Ivanhoe Scout Hall

Ivanhoe Scout Hall at 8A Wallace Street, Ivanhoe is significant. It was constructed in 1939-40 for the 2nd Ivanhoe Scouts to a design from one of its members, Kingston K Sedgfield, an architect for and later partner at Stephenson & Turner. It is currently utilised by the 10th Ivanhoe Scouts.

The significant elements are its original rectangular footprint, cross-gabled roof, gabled entry porch, fenestration pattern (excluding non-original window frames) and combination of timber boards (plinth), weatherboard (lower section), and battered sheeting (upper section) to walls.

Later addition elements are not significant.

Ivanhoe Scout Hall is of local historical, representative and social significance to the City of Banyule.

 

Ivanhoe Scout Hall is of historical significance as a distinctive marker of scouting in the locality. It was likely the first purpose-built scout hall in the municipality and is the oldest enduring instance of a scout-related building in Banyule. Scouting in Victoria originated in a vigorous British youth movement that proliferated across Australia during the Federation years and has played an influential role in the lives –both adolescent and adult –of many within the locality. The erection of the substantial hall in the area at the outset of the Second World War, mainly by members of the 2nd Ivanhoe Scouts (est. 1925), reflects past community activism and illustrates a high point for the organisation. The hall's decidedly ‘modern’ expression, prepared by its volunteer architect ‘King’ Sedgfield, preceded the widespread wartime and post-war adoption of a similar pared-down functionalism,
especially for community buildings.

 

Ivanhoe Scout Hall is of representative significance as an early example of 'unpretentious modernism', a design approach that became near-universal in public and private efforts to meet the demand for civic and community facilities in the post-war period. The large size of the hall and its unassuming and functional form reflect this idiom, still in an emergent state at the time of the place's construction. Ivanhoe Scout Hall illustrates a more refined image than typically seen (or sought) with later, more standardised scout halls in the municipality through the arrangement of the wall cladding –vertically laid smooth fibre-cement battens with joints concealed by broad strappings above a lower section of weatherboard. The understated but smart visual effect achieved with such basic materials epitomises a key aim of the modern movement. While fabric replacement has recently
occurred, along with the removal of the distinctive multi-unit hopper windows, the patterning of the walls to the most visible elevations has been continued, allowing for the overall original presentation of the hall to remain appreciable. 

 

Ivanhoe Scout Hall is of social significance for the sustained attachment demonstrated by local scouts, having served as a focal point for the movement for over 80 years. The legacy of the hall’s 'do-it-yourself' construction exemplifies fundamental scouting principles and likely contributes to the contemporary identity of scouts in the area.