Back to search results »

Back to search page »

Administration Building - Hamilton Base Hospital

Location Cnr Tyers & Kitchener Streets,, HAMILTON VIC 3300 - Property No B5027 File Number B5027 Level State

[1/1] B5027 Administration Building

Statement of Significance

Located at the core of the Hamilton Base Hospital, the 1890 Administration Building is architecturally and historically significant at a state level. The two storey red brick building was the architectural focus of a wing building complex designed by notable architects Ussher and Butler which made it the biggest hospital west of Ballarat. The building is one of the first Australian designs and one of the few non-residential commissions by the young and recently emigrated English architect Walter Butler who was to become one of the most innovative, influnetial and important architects in Victoria from 1889 until the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The picturesque roofline punctuated by gabled bays, extensive use of red brick, distinctive brackets, and double storey polygonal bays is one of the earliest examples in Victoria of the institutional use of the so-called Queen Anne style which was then gaining popularity in England. The design almost certainly reflects the direct influence of Butler's sketching tours of English medieval towns in 1885 and 1888. These tours which earnt the architect a handsome repertoire of details and forms was a design resource commonly employed by the major English Arts and Crafts architects such as Richard Norman Shaw and F K Sedding, Butler's former employer in London.
Despite the truncation in 1940 of part of the side wings of the building which formed the courtyard, the removal of the fleche and tall chimneys from the main roof and minor alterations and additions internally, the central building and the remaining wings retain their architectural significance. The building is also notable as constituting the most important component of the original 1862 Hospital complex.
Classified: 18/11/1992
See alsoB6398 Tuberculosis Chalet (Hamilton Base Hospital) and B6398 Hamilton Base Hospital Complex.