Melbourne Bowling Club

What is Significant?
The Melbourne Bowling Club was formed in 1864 on its present site at Union Street, Windsor. It is oldest continually operating lawn bowls club in the Victoria (and possibly Australia). A double-storey brick pavilion was built at the club in 1887, replacing a smaller timber pavilion dating from 1870. The 1887 pavilion originally had a double-storey verandah on its east side facing the greens. The pavilion verandah was later removed and in 1964 an addition was built on the north side of the building. A former residence fronting Union Street was incorporated into the pavilion addition. All of the buildings on the site other than the 1887 pavilion are considered to be of little or no significance.

Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):

- The external form, materiality detailing of the pavilion surviving from the nineteenth century
- The legibility of the 1887 pavilion's double-storey envelope.
- The bowing greens.
- Views to the pavilion from the public realm and the open setting of the pavilion created by the greens.

All other buildings, structures and landscape elements on the site are not considered to be significant.

How is it significant?
The Melbourne Bowling Club is of historical, social and architectural significance to the City of Stonnington and potentially historically significant at a State level.

Why is it significant?
The Melbourne Bowling Club is historically significant as the first lawns bowls club to be successfully formed in Victoria. It is also believed to be the oldest continually operating lawn bowls club in Australia (Criterion A).

The club is socially significant for its long and ongoing use as venue for community sporting and recreational activities (TEH 10.7.1 Sport, Criterion G).

The club's 1887 pavilion is architecturally significant at a local level as a rare surviving example of a purpose-built bowls club building from the nineteenth century (Criterion B). The pavilion's late-Victorian character is still legible, despite the loss of the original verandah, post war additions and some modifications to door and window openings.

Group

Recreation and Entertainment

Category

Bowling Green