St Kilda Town Hall Gates

In July 1923 it was reported that the St Kilda City Council had purchased massive wrought iron double entrance gates which were in use at Corry, Sir Lauchlan Mackinnon's house in Toorak, for erection at the entrance to the town hall grounds. (1)  Sir Lauchlan Mackinnon (1848-1925) was one of the proprietors of The Argus newspaper and also the general manager. The gates were originally imported from England for Sir Lauchlan and marked the entrance to his mansion in Heyington Place. Corry, one of the finest homes in Toorak, was sold in 1922 and some of the land was sub-divided into magnificent residential allotments. (2)

The only photograph we have of the gates.

The Argus, September 5, 1923 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1985865

In 1924, extensive renovations were carried out internally at the St Kilda Town Hall and externally with the erection of the Portico and construction of a new drive. It was during this time that the gates were installed at the apex of the town hall triangular site, facing the intersection of Carlisle street and High street. (3)

The St Kilda Town Hall, c. 1930. You can see the location of the gates installed at the apex of the town hall triangular site, facing the intersection of Carlisle street and High street.

The building on the right, along High Street (Brighton Road) is the St Kilda State School.  The building to the top of the Town Hall is the Balaclava Methodist Church, which faces Chapel Street, on the corner of Carlisle Street.

St. Kilda Town Hall, c. 1930. Photographer: Sir W. Raymond Garrett. State Library of Victoria, see full image here http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/278495

Historian, J.B. Cooper, wrote about the Corry gates in his History of St Kilda 1840 to 1930 - 

The Council, at this time, bought the massive wrought iron double entrance gates that had been in use at "Corry," the late Sir Lachlan Mackinnon's house, in Toorak. The gates were made by Bayliss of London, and they are wonderful examples of honest craftsmanship, in the difficult work of making wrought iron gates. Viewed from the City Hall's upper windows, as they stand, facing the intersection of Carlisle and High Streets, their fine iron work has the appearance that delicate lace patterns present when held up to the light. They are probably the finest wrought iron gates to be found in Melbourne. Examined closely they appear to be flawless. Even the keys of the gates are of solid British workmanship, with artistic mouldings, the like of which in key making is not seen today. (4)

Fourteen years later in August 1938, the St Kilda Council adopted an extensive scheme for beautifying the grounds surrounding St. Kilda town hall. (5)  The scheme, which included the removal of the Corry gates, had been prepared by Hugh Linaker, one of his last projects before his death at the age of 66 in October 1938. Amongst other projects, Linaker had undertaken the landscaping around the Shrine of Remembrance, designed the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden and had been engaged by Sir John Monash to advice on the planning of Yallourn. (6)

There wasn't, however, unanimous support for the removal of the Corry gates, as the following report attests -
Cr. Moroney said he regretted that it was intended to remove the ornamental iron gates on the Brighton-road and Carlisle-street frontages. They were fine specimens of the iron workers' art, and had been an embellishment to the grounds for many years. It would be vandalism to remove them. Even if the hedges and fences were taken away the gates could remain.
Cr. Mitty: they are a relict of the past.
Cr Moroney: Yes. That is why I want remain. I also do not approve of the removal of old and beautiful trees from the grounds. Some of them were planted by distinguished people.
The Mayor (Cr. Dawkins): A number of the old trees will remain, and those removed will be replaced by other trees. (7)

The gates were removed but they were to be stored for possible re-erection elsewhere. (8)  We have no information as to whether the gates were ever used again. What happened to these gates, the fine specimens of the iron workers' art?

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Footnotes
(1) The Argus, July 12, 1926, see here.
(2) Obituary of Sir Lauchlan Mackinnon - The Argus, December 5, 1923, see here; Sale of Corry - The Argus, December 13, 1922, see here.
(3) The Argus, September 5, 1923, see here.

(4) Cooper, John Butler The History of St Kilda from its first settlement to a city and after 1840 - 1930, v. 2 (St Kilda City Council, 1931), p. 62.
(5) The Age, August 16, 1938, see here.
(6) The Argus, October 11, 1938, see here.

(7) The Age, August 16, 1938, see here.

(8) The Age, April 1, 1939, see here.

The vandalism of the Captain Cook statue, St Kilda

The statue of Captain James Cook, in the Catani Gardens St Kilda, was the victim of  Australia Day vandalism in the early hours of January 25, 2024. The statue was sawn off at the ankles, discarded on the grass and the plinth was graffitied. The Police are investigating. 

The statue was made in England by John Tweed, from the same cast as the statue installed in the town of Whitby in England, where Yorkshire born Cook lived for nine years from the age of seventeen. The pedestal and the bronze plaques were made in Victoria. Andrew Stenhouse, a local businessman who lived just opposite the Gardens on Beaconsfield Parade, donated  £500 towards the cost of the statue and this was supplemented by other donations. The statue was unveiled on December 1, 1914. 

The vandalism was a disrespectful act towards the statue of a man who came from a humble background and became one of the greatest explorers in history, though had never set foot on what would become Victoria, and whose life ended in 1779 in a brutal Hawaiian altercation, where he was buried at sea.

 The Premier of Victoria, Jacinta Allen, has been quoted as saying We'll be working with council to repair and reinstate the statue in St Kilda.

Two days after the  statue was vandalised, a monument to Captain Cook in the Edinburgh Gardens in North Fitzroy was also toppled and  graffitied. The Police are also investigating this incident.

UPDATE - In February 2025 the Captain Cook Statue was restored.

The Captain Cook statue, St Kilda foreshore.

State Library of Victoria Cyril Stainer collection of glass lantern slides, Image H2013.223/36

The plinth of the statue, with boots still attached. 

Image: © VanishedVictoria, taken January 26, 2024.

The plinth of the statue

Image: © VanishedVictoria, taken January 26, 2024.

The Captain Cook Society website notes that there are 124 monuments or memorials to Captain James Cook world-wide. In Australia there are 41: 7 statues, 3 obelisks, 5 cairns, 9 plaques, 1 marker and 16 other memorials

Sources

• Melbourne Statues of Queen Victoria and Captain Cook vandalised on Australia Day eve https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-25/melbourne-captain-cook-queen-victoria-statues-vandalised/103386996
• Patrols ramp up across Melbourne after Captain Cook statue desecrated https://www.9news.com.au/national/st-kilda-vandals-cut-captain-cook-statue-from-base-in-melbourne/e3ff8847-c7ba-4fe1-9106-6bbe1e78bf3b
• Carlo Catani, Andrew Stenhouse and Captain Cook's statue in St Kilda https://carlocatani.blogspot.com/2019/09/carlo-catani-andrew-stenhouse-and.html
• Captain Cook Society https://www.captaincooksociety.com/
• Captain Cook monument toppled in Edinburgh Gardens https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-28/captain-cook-monument-toppled-edinburgh-garden/103398688

Vanished and Neglected in St Kilda

The St Kilda Botanical Gardens, also known as the Blessington Street Gardens, were once graced with a lily pond. This had been completed in August 1913. (1)  Adjacent to the pond is a drinking fountain, faced with bluestone. Historian, Patricia Convery, noted that the lily pond was dis-established in 1930, after a child drowned in it, and finally demolished in 1945. The death of the child is unverified. (2)  However, generations of oral transmission by local council gardeners posited the drowning death of a child in the pond as the precursor to its demise, which for the most part is supported by this divergent version of chronology is evidenced by The Herald of 11 December 1941 where the body of a baby, apparently murdered, was found in a fishpond in the Gardens (3).  The fountain remains in a neglected condition.

 Lily pond, St Kilda Botanical Gardens

St Kilda Historical collection 

https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/603efb1a092fbbe37f3e9644

St Kilda is also the home to another neglected bluestone drinking fountain, by Pier Road near to the Cowderoy Street Drain outlet. A photograph taken just over a year ago, shows it blocked and full of stagnant water and rubbish.

One of the issues with public infrastructure which is neglected by local councils or government departments, is that it encourages vandalism, and the attitude that these historic structures do not matter. We are unlikely to see the Blessington Street Gardens lily pond re-established, but couldn't the 110 year old drinking fountain and its Pier Road companion, be restored to working order? 

Pier Road neglected drinking fountain, July 2022

Image: © VanishedVictoria

Pier Road neglected drinking fountain, July 2022

Image: © VanishedVictoria

Acknowledgement

This posting was inspired by local gardener, Vu : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhKeYnvsycU&t=29s

Footnotes

(1) Prahran Telegraph, August 9, 1913, here.

(2) St Kilda Botanical Gardens: a social snapshot of its first hundred years by Patricia Convery 

(St Kilda Botanical Gardens, 2014)

(3) The Herald, December 11, 1941, here.

Edith Cavell bust, St Kilda

This delightful bust of Nurse Edith Cavell once graced the St Kilda Botanical Gardens in Blessington Street.

We have no information when and where it was originally installed, but in October 1986 it was restored and located in the Blessington Street Gardens. Less than seven years it was gone.

Nurse Edith Cavell bust, Blessington Street Gardens

Image: St Kilda Historical Society https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/603efb1a092fbbe37f3e9751

Plaque at the base of the plinth of the Nurse Cavell bust.

Image: St Kilda Historical Society https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/603efb1a092fbbe37f3e9751

An article by Jane Cafarella in The Age on August 18, 1993 on the subject of why there were so few public memorials to women, noted that the Edith Cavell bust in the Blessington Street gardens had been the  victim of vandals. 

The Edith Cavell bust vandalised.

The Age August 18, 1993

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Ornamental bird bath, St Kilda

Image: © VanishedVictoria

This plinth is all that remains of  an ornamental bird bath (also called a bird fountain) presented by Victor Miller to the City of St Kilda for the St Kilda Botanical Gardens in Blessington Street on April 14, 1928.

The bird bath donated by Victor Miller and the Aviary, at the Botanical Gardens.

Image: St Kilda Botanical Gardens: a social snapshot of its first hundred years (1)

The presentation ceremony was reported in the Prahran Telegraph of April 20, 1928 -
Last Saturday afternoon a pleasant little ceremony took place at the Blessington Street Gardens. Mr. Victor Miller, an enthusiastic member of the Field Naturalists' Club, presented to the council an ornamental bird fountain which has been erected in the gardens. Members of the club - numbering about 40 - assembled, and after the formal presentation, the Mayor (Cr. F. L. Dawkins, J.P.), thanked Mr. Miller for his generous donation. The Mayoress (Mrs. Dawkins) then filled the fountain. Mr. Miller, expressing admiration of the fine aviary in the gardens, then offered to subscribe £10 towards the extension of same. The Mayor promised to bring the matter under the notice of the council. 

Members of the club then proceeded to plant a number of Australian trees in a specially prepared
bed and in other parts of the gardens. These trees were also donated by Mr. Miller. The Mayoress planted the first tree, a Gippsland Lillipilli, and this was followed by the Mayor planting a Kanuka. Various councillors then followed suit, and altogether quite a pleasant afternoon was spent. The Mayor and Mayoress then invited the president, Mr. Pescott, and members to afternoon tea at the Town Hall, where other speeches were made, and thus terminated a very enjoyable afternoon. Mr. Dickens, of the Horticultural Society, promised to plant a plot in the gardens at a later date. (2)

Victor Henry Miller was born at 84 High Street, St Kilda on November 8, 1875 the ninth child of  Jacob and Catherine (nee Streeting) Miller. Jacob was a cabinet maker, furniture dealer and a St Kilda Councillor. Victor was a member of, and also served as President of, the Horticultural Society of Victoria, the Field Naturalists' Club and the Bird Observers' Club and was an executive of the Historical Society of Victoria. He died July 4, 1974 (3).  The aviary mentioned in the article had been presented by Mrs Dawkins in 1926. 

What has become of Victor Miller's ornamental bird bath?

The plinth remains in the Blessington Street Gardens.

Image: © VanishedVictoria

Image: © VanishedVictoria

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Footnotes

(1) St Kilda Botanical Gardens: a social snapshot of its first hundred years by Patricia Convery 

(St Kilda Botanical Gardens, 2014) The source of the image, as listed in the book, is City of Port Phillip Archive. 

(2) Prahran Telegraph of April 20, 1928, here. 

(3) Biographical information - Birth certificate; The Herald, June 27, 1935, here and Walks in Port Phillip:  a guide by Meyer Eidelson, here.

Carrara marble bust, St Kilda

On May 10, 1927 The Argus newspaper reported that

Mr Alexander Isaacson of Inverleigh, Acland street, St Kilda has made a presentation to the St Kilda foreshore committee of a piece of valuable statuary the subject of which is a smiling Italian peasant boy. The statue is of Carrara marble, and stands 23½ in, high. It was sculptured by G. Livi (1) in 1888. The secretary to the committee (Mr H. O. Allan) said yesterday that it was probable that the statue would be placed on the lawn between Luna Park and the end of the Upper Esplanade. Mr Isaacson had offered to provide a suitable pedestal for the statue. A few years ago Mr. Isaacson presented to the trustees of the National Gallery a very fine collection of coins (2).

Alexander Isaacson is listed in the 1927 Electoral Roll at 12 Acland Street, St Kilda and his occupation is a jeweller.  The property was actually called Inverleith, not Inverleigh as stated in the article; it is now demolished, but the St Kilda Historical Society has a history of the property, here. Mr Isaacson, who was a bachelor, died on October 18, 1950, aged 80 (3). 

What has happened to the marble bust of the smiling Italian boy generously donated by Alexander Isaacson?

A photograph of the Carrara marble bust

The Argus May 11, 1927 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3853798

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Footnotes

(1) The sculptor was likely Giuseppe Livi, born in Italy in 1828, but we have no other biographical information.

(2) The Argus, May 10, 1927, see here. There is a similar report in The Age, of May 10, 1927, here.

(3) Alexander Isaacson's death notice wa sin The Argus, October 19, 1950, here. He is buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery.

Levi summer house plaque, St Kilda Botanical Gardens

Commemoration and memorial plaques do vanish and in mid-April 2022 this plaque on the summer house in the St Kilda Botanical Gardens, in Blessington Street, was stolen. The summer house was donated in memory of Albert and Rachael (nee Benjamin) Levi by their children. Their son, Joseph, who was a City of St Kilda Councillor, wrote to the Council in December 1928 -
The family of the late Alfred and Rachael Levi, who were very old residents of our city, desires to perpetuate their memory by placing a memorial in the Botanic Gardens, Blessington street, in the form of a summer house for the use of our citizens. The erection of the summer house was completed in July 1929 (1). 

Some people might say, it's just a plaque, what does it matter? But  it does matter because we have lost the connection between the summer house and the generosity of the Levi family; we have lost a connection to part of the history of St Kilda and we have lost the connection to civic philanthropy, when people would donate land or a fountain or in  this case a summer house, to be freely used by all members of the  community. The plaque can be replaced, but it won't have the same ring of authenticity as the very solid and stylish original.

The missing plaque

Image: © VanishedVictoria

The Levi summer house, St Kilda Botanical Gardens.

Image: © VanishedVictoria

This was not the only plaque stolen in April 2022 from the Elwood St Kilda area, there were several others as well. The City of Port Phillip has issued a media release on these thefts https://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/about-the-council/news-and-media/brazen-bronze-thefts-in-port-phillip

In good news, in September 2023 the City of Port Phillip replaced the missing plaque.

The replacement plaque

Image: © VanishedVictoria, September 2023

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Footnote

(1) The quote is from the Prahran Telegraph, December 21, 1928, see here; there is also a report in the Prahran Telegraph of July5, 1929, here.

Marble topped tables, Shakespeare Grove, St Kilda

In December 1913, Andrew Stenhouse (1) presented the City of St Kilda with seats and marble topped tables for the convenience of picnickers under the trees at the Shakespeare grove (2).  Shakespeare Grove runs behind Luna Park, between Acland Street and Marine Parade.  Where are these marble topped tables now? 

The avenue of cypress trees in  Shakespeare Grove in the foreground, beside Luna Park. 

The Palais Theatre is next to Luna Park.

Luna Park, St Kilda, c. 1946. State Library of Victoria Image H2009.12/54

This photograph has been cropped, see the original here http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/52622

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Footnotes

(1) Andrew Stenhouse (1836-1918) was involved with the timber industry in Melbourne, New Zealand and Broken Hill and in 1914 donated the statue of Captain Cook, which stands in Catani Gardens, St Kilda. 

(2) Reports of Stenhouse's donation - The Age, December 22, 1913, see here; The Argus, April 2, 1914, see here. 

Ornamental fountain, Catani Gardens, St Kilda

The St Kilda Fore Shore Committee was established in 1906 and oversaw the on-going reclamation works on the St Kilda foreshore and the commissioning of the gardens which would be named in honour of Public Works Department engineer, Carlo Catani, in 1927. Catani was also an inaugural member of the Fore Shore Committee. In addition to the lawns and gardens, landscape cultural beauties, and other means of adornment (1) were added. One of these adornments was this fountain, which has vanished.

The fountain was on the site of the English Pierrots pavilion and it was unveiled in September, 1929 (2).  

St Kilda's new ornamental fountain

The Herald September 6, 1929 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/244006597

The fountain in the Catani gardens.

Image: Cooper, John Butler The History of St Kilda from its first settlement to a city and after 1840 - 1930, v. 2

 (St Kilda City Council, 1931), between pages 210 & 211.

The fountain, surrounded by palm trees.

The Fountain and Gardens, St Kilda. Photographer: Rose Stereograph Co. 

Image dated c. 1925-1954

State Library of Victoria Image H32492/7274

It was an elaborate fountain, with some delightful features,  which was surrounded by a circular pond built of stone work, which in turn was surrounded by a circular garden bed. The statuary consisted of five pedestals – the central tallest one was surmounted by a light and decorated with four kookaburras.  On the other four pedestals  stood a statue of a boy, described as a Peter Pan figure, each holding a bowl. At the base of the statue, between each outer pedestal, was a frog (3). You can see these details in the photo below.

The fountain, showing the kookaburras and the frogs.

Detail  of the Fountain and Gardens, St Kilda. Photographer: Rose Stereograph Co. 

Image dated c. 1925-1954

State Library of Victoria Image H32492/7274

Another view of the fountain, which is partially hidden by the light pole in the centre, but it gives a good indication of where it was located in the gardens.

View in Gardens, St Kilda. Photographer: Rose Stereograph Co. 

Image dated c. 1925-1954, I would estimate late 1940s. 

State Library of Victoria Image H32492/6580

The fountain is at the centre top of the gardens.

St Kilda. Victorian Railways photographer. Image dated c. 1945 - c. 1954.

State Library of Victoria Image H91.50/841. 

This photograph has been cropped, see original here http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/450624

When did the fountain vanish? It was still there in the 1950s, as you can see from the photographs. The State Library of Victoria has a later aerial photograph dated c.1950-c.1960, which shows the fountain. The photo is still under copyright, but you can see it here.

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Footnotes

(1) Cooper, John Butler The History of St Kilda from its first settlement to a city and after 1840 - 1930, v. 2 (St Kilda City Council, 1931), p. 209.

(2) The new fountain was reported on in The Herald, September 6, 1929, see here; The Herald, May 15, 1929, see here; 

(3) Prahran Telegraph, October 4, 1929, see here.