Spicer Shoe factory, Thomson, Newmark & Hopetoun tannery sites, later part Australian Dyeing Company P/L

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Background

A brick factory owned by Alfred Pizzey, leather merchant, is first rated on the site in 1909. MMBW drainage plans dated 1908 indicate that the factory comprised a series of sheds, tan and lime pits and yards extending to Alexandra Street (then Reilly Street). The Alexandra Street frontage is possibly a remnant of an earlier brick tannery erected on the site in 1889 for Edward Rich, leather merchant. By 1915, Alfred Spicer of the Spicer Shoe Co. is listed as the occupant of the factory. Various works appear to have been undertaken in 1916 and again in 1920 when there is a substantial increase in the net annual value of the property.

In 1933, the factory was acquired by Joyce and Howe Pty Ltd and in the following year all of the factory was demolished, save for the frontages to Noone Street and Alexandra Parade. The factory as rebuilt is most likely the sawtoothed roofed building which comprises most of the existing building. This can be read on site in the remaining fabric - the front 14.5 metres of the building, measured from Noone Street, is a two storey factory building dating from 1909. Beyond this extends a single storey sawtooth factory that retains a portion of single storey wall associated with the earlier factory on its east boundary (but extended upward in the sawtooth profile to accommodate the c. 1934 factory envelope). The timber floor to the first floor of the 1909 building remains in place to the full extent of this 14.5m depth, but the rear (south) wall has been altered and partly removed as part of the c. 1934 works.

Group

Manufacturing and Processing

Category

Factory/ Plant