CORNER CHARLES AND PATERSON STREETS - THE NATIONAL THEATRE

THE NATIONAL THEATRE, CNR. CHARLES AND PATERSON STREETS

The National Theatre remains an impressive building on the corner of Charles and Paterson Street. It was designed by Thomas Searell, and built by Harry Goodluck. The Launceston City Council sold the building to the printing firm that still occupies it, in 1969.

The first performance at the theatre, when in opened in September 1915 was “The Silence fo Dean Maitland by Mr George Marlow's Dramatic company. The programme in the early days of the theatre were nothing if not eclectic, as a quick look at early Examiners (via TROVE) illustrates:

05 March 1918: Film - “Unborn” - dealing with the nation's decreasing birthrate “in a manner that gives no offence”

27 March 1918: “Mr. J. D. Foley, comedian and ventriloquist, will appear after an absence of five years. In the afternoon Mr. White will show Punch and Judy for the little ones.”

07 June 1918: The Launceston season of the high class vaudeville combination at the National Theatre is drawing to a close The farces, introducing the full strength of the company, are amongst the most humourous items of their kind offered,and the individual contributions by Doody and Wright, music and dancing artists; Lennon and Hill. society entertainers; Dozey and Doura, acrobats and balancers; Fred. Arthur comedian, Arthur Sharples, tenor vocalist, Laura McLaine, soprano; and Violet Lorraine,soubrette; constitute a programme of rare merit.”........and so on

These are three fairly random samples from just one year – there is a lot more packed into the 44 years of the theatre's operation and each of the performances and events has a whole history worthy of further investigation.

68 PATERSON STREET - PAINE'S CARRIAGE WORKS

PAINE'S CARRIAGE WORKS

Paine's Carriage Works were established in Launceston by George Paine who emigrated from England in 1860. The original works were at 192 York Street (with showrooms in Wellington Street), but moved to Paterson Street in 1902, by which time George's son Frederick was in charge.  The construction of the new building was overseen by architect Edwin Laidlaw.  Paines built the first brougham and hansom cabs in Launceston and won many prizes.


The business made the transition from horse-drawn vehicles to the motor car. An article in the Examiner (08th October 1914) comments that Mr Paine had already had twelve years experience in this area! Paines built a bus to service areas where the tram didn't go, and made the first two seater car built in Northern Tasmania, as well as an ambulance and fire engines.

Their cars sound like quite something to see. The same article says: “Two of the latest five-seated bodies ... are painted blue, picked out black, with a fine gold line, which harmonises with blue leather trimmings. The vehicle is mounted on a 15-20 Fiat chassis, supplied by the Fordyce Motor Company, and is indeed worthy of inspection.”

But if the cars were impressive, their bus promised to be a marvel. Here is the description published in The Examiner of 25th August 1905: “The car is built of English ash and cedar, varnished, and both woods can be distinguished as one enters. The long cedar panels are beautifully let into solid pilars, and the platform on which the conductor stands to receive passengers and parcels is shut off from the car when necessary by a sliding door. The seats are spring cushions of the most modern design, covered in moss-green Russian leather. On the outside the car panels are painted in pretty green, picked out in black, and lined with orange. In front of the ladies' car is a smoking compartment, which has seating and accommodation for eight passengers. It may be closed right off from the hind car by glass windows. Those on board can see all round, as the windows facing the driver's box are circular in shape. One of the improvements is the attachment of two nickel handles to hold as one enters either compartment., The driver's box is fitted up with a tool cabinet of polished wood. There are 34 windows in cedar frames,so there is no lack of ventilation, and every window has a spring catch, which works automatically. When necessary, the curtains, which are fixed to every window on brass rollers, may be let down. The nickel-plated funnel and brass ventilator in front sets off the appearance of the 'bus greatly. The whole of the work, with 'the exception of the undercarriage, is being carried out at .Mr. Paine's factory, and when completed it will reflect great credit upon the designer and builder.”

The firm seems to have been very innovative. If no one has done it already there is a local history book waiting to be written here!!!!! A search on TROVE will turn up many other fascinating snippets of information. The Examiner of Friday 7 June 1895 has an interesting article about the carriageworks. You can see some photos of buses at http://nonsequitur.freeforums.org/lkcs-lesser-known-coachbuilders-t58-90.html and of their two-seater car at http://catalogue.statelibrary.tas.gov.au/item/q=paine&format=Images&avail=Online&i=3&id=LPIC147-1-65#urls.

Interviews with Fred James and Rex Case who worked for Paines in the early 1920s can be found in Launceston Talks - Oral Histories of the Launceston Community.

1 CIVIC SQUARE - HENTY HOUSE

1 CIVIC SQUARE - HENTY HOUSE

This is the building many people love to hate. Leo Shofield referred to it as "a hideous building resembling a cement cooling tower".  At risk of being labelled one of the “trendoids” to whom he refers, I have to confess as a Launceston resident, I'm actually rather fond of it.

I vaguely remember (showing my age here) seeing drawings before it was built projecting what it would look like when finished. Every level had green vines trailing down over the balconies – an amazing pyramid of greenery. It has, of course, instead turned out to be a huge grey monolith that dominates the edge of Civic square. The “wood” texture of on some of its surfaces only seems to emphasise its inorganic character. Yet, there is nothing else quite like it.

Civic square is a wonderful architectural assortment that is nicely rounded off by Henty House. I like the way that Macquarie House reflects in the windows of the newer structure, and the fact that every time I walk past I see something else that I haven't noticed before. I love that it makes people think and talk about how they want their city to look.

Henty House was built for its current tenant, the State Government in 1983. The architect was Peter Partridge. People have been married here, become Australian citizens here, celebrated passing their driving test and so on. It is a building of many stories.  There has been considerable debate over whether it is worthy of inclusion in the state heritage list. This blog is mainly about the history associated with various buildings rather than the structures as such, but if anything were to happen to Henty House there would be a large gap in the story of Launceston in the 1980s. Its worth considering the question of what makes a building worthy of preservation.

33 BATHURST STREET - LAUNCESTON CITY BAND ROOMS

LAUNCESTON CITY BAND ROOMS

The first reference I can find to this building, which is not on the heritage register, is in newspaper advertisements from 1911, seeking workers for Boatwright's Clothing and Shirt Factory. Despite a 44 hour week, there was the attractive prospect of “No work on Saturdays”. Machinists were offered a wage between 25 and 30 shillings a week.

In 1915, over 50 people were employed at the factory, however its viability was threatened by the defence department which had requisitioned the output of the Waverley Woollen Mills and insisted that it be sent to Melbourne to be made up. The consequence as the owner JW Boatwright put it, would be that about half the the staff would 'be thrown into idleness.”

Unfortunately I don't know how things turned out for the shirt factory, but in 1928 the Launceston City Band purchased the building, which remains as its headquarters today. In the 1930s “old time and modern dances” were held on a weekly basis.

I'd love to be able to add in more information about when the building was constructed, whether or not it had a previous use, what happened to the shirt factory and more details of the buildings usage in the years after the thirties.   If  I waited until I knew everything I wanted to know about a particular building, though, I'd never actually get anything up on the blog so I'll update as I go!

In the meantime there is a lot of interesting history of the Launceston City Band on their website – www.lcb.org.au.

15 WELLINGTON ST - THE KANGAROO INN

Building began at 15 Wellington Street in 1824, when a cottage was built by James Lyford. A variety of businesses were subsequently conducted on the site including a theatre, a bakery and stables, but it is best known as “The Kangaroo Inn.” The Inn was licensed between 1835 and 1842.

Many of the early hotels in Launceston doubled as community meeting places. St. John's Masonic Lodge had its foundations in a meeting held at the inn in 1842. Inquests were also held on the premises.

One suspects that many interesting stories could be told (and hopefully might be discovered) about the “Victorian Theatre”, as it was also known. An advertisement from the Cornwall Chronicle of 26 November 1842 reads:  "Mr REA (from England), the celebrated Ventriloquist, Mimic, Performer of Mechanical figures, Deception &etc, &etc, will perform at the Kangaroo Inn (for the first time in this colony), on the evenings of Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Boxes 4s, Pit 2s 6d."

In her book, A Walk Through Launceston's History, Beverley Heathcote gives more details about the Kangaroo Inn as well as some fascinating information about the theatre manager George Coppin who, amongst other things, was later to supply Burke and Wills with camels!!

(More details can  also be found at the Australian Heritage Database:

http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=16101)