National Bank of Australia
185 High Street KEW, Boroondara City
High St - Cotham Rd Commercial Precinct
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Statement of Significance
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National Bank of Australia - Physical Description 1
The National Bank of Australasia was established in 1859[3] and a branch at High Street Kew, was operating by 1892[4]. Inskip and Robenson designed a number of banking chambers in Melbourne and elsewhere in Victoria[5] including this building. In February 1889 the Australian Builder and Contractor's News recorded that a building on the corner of Walpole and Bulleen (now High) Streets was to be demolished to make way for the erection of the National Bank[6]. The two-storey building accommodated a banking chamber as well as three shops onto High Street (now demolished), one of which was later occupied by the Mercury newspaper[7] In 1918 the Colonial Bank amalgamated with the National Bank of Australasia[8], now called the National Australia Bank.
The design of the bank takes full advantage of its corner position, with both of the street facades embellished with render mouldings. In a manner typical at the end of the economic boom, the bank is ornately decorated. There is a trabeated system represented across it with half-fluted pilasters, that rise to a projecting pediment to the corner entrance door. In the manner of a basement, the ground floor has rusticated walls and round headed windows in the spandrels of which are heavily foliated render mouldings, while the floor above has been presented as the piano nobile, with large rectangular windows filling the wall plane and surrounded by render architraves. The whole is surmounted by an Italianate parapet.
Apart from the demolition of the High Street shops, the building remains in a substantially intact condition, however the front doors have been replaced and the railings to the front door added.
References -
1 Architects' Index, University of Melbourne
2 ibid.
3 Victoria and its Metropolis, Vo1 lIB, p.547
4 Architects'Index
5 Trethowan, B., 'Banksin Victoria-lSfit to 1939',prepared for the HBC, 1975, p,46
6 Architects'Index
7 Rogers, D., A History of Kew, p.175
8 Trethowan, op.cit., p.139
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - City of Kew Urban Conservation Study
Author: Pru Sanderson Design Pty Ltd
Year: 1988
Grading:
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XAVIER COLLEGEVictorian Heritage Register H0893
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D'ESTAVILLEVictorian Heritage Register H0201
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SPRINGTHORPE MEMORIAL, BOROONDARA GENERAL CEMETERYVictorian Heritage Register H0522
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"1890"Yarra City
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"AMF Officers" ShedMoorabool Shire
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"AQUA PROFONDA" SIGN, FITZROY POOLVictorian Heritage Register H1687
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