BRUNSWICK STREET OVAL GRANDSTAND

The Brunswick Street Oval Grandstand building including its fixtures and fittings. The 1980s Community Room to the east of the grandstand is not significant. 

The Brunswick Street Oval Grandstand is of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria. 

The place satisfies the following criteria for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register: 

Criterion A: Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria's cultural history 

Criterion D: Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places/objects. 

The Brunswick Street Oval Grandstand is historically significant as one of the earliest surviving nineteenth-century grandstands in the metropolitan area. Constructed in 1888, the grandstand has an enduring association with the development of Australian rules football and cricket and their growth as popular recreational pastimes from the late nineteenth century onwards. The ground was the home of the Fitzroy Football Club from 1884 until 1966 and the Grandstand remains as an important reminder of the contribution made by Fitzroy to the history of Australian rules football in Victoria (Criterion A). 

The Brunswick Street Oval Grandstand is architecturally significant as a fine and intact example of a nineteenth-century timber grandstand. It was designed by noted architect Nathaniel Billing and exhibits high quality design characteristics in its symmetrical composition and restrained decorative details. Many grandstands constructed in this era have been demolished or substantially altered and it remains a comparatively intact surviving example (Criterion D).