Landmarks

by PAUL DAFFEY

THE former Grand Rank cabman's shelter, Yarra Park.

WHERE

Just off Brunton Avenue, in the shadow of the original MCG footbridge. A few metres to the east is the entrance to gate six, which leads into the carpark area between the MCG and the Punt Road Oval.

DIMENSIONS

5.3 x 2.3 metres

HISTORY

Horse-drawn cabs were introduced to Melbourne in the late 1840s. Fifty years later, during the late 1890s, there was a movement to build shelters for the hundreds of cabmen in and around the city. According to Heritage Victoria, the Melbourne lord mayor opened the Yarra Park shelter at its original site in the city, next to Parliament House, on February 24, 1898. More than a dozen cabman's shelters were subsequently built in suburbs such as Hawthorn, Kew, Toorak, Malvern, Windsor, Elsternwick, St Kilda and South Yarra. The one next to Parliament House was called the Grand Rank because it was opposite the Grand Hotel, now the Windsor Hotel, in the middle of a thoroughfare called Carpentaria Place. (Carpentaria Place was a continuation of Little Collins Street that ran alongside Parliament House. It was demolished during construction of the City Loop). An anonymous parliamentarian donated the shelter and it was shifted to Yarra Park at an unknown date.

SIGNIFICANCE

The shelter now in Yarra Park is the earliest example of a portable, timber cabman's shelter. Until recently, Heritage Victoria believed it was the only known surviving example of a cabman's shelter. Four years ago, however, a shelter was discovered in the backyard of a house in Millswyn Street, South Yarra. It is believed to have been shifted from its site on the grounds of Christ Church, on the corner of Toorak and Punt roads, South Yarra, in 1926. The shelter was moved back its site on the South Yarra church grounds and restored by Heritage Victoria.

ARCHITECT

Nahum Barnet was a prominent Melbourne architect in the late 19th century and early 20th century. In designing the cabman's shelter, he basically copied that the structure of a shelter that had been built in St James' Square, London, in 1896. In Barnet's obituary in The Argus on September 2, 1931, it's written that Barnet was believed to have designed a building in every street and thoroughfare in Melbourne's central business district. When a friend countered that there was no building in Carpentaria Place, let alone one designed by Barnet, the architect replied: ñYou are wrong. You have overlooked the cabman's shelter.î

STRUCTURE

According to the Victorian Heritage Register, the rectangular structure's walls "are of modular construction comprising small timber panels with moulded timber strapping covering the panel joints ...un motif."

CONTENTS

A quick peek into through the shelter's windows this week revealed a large desk tipped onto its nose and a scattering of parking paraphernalia, such as witches' hats and signs, owned by Secure Parking. The signs included "Car park full", "Car park temporarily full" and "Brunton Avenue will be closed for a period of time at the discretion of the police operational commander". A more appealing image is the photo in the State Library archives that shows four men playing cards around a table in the cabman's shelter in 1903.

QUIRKS

The small structure on top of the roof is called a dovecote. According to the Oxford reference English Dictionary, a dovecote is "a shelter with nesting holes for domesticated pigeons". Despite the encouragement of pigeons to camp on the roof, the shelter is well aerated, with a series of incisions in swirling patterns along the top of the walls. Arguably, the shelter's greatest quirk is the hitching railing at shin height on the side of the building that features the entrance, now facing the Punt Road Oval. Few buildings in the inner city would have retained evidence of the days when Melburnians' main form of transport to the football was by horse and buggy.

FINAL WORD

"Its significance as a former cabman's shelter is enhanced by its continuity of use as a parking attendant's shelter." The Victorian Heritage Register.

This article first appeared in The Age on Saturday 11 June 2005.

australianrules.com.au

Disclaimer