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GRIFFITHS BOOT FACTORY (FORMER)

Location

79-81 COPPIN STREET,, RICHMOND VIC 3121 - Property No 199510

Level

Rec for HO area indiv sig

Statement of Significance

What is significant?

The factory at 79 Coppin Street, Richmond, constructed in 1887-88 for Henry Griffiths, a bootmaker, is significant. It is a three-storey symmetrical brick building. It has face brown brick walls, with cream brick shallow segmental-arched window lintels and a cream brick string course at first floor level. An unpainted rendered cornice exists at second floor level and across the parapet, which has a central triangular pediment, also rendered, flanked by scrolls and bearing the building's name in faded (painted?) lettering. Each floor has seven symmetrically placed openings; all but the front door are timber-framed double-hung sash windows. The side walls of the front section have triangular pediment parapets, each with a central circular opening.

Later (post-World War II) additions to the building are not significant.

How is it significant?

The former Griffiths Boot Factory at 79 Coppin Street, Richmond is of local historic and architectural significance to the City of Yarra.

Why is it significant?

It is a prominent example of the small-scale factories erected in Richmond during the nineteenth century and demonstrates the importance of the shoe making industry in the City of Yarra. (Criterion A)

It is a particularly notable example of a late 19th century brick industrial building. The composition of its symmetrical facade, which includes cream brick arched windows lintels and string courses and an unpainted rendered parapet, is of note, and distinguishes it from many much plainer contemporaneous buildings of its type. The scale and siting of the building makes it a landmark within Coppin Street (Criteria D & E

Group

Manufacturing and Processing

Category

Factory/ Plant