Market Square, Geelong
Encyclopedia
George Gipps
Sir George Gipps was Governor of the colony of New South Wales, Australia, for eight years, between 1838 and 1846. His governorship was during a period of great change for New South Wales and Australia, as well as for New Zealand, which was administered as part of New South Wales for much of this...
as a town square. A water tank to provided domestic water was provided in the square in 1850 by a Mr William Grey.
Consisting of eight acres (2.9 hectares) of land, the area became a produce market, before being progressively built upon. The Market Square Shopping Centre
Market Square Shopping Centre
Market Square Shopping Centre is located in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The shopping centre was named after the original town square of Geelong on which the shopping centre is constructed. The centre is surrounded by Little Malop, Moorabool, Malop, and Yarra Streets...
was opened on the site in 1985 by the City of Geelong
City of Geelong
The City of Geelong was a Local Government Area located about southwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1849 until 1994.-History:...
.
Clock tower
The clock was featured in The Illustrated London News in March 1855. Components for the clock arrived in Geelong on November 13, 1855 from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, but the location for the clock had yet to be decided. Suggestions of high ground at top of Moorabool, Yarra or Gheringhap Streets were put forward at the time, the indecision lasting into early 1856. In July 1857 a decision was made, and the foundation stone was finally laid in the Market Square.
The clock tower was of prefabricated construction, composed of cream and brown tiles held in place by ornamental cast iron work. The tiles were made by Mintons, and were 14 inches (35.6 cm) by 11 in (28 cm) in size. It was 60 feet (18 m) high, 7 ft (2.1 m) wide, and with an internal stairway running to the top, where there was a balustraded platform. The clock required winding once per week. A gilded kangaroo acted as a weather vane at the apex of the tower; it was described by Sir Thomas Maltby in an article printed in The Geelong Advertiser as "a lifelike model of a Kangaroo about four feet high, exclusive of the four cardinal points on which it pivots freely. The tail in a horizontal position, gives direction to the erect body, looking always into the wind." Sir Thomas Maltby purchased this irreplaceable relic thereby saving it from being turned into scrap metal and is still in perfect working order.
Cr. George Thomas Lloyd [photograph held by the Victorian State Library, http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/1/5/doc/a15657.shtml] was elected at the first election conducted May 10, 1844 for the Geelong District Council of Grants. On May 1, 1845, he put forward the motion that a block of vacant land be set aside for a town square which was duly passed. In Brownhill's Monumental History of Geelong he wrote: "When Lloyd was in England in 1853, he was given the responsibility of getting Geelong's first public clock. By September 1854 the council received from Lloyd a design of the clock and tower", which included his drawing of a Kangaroo for the weather vane.[More on George Thomas Lloyd, http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Ancestry/ThirtyThreeYearsInTasmaniaAndVictoria.htm]
The clock tower remained until October 1923 when it was demolished to make way for the CML Building. The was a public outcry, and no one was willing to demolish it. However, it was deemed too impractical to move intact, and was brought down by steel cables attached to traction engine. The site of the clock tower is marked by a plaque in the Market Square Shopping Centre
Market Square Shopping Centre
Market Square Shopping Centre is located in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The shopping centre was named after the original town square of Geelong on which the shopping centre is constructed. The centre is surrounded by Little Malop, Moorabool, Malop, and Yarra Streets...
.
Exhibition Building
An Exhibition Building opened in Market Square on December 27, 1881. It was located to the west of the Clock Tower, and had a frontage to what became Jacob Street. The site today is north-east of Rock O'Cashell Lane. The building had two 12m tall corner towers, a large balcony, and a semi circular fan light to light the main hall. The building held a juvenial and industrial exhibitionArt exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
for 4 months, that had over 30000 exhibits.
After the closure of the exhibition, the building was converted to stage live theatre performances. The building had a 1500 seat capacity, and was known as the Exhibition Theatre. By the late 1890s it was known as Her Majesties, then upon the death of Queen Victoria it was renamed His Majesties. Dame Nellie Melba appeared the theatre in February 1915.
By 1936 His Majestys was surrounded by many other buildings in the square. It was at this time the theatre was closed, and the site became Cowley's Motor Garage.
Town Square
After the construction of the Exhibition Building, the land to the west was landscaped as a town squareTown square
A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...
. Trees were planted, and a fountain constructed.
After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, there was a move by the townspeople of Geelong to erect a memorial statue. A design competition was held, with Mr Clement Nash of Gheringhap Street winning. Melbourne sculptor John Swan Davie modelled the statue in clay, before a plaster cast was made, which was then sent to bronze founder Mr Palantini of London.
The statue weighed two tonnes, and was unveiled on May 24, 1904. In 1912 it was moved to the entrance of Eastern Park
Eastern Park
Eastern Park was a baseball park in Brooklyn, New York in the 1890s. It was bounded by Eastern Parkway to the north ; the Long Island Railroad and Vesta Avenue to the east ; Sutter Avenue to the south ; and Powell Street to the west...
due to the construction of the Solomons Building on the same site.
Solomons Building
Mr Solomons had wanted to build a store in the Market Square for five years. The contract allowed the construction on the crown land
Crown land
In Commonwealth realms, Crown land is an area belonging to the monarch , the equivalent of an entailed estate that passed with the monarchy and could not be alienated from it....
, as long as the buildings reverted to council in 50 years. Solomons closed in 1966 and was replaced by a Woolworths
Woolworths (supermarkets)
Woolworths is the largest supermarket chain in Australia, owned by Woolworths Limited.-History:Woolworths Limited was founded in 1924, with the first store opening up in Sydney's Imperial Arcade.-2008 rebranding:...
supermarket, before the building was incorporated into the Market Square Shopping Centre
Market Square Shopping Centre
Market Square Shopping Centre is located in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The shopping centre was named after the original town square of Geelong on which the shopping centre is constructed. The centre is surrounded by Little Malop, Moorabool, Malop, and Yarra Streets...
development in the 1980s.
Further Development
In 1915 a referendumReferendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
was held in Geelong, asking if more stores should be built in the Market Square. The result was yes, and the Block Building in Little Malop Street was built soon after.
CML Building
Car Park
Growing motor traffic in Geelong by the 1960s resulted in a need for more car parking in the central area. To provided this, Cowley's Motor Garage (located on the former Exhibition Building site) was demolished, and a three level concrete carpark built. Officially opened on October 20, 1961 by Member for Corio Mr Hubert OppermanHubert Opperman
Sir Hubert Ferdinand Opperman, OBE , referred to as Oppy by Australian and French crowds, was an Australian cyclist and politician, whose endurance cycling feats in the 1920s and 1930s earned him international acclaim....
. The car park cost cost £70,000 ($140,000), had a 200 cars capacity, and also offered fuel, lubrication, and washing to motorists.
Towards Redevelopment
- See Market Square Shopping CentreMarket Square Shopping CentreMarket Square Shopping Centre is located in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The shopping centre was named after the original town square of Geelong on which the shopping centre is constructed. The centre is surrounded by Little Malop, Moorabool, Malop, and Yarra Streets...
for the history of the shopping centre itself.
The 1980s saw the first of many urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
proposals floated for the central Geelong area. The Geelong Regional Commission on November 6, 1981 released a plan that would see a see a massive shopping centre extend from Little Malop Street though to the waterfront.
This proposal did not proceed, with the City of Geelong
City of Geelong
The City of Geelong was a Local Government Area located about southwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1849 until 1994.-History:...
instead deciding to develop their own shopping centre on the Market Square site. Demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
to clear the site of the new shopping centre site commenced in 1984. The CML Building on Malop Street was retained and reused as offices, while the facade of the Corio Stores on Little Malop Street and the Solomons Building on Moorabool Street were reused in the new building. The development also saw the closure of Jacobs Street.