East Melbourne, Grey Street 018, 030

East Melbourne

  • 18 Grey Street
  • 30 Grey Street

Surnames

Subjects

Date built: 
1937
Architect: 
R S Bisset, 6 Hill Street, Hawthorn
Builder: 
Whittaker Bros
First owner: 
R C and B L Whittaker, 380 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn
Description: 

This two storey apartment block is a pair of attached buildings with separate entrances.  Each building is symmetrical in itself and the building as a whole is also symmetrical apart from the treatment of the two entrances.  Both entrances project forward slightly and rise the full height of the building.  One is rounded with a balcony over the doorway; the other is square with a pair of small balconies projecting from each side.

The original plans show that the building was initially proposed as fully symmetrical, and that the addition of the balconies was a last minute amendment.

 

History: 

The building was constructed in 1937 by owner-builders Robert Charles Whittaker and Bertram Leslie Whittaker.  In the electoral rolls they are both described as manufacturers but of what is not clear.  They commissioned Robert Stanley Bisset to design the building, and although his name appears as architect on the plans, contemporary electoral rolls describe him as a joiner.

The same team was responsible for the apartment block at 66 Simpson Street, East Melbourne (1939).

Sources: 

Building plans. Public Records Office of Victoria, VPRS 11200/P4/unit 129, item 18395 
Building files, Public Records of Victoria, VPRS 11201/P1/unit 220, item 18395

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