CITY WATCH HOUSE

The City Watch House was constructed in 1907-08 to the design of architect GBH Austin of the Public Works Department. The building was constructed on the site a former cell block of Old Melbourne Gaol. The two storey rendered front section is two rooms deep and originally contained offices on the ground floor with residential accommodation on the upper level. The rear section occupying the major part of the site contains the cell block and exercise yards. There have many small alterations to the building but it displays reasonable integrity retaining internal layout, external form and some distinctive original elements such as the bow truss steel grille roofs over the exercise yards.

How is it significant?

The City Watch House is of historical and architectural significance to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?

The City Watch House is historically significant as a site associated with prisons and the administration of justice in Victoria since 1842. The site is part of a precinct which includes the Old Melbourne Gaol, the former Magistrates' Court and the former Russell Street Police Complex. The building and its location demonstrate the inter-relationship of the various elements of the criminal justice system.

The City Watch House is architecturally significant as an important example of the work of GBH Austin of the Public Works Department. Austin's use of the Romanesque style complements his design for the adjacent Magistrates Court. The revival of the pure Norman style of Romanesque, in contrast to the American Romanesque of mixed progeny developed in the late nineteenth century by the American architect HH Richardson, would by association have been seen as underlying the ancient heritage of English law and as the appropriate style for judicial buildings.

Group

Law Enforcement

Category

Gaol/Lock-up