accommodated by theatres, shopping arcades, and coffee houses.[6] These buildings embraced the latest architectural trends incorporating both Gothic and classical elements in an unconventional manner to create visually stunning effects in a design approach, criticised in the Modernist period by such commentators as Freeland, as uneducated eclecticism or frivolousness.[8]
Australia
King and Willis[4] note that the term ‘Boom Style’ (as capitalised) has entered the lexicon of Australian architectural historians, its first usage being accepted as by Robyn Boyd in the 1952 edition of his Australia's Home.[9]
The Australian gold rushes led to a fivefold population increase within a mere thirty-year period attracting opportunists and adventurers from around the world and the resultant wealth funded the emergence, particularly in Melbourne, and to a lesser extent in Sydney and Brisbane,[10][11] of a lavish architectural style known since as the Boom style.[12] The period between the gold rushes and the major depression of the 1890s witnessed a significant surge in building activity, encompassing both residential and secular structures, as well as religious buildings.[5] Previously limited to three or four stories, commercial office buildings in the Boom Style reached 'skyscraper' heights.[4]
Melbourne in particular, as the capital of the colony in which most gold was discovered, experienced a rapid influx of money, which contributed to the city's growth. This period marked the prevalence of elaborately decorated Victorian architecture in the city recognised as ‘Marvellous Melbourne”[4][13] The centres of gold mining including Ballarat and Bendigo, and even the now smaller towns such as Clunes, Maryborough, Daylesford and Beechworth also feature such buildings.
In the late 1880s and early 1890s, the Boom Style gained prominence, featuring unrestrainedly ornate facades. Stucco parapets or balustrades concealed the roofs, colored-brick patterns were common, and cast-iron verandas and stained glass around the front doors were chararcteristc. Architectural historians categorise 'Boom style' into sub-styles such as Georgian Colonial, Gothic Revival, Renaissance Revival, and French Second Empire.
Architects rose to the challenge of providing wealthy clients' demands for ostentatious houses. Notable examples include "Benvenuta" in Carlton, designed by Walter Scott Law in 1892 for a small-arms manufacturer. Roman-inspired, and now known as Medley Hall, a residential college, is another example, featuring intricate garlands, encrustations of floral motifs, and statues on the parapet, all crafted by Italian artisans.[14]
Glass
Labassa mansion in Caulfield (remodelling completed 1889)
During this era, coloured glass became a popular feature in private homes, adorning both modest terraces and grand mansions. The availability of relatively inexpensive glass due to the Industrial Revolution, its suitability as ballast on returning ships, and the public's inclination for ornamentation all contributed to its widespread usage. By the 1880s international exhibitions in Sydney (1879) and Melbourne (1880-81) had popularised sophisticated new products from manufacturing nations and the introduction of various types of specialty glass, adding a colourful element to the generally subdued tones of boom-style building materials. Painted and enameled decorative panels, etched ruby glass, and high-quality Victorian leadlights, featuring thick and deeply colored quarries and sparkling roundels, were incorporated into door settings, stairwells, and hallway windows. The role of the stained glass window is showcased in Labassa, an Italian-inspired villa in Caulfield North, constructed in 1890 for W. A. Robertson, a pastoralist and investor. Designed by J. A. B. Koch and again built by Italian craftsmen, the villa exhibited extensive sculptural ornamentation and extravagant use of stenciled decorations and stained glass.[15]
William Pitt: designs include: Premier Permanent Building Society 1882 (demolished); Melbourne Coffee Palace in 1882 (demolished in the 1960s); Princess Theatre; The Federal Coffee Palace (demolished in 1972); Olderfleet buildings; Old Safe Deposit Building; Old Rialto Building; Former Melbourne Stock Exchange; Grand Hotel, Yarra Glen
Lloyd Tayler (1830-1900): Chevy Chase, 203 Were Street, Brighton (1881)
Edward Twentyman (from 1882 – Twentyman and Askew) Cairns Memorial Church, East Melbourne (c1886), Colonial Sugar Refinery, Port Melbourne (c1886); Block Arcade, Collins Street (1890-93); Campi Buildings at 149-167 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill (1883)
With a recession and the collapse of banks in 1893 and following that, the demise of numerous newly established companies, the building industry embraced a more modest style that reflected the prevailing sobriety.
The "Queen Anne" revival style emerged in deliberate contrast to the Boom Style, characterised by meticulously pointed red bricks and newly imported Marseilles-pattern roofing tiles made of terra-cotta, and abandoning the use of stucco. Grey slate was replaced with red tiles, while the folded M-shaped roof expanded to form a high, all-encompassing cap. Instead of formal symmetry, the plan and silhouette of buildings transformed into an assortment of irregular bays, dormers, porches, and spires, striving to achieve a "picturesque" appearance, and a more homely 'English' quality.[9]
^ abMacMahon, Bill; Sierins, Eric (2000). The architecture of East Australia : an architectural history in 432 individual presentations. Stuttgart: Edition Axel Menges. p. 10. ISBN9783930698905. OCLC636811671.
^Knapp, A. Bernard; Pigott, Vincent C; Herbert, Eugenia W. (1998). Knapp, A. Bernard; Pigott, Vincent C; Herbert, Eugenia W. (eds.). Social approaches to an industrial past : the archaeology and anthropology of mining (1st ed.). London: Rautledge. p. 31. ISBN9780415181501. OCLC848864777.
^Freeland, J.M. (1972). Architecture in Australia : a history. Ringwood, Victoria, Australia, New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Penguin Books Australia. ISBN9780140211528. OCLC24010185.
^ abBoyd, Robyn (1987). Australia's home : its origins, builders, and occupiers (New M.U.P. ed.). Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press. pp. 25–44. ISBN9780522843583. OCLC18648524.
^ abDe Vries, Susanna and De Vries, Jake (2013). Historic Brisbane: Convict Settlement to River City. Pandanus Press. p. 74. ISBN9781922109804.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Goad, Philip; Bingham-Hall, Patrick (1998). A guide to Melbourne architecture. Balmain, N.S.W.: Watermark Press. p. 1880. ISBN9780949284365. OCLC39443558.
^Flower, Cedric; Smith, Robyn (1983). The Heritage of Australia (2nd ed.). Ringwood, Australia: Viking O'Neil. p. 86. ISBN9780670900060. OCLC680053649.
^Zimmer, Jenny (1984). Stained glass in Australia (1st ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press. p. 49. ISBN9780195543698. OCLC12031913.
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