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IRON HOUSE
399 COVENTRY STREET AND 6 PATTERSON PLACE SOUTH MELBOURNE, PORT PHILLIP CITY

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Victorian Heritage Register
IRON HOUSE SOHE 2008
IRON HOUSE SOHE 2008
IRON HOUSE SOHE 2008
1 iron house coventry street south melb front view
iron house patterson place south melbourne plan
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Statement of Significance

What is significant?

The Iron House fronting 399 Coventry Street, South Melbourne and still located on the original site was imported and erected in 1853 for local speculator Robert Patterson. The portable iron structure of utilitarian design and unknown manufacture is constructed of a tee and angle section wrought iron frame clad with five inch pitch corrugated sheet, which is partitioned and lined internally with horizontal boards to form an attic cottage of six rooms. 
Portable iron structures were a significant British manufacture of the period 1840-60 and the South Melbourne house, originally one of a large number imported to Victoria, is of international importance as one of very few surviving prefabricated iron cottages in the world. 
The house is a fine intact example of a building type which proliferated in the gold rush era of the burgeoning Colony of Victoria and is of paramount technological rather than stylistic importance. The portable iron house at 399 Coventry Street, South Melbourne, survives essentially intact, and is being systematically and meticulously restored by the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) as a museum exhibit. Of world significance.
[Register of the National Estate]
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    • Permit Exemptions

      IRON HOUSE - Permit Exemptions

      General Exemptions:

      General exemptions apply to all places and objects included in the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR). General exemptions have been designed to allow everyday activities, maintenance and changes to your property, which don’t harm its cultural heritage significance, to proceed without the need to obtain approvals under the Heritage Act 2017.

      Places of worship: In some circumstances, you can alter a place of worship to accommodate religious practices without a permit, but you must notify the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria before you start the works or activities at least 20 business days before the works or activities are to commence.

      Subdivision/consolidation: Permit exemptions exist for some subdivisions and consolidations. If the subdivision or consolidation is in accordance with a planning permit granted under Part 4 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and the application for the planning permit was referred to the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria as a determining referral authority, a permit is not required.

      Specific exemptions may also apply to your registered place or object. If applicable, these are listed below. Specific exemptions are tailored to the conservation and management needs of an individual registered place or object and set out works and activities that are exempt from the requirements of a permit. Specific exemptions prevail if they conflict with general exemptions.

      Find out more about heritage permit exemptions here.

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