MELBOURNE HISTORICAL RESEARCH GROUP

HOUSES AND HISTORY - Project 6, 2007-8

Our project for 2007-8 is "Houses and History", which will tell the story of the houses, both grand and humble, that grace the streets of Melbourne and King's Newton today, including some that no longer exist. Among many others, they include:

• Melbourne Hall, once the home of Victorian Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (1779-1848);
• Pennfield House, home of William Haimes (1773-1854), silk glove and shawl manufacturer;
• Exchange House, built by stone merchant and quarryman John Chambers (died 1795);
• Club Row - eight humble cottages built by the Melbourne Sick Club in 1795;
• The "White Swan" Inn, built by William Martin of Melbourne, clothworker, and his wife Ellen, in the same year that he died (1682);
• The Stone House, built by Walter Chamberlain in 1673, housing a forge in its basement where ironsmith Robert Bakewell worked from 1706-1711;
• King's Newton Hall, rebuilt by Sir Cecil Paget in 1910 after lying in ruins for fifty years following a catastrophic fire;
• The "Packhorse Inn", rebuilt by William and Mary Cartwright in 1727, on a site encroached out of the public road.

The Group exhibited the project at the 2007 Melbourne Fete & Carnival and the Melbourne Festival, among other venues.