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ALEXANDRIA TEA ROOMS

Location

26 - 34 LYDIARD STREET NORTH BALLARAT CENTRAL, BALLARAT CITY

File Number

603758

Level

Registered

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ALEXANDRIA TEA ROOMS SOHE 2008
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DIAGRAM 115

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
By 1885 this two storey building in Lydiard Street, Ballarat was let to the Commercial Club with the first floor used for their club rooms and the ground floor occupied by shops, in a similar manner to the adjacent Old Colonists Association of Ballarat building. Possibly constructed in 1875, this Lydiard Street frontage was purchased as an investment by trustees of the Juvenile Industrial Exhibition after a profitable exhibition was held in 1878.

A number of social men's clubs were formed in Ballarat in the later nineteenth century, the most exclusive being the Ballarat Club which drew members from the Western District and from such areas as law, banking and the public service. The Commercial Club appears to have been formed in the 1870s to serve as a social venue for merchants, manufacturers and other businessmen.

In 1924 this building became tea rooms operated by the Misses Brazenor, becoming known as the Alexandria Tea Rooms in 1936. This use continued at least into the 1970s and later became known as Alexandria Receptions in the 1980s and 1990s.

Designed in a Renaissance Revival style, this two storey building has a two storey verandah which appears to have been constructed at a later date. At ground level the shop fronts are divided into four bays by Roman Doric pilasters, with fluted columns flanking the central entrance, which led to the club rooms. This is repeated at first floor level, with four bays of triple windows. The facade is completed with a balustraded parapet containing a central triangular pediment. The cast iron verandah at both levels comprises paired slender Corinthian columns at the corners and flanking the entrance and gablet above. Friezes, of different design at each level, run between columns, and a balustrade of unusually broad panels, incorporating a radiating pattern, is possibly of local origin. The central gablet, which is penetrated by an arch, reflects the parapet pediment and emphasises the symmetry of the composition.

Shopfronts and the central entrance have been altered and few internal features remain intact.

How is it significant?
The Alexandria Tea Rooms, Ballarat is of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?
The Alexandria Tea Rooms, Ballarat is of architectural significance due to the Classical Revival facade and the distinctive and intricate two storey cast iron verandah. This verandah, together with that of the adjoining Old Colonists Association of Ballarat building, provides an important element to the architectural streetscape of Lydiard Street.

The Alexandria Tea Rooms is of historical significance due to their use as club rooms for the Commercial Club in Ballarat. Representative of Ballarat's mercantile and business pursuits, the building illustrates the economic development in the city after gold discoveries in the 1850s, and therefore provides an historical link with the development of the city of Ballarat. The building is also of significance for its use over a long period of time as tea rooms, providing this facility from as early as 1924.

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