GORDON HOUSE

24-38 LITTLE BOURKE STREET MELBOURNE, MELBOURNE CITY

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Victorian Heritage Register

GORDON HOUSE SOHE 2008

Statement of Significance

• Other Records For This Place
  • Gordon House - National Trust
• Additional Place Information

  • History

    GORDON HOUSE - History

    History of Place:
    George Coppin arrived in Australia from England in 1842. He was involved in all manner of ventures, making and losing several fortunes. The idea of Gordon House was to provide apartments with plenty of light and air overlooking a central courtyard. His architect William Pitt had other business associations with Coppin, and Gordon House marks an unusual example of his ouevre. All lodgers shared a huge underground kitchen and a reading room. The lodging rooms were soon taken over by single men as families moved out. The building remained a hostel until 1976 when it was converted to a restaurant and shopping complex, then to apartments and then to an hotel.
    (from Age article, no date, possibly 1983)
    
    CONTEXTUAL HISTORY
    In London in 1850 the Society for Improving the Conditions of the Labouring Classes erected a block of Model Houses for Families in Bloomsbury. The architect Henry Roberts produced an influential design four storeys high with minimal classical decoratin to the exterior. The dwellings were self-contained flats arranged around three sides of a courtyard, allowing air and light into the rear of the building. Access was via open galleries with iron balconies.
    In 1862 George Peabody set up a trust to ameliorate working class living conditions. By the 1870s the trust's architect Darbishare had evolved a standard design of five storey blocks with minimum decorative treatment.
    (R Dixon and S Muthesius, Victorian Architecture, pp.72-73)
    Associated People: George Selth Coppin

    Permit Exemptions

    GORDON 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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