Grosvenor Chambers

Grosvenor Chambers
Grosvenor Chambers on the right
Grosvenor Chambers Location within Melbourne Grosvenor Chambers Grosvenor Chambers (Australia)
General information
Status	Completed
Location	9 Collins Street, Melbourne
Coordinates	37°48′49″S 144°58′25″E

John T. Collins 1977 photograph of 1888 Grosvenor Chambers prior to demolition of its interior. State Library of Victoria

Collins Street, near the corner of Spring Street, showing Grosvenor Chambers at centre soon after construction. Albumen silver photograph 14.0 x 20.0 cm. State Library of Victoria

Grosvenor Chambers, at number 9 Collins Street, Melbourne, contained the first custom-built complex of artists' studios in Australia.

Architects were Oakden, Addison and Kemp and the building contractor W. Davidson who was then mayor of Richmond. Construction costs were almost £6,000 and the building, bearding on its parapet the date 1887, officially opened in April 1888.

The owner was Charles Stewart Paterson (1843-1917). He, in partnership with his brother James, had a high-end decorating business in Melbourne. Another brother was the painter John Ford Paterson who sometimes exhibited with the Heidelberg School artists.

The rear basement atelier was occupied initially by sculptor Percival Ball, constructed so that the downhill slope toward Flinders Lane placed his floor above the level of the lane and created a clearance in the room of 7 metres, thus accomodating large works-in-progress. A wide doorway and window, with a fanlight over them removable to provide an entrance to the Lane over 2m wide and to the height of the room for removal of large pieces of sculpture. The front of the basement, a spacious cellar, was lighted with Hayward's patent prismatic pavement lights.

The upper floor consisted of five well-lit artists' studios with ante-rooms all proved with natural light from skylights with a southern elevation and tall windows on to Collins Street "on principles laid down by Sir Joshua Reynolds" and by consultation with the first artists to occupy them; Tom Roberts, James C. Waite, Louis Abrahams, and George Walton. The ground floor housed the showroom for the Paterson’s decorative arts business. The middle floor had space for a costumier, fabric showroom and workshop.

Stained-glass windows over the staircase showing figures symbolising Sculpture, Painting, and Heraldic Work were by Brooks, Robinson, and Co. whose work is also found in the Princess Theatre and from this date was to employ most of Melbourne's stained-glass artists including William Frater.

Artist occupants

Many notable artists rented a studio in the building or exhibited their work there. These include, Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin, Arthur Streeton, Percival Ball, Charles Francis Summers, Clara Southern, Jane Sutherland, Charles Conder, E. Phillips Fox, John Longstaff, Girolamo Nerli, Louis Abrahams, Rose Walker, George Lambert, Ola Cohn, Dora Wilson, Max Meldrum, Mirka Mora and Albert Tucker.

Notable photographers, such as Gordon De Lisle and Wolfgang Sievers, had rooms in the building in the 1950s.

Artists continued to rent studios there until the mid-1970s, when all but the facade of the building was demolished to make way for a high-rise office building.