Boom style architecture

The Rialto Group of buildings, a notable boom style streetscape in Melbourne. From left: the Olderfleet (1889-90), Record Chambers (1887), New Zealand Chambers (1887), Winfield (1891) and Rialto buildings (1890-91)

"Boom style" (more often termed "Late Victorian" architecture elsewhere) is a term used to describe the Architecture of Melbourne from the Land Boom period (1883-1891). Boom style buildings were often distinguished by being lavishly ornamental. A massive property bubble created wildly speculative values for land and excessive borrowing which was initially aided by generational wealth from the Victorian gold rush. Additional hype generated from the city's growing reputation as a boom town, including being labelled 'Marvellous Melbourne' by George Augustus Sala in 1885, fuelled one of the largest speculative construction periods seen in the southern hemisphere. Owners of residential and commercial property, confident that ever increasing prices would exceed their debts, would often engage architects to create exuberant designs in exotic styles that signified extreme wealth, something fashionable during the 1880s. These contrasted markedly with the much more restrained Georgian and Renaissance Revival and styles of previous construction periods. Its influence in government building, typically more fiscally conservative, was most felt in the educational buildings of the Public Works Department which followed the lead of the prestigous private schools. However at the end of the boom in 1889 prices soared so high that properties pushed skyward to maximise the value of land which was itself excessively overvalued.[1] Borrowings far exceeded the value of the buildings and most of the Land Boomers ended in bankruptcy with most of the cost of construction never recovered, which had a ripple effect which by the early 1890s had crippled the Victorian economy. Some boom style buildings remained incomplete into the 1890s due to the crash and were shortlived due to their impracticality. For a period of time the phrase was used derogatively during a period when the style was "on the nose" due to association with bad debts and corruption, as further justification for their demolition.[2][3]

Though a bubble existed elsewhere and ended with the Australian banking crisis of 1893, the term's use is rare elsewhere (Ballarat and Bendigo experienced relatively moderate speculation during the period but due to their own property booms also have some civic buildings with similar attributes).[4][5] Sydney's architecture the period was generally more modest and contributed to its economy rebounding from the financial crisis whereas Melbourne's did not. The phrase is sometimes used, uncapitalised, to designate similar opulent architecture of overlapping periods across the late British Empire,[6] and to some extent in America.[7]

  1. ^ Land Boom in 1880s Melbourne - Museum Victoria
  2. ^ Cannon, Michael (1995). The Land Boomers. Melbourne University Publish. ISBN 0-522-84663-7.
  3. ^ How cultural cringe spelled the end of Marvellous Melbourne buildings, and how locals eventually fought back by David Schout for CBD News. November 2022, Issue 92 17
  4. ^ King, Stuart; Willis, Julie (2022-07-05). "Mining Boom Styles". In Brennan, AnnMarie; Goad, Philip (eds.). Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand: 33, Gold. Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand. online: SAHANZ. pp. 334–345. doi:10.55939/a4033ciqmb. ISBN 978-0-646-85443-4.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Knapp, A. Bernard; Pigott, Vincent C; Herbert, Eugenia W. (1998). Knapp, A. Bernard; Pigott, Vincent C; Herbert, Eugenia W. (eds.). Social approaches to an industrial past : the archaeology and anthropology of mining (1st ed.). London: Rautledge. p. 31. ISBN 9780415181501. OCLC 848864777.