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Former Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company - Geelong Woolstores Historic Area

Other Name Savvas Rest Location 51 Moorabool Street,, GEELONG VIC 3220 - Property No B4708 File Number B4708 Level Local

[1/1] B4708 Former Liverpool & Globe

Statement of Significance

This building is one of the two known works from the practice of Christopher Porter remaining in Geelong today. He designed a facade of stone masonry to face an existing brick building, in 1856, for the Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Co. The company had recently established an office in Geelong under a mangement committee consisiting of Geelong notables such as J F Strachan M.L.C., Herbert Henty and W G McKellar. Although the stone has been painted, the parapet altered, and the door and window joinery replaced, the chaste symmetry of the elevation, with its upper-floor Serlian fenestration, resembles closely the Classical purity of its former state. Other works by Porter included the Geelong Advertiser offices and the Geelong Chamber of Commerce, both of which have been demolished. Note is made of the former company's signboard which is currently affixed to the rear wall of the building.
Classified: 19/06/1980
Historic Area Statement of Significance: The Geelong Woolstores Historic Area is one of remarkable coherence and integrity. Standing at the corner of Geringhap and Brougham Streets, the row of woolstores stretches away to the east in a unified scene, unequalled in terms of intactness and coherence elsewhere in Victoria.
The Area represents an important aspect of the process of settling the land in Victoria . The consequences of industry created a new economy, a new landscape and a new way of life. In terms of the lives of all of us as inhabitants of an industrial nation, it is the most relevant period of our past, not only because it is the most recent, but because the specific changes wrought during the last century provide the foundation of our present society.
Significant woolstore groups certainly exist elswehere in Australia, for example at Pyrmont and Ultimo in New South Wales, but those structures do not match the group qualities of the Geelong woolstores and were not specifically erected for the storage, handling and marketing of wool.
Group Classified: 04/08/1980.