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Shops & Residence

Location 177-183 Gertrude Street,, FITZROY VIC 3065 - Property No B6221 File Number B6221 Level State

[1/1] B6221 177-183 Gertrude Street

Statement of Significance

177-179 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy Statement of Significance: Designed in 1857 by architect Robert Ravenshaw Rogers, the pair of shops 177-179 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, are significant as one of the few remaining small scale, single storey business premises which developed in Melbourne, engendered by the gold rush era. The shops are simple gabled structures with the front facade articulated through the use of basalt columns and an austere entablature. The original form of the shops is still clearly recognizable despite the replacement of the original shopfronts and the addition of double storey wings at the rear in about 1910.
Fitzroy was Melbourne's first suburb and the shops reflect the establishment of small scale business and industry which characterised post gold rush Fitzroy. Gertrude Street was one of the first commercial streets to be developed outside of the Melbourne central city area and the shops are among few survivors of this early period of suburban growth.
The buildings are possibly the only extant works of the architect Robert Rogers, who designed a number of houses, shops and substantial commercial buildings in Melbourne and its metropolis in the 1850's and 1860's.
Classified: Local: 17/04/1991

181-183 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy Statement of Significance: Built in 1853 by stonemason and builder Joseph Travena, the building at 181-183 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, is an important remaining gold rush era shop and residence in one of the earliest commercial streets outside the central city area.
The two storey shop is a prominently sited building with a splayed corner and elevations in the early Italinate style to both Gertrude and George Streets. The urbanity of the simple but accomplished design is particularly notable in a street where the majority of the buildings of a similar age have been altered or demolished. No architect has been confirmed as associated with the design of the building.
The building, which probably incorporates an earlier structure, was divided into two shops and residences in 1864 and other internal alteratrions have been made.
Part of the large yard originally at the rear of the building now has a large brick addition, a former stable block, which is now linked to the original building on the George Street frontage.
Classified:17/04/1991
Revised: 03/08/1998