Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens

Site information

• Official name: Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens
• Location: Melbourne, Australia
• Type: Cultural
• Year of inscription: 2004

The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens were inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2004 after more than a century of serving as an attraction for Australians and tourists. The building and gardens were created in the late nineteenth century to showcase Melbourne's world fairs, and they are still considered to be excellent examples of the architecture and technology of the Exhibitionist Period, which could be said to have begun in London in 1851 with the erection of the famous Crystal Palace.

Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Hall and Carlton Gardens were originally enclosed by cast iron gates. The Victoria Parliament met in the building in the early twentieth century, and the Melbourne Olympics used the Royal Exhibition Building in 1956. The history of the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens is showcased in the on-site Museum Victoria. The dome of the building is inscribed with four mottos that were intended to reflect the status of late nineteenth-century Australia: Dei gracia (by the grace of God), Carpe diem (seize the day), Aude sapere (dare to be wise), and Benigno numine (with benign power). The dome is also decorated with a frieze of agricultural plants grown in Australia. The arches and cornices depict symbols of peace, war, federation, and government. Some 1.3 million visitors attended the 1880 exhibit, and the 1888 exhibition recorded 2 million attendees.

History

From the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, great exhibitions designed to show off industrial technology, botanical collections, and advancements in art, architecture, and fashion were held all over the world. In 1880 and 1888, Melbourne hosted two of those exhibitions. Covering twenty-six hectares, the Royal Exhibition Building was designed by architect Joseph Reed and was completed just in time for the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibit. Reed, who was heavily influenced by the round-arched Rundbogenstil style, followed a cruciform plan, including a Brunelleschi-style dome, four massive portal entries, viewing platforms, fountains, lakes, central naves, and stunted transepts. Materials used in the building included brick, timber, steel, and sleet, and the building was set on a bluestone foundation. The facilities, which were the largest ever erected in Australia at that time, were used again in 1888 when Melbourne hosted the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition. Electric lights were added at that time.

The Royal Exhibition Building contains elements of the Byzantine, Romanesque, Lombardic, and Italian Renaissance architectural styles. The main building was the twelve-thousand-square-mile Great Hall of Industry. Annexes, and Carlton Gardens were added to highlight different exhibitions and attract visitors. The original structure included two brick annexes on the east and west of the main building. Temporary structures were made of timber and corrugated iron. At the end of the exhibition, all temporary buildings were abolished and used for other purposes.

Carlton Gardens, which were designed through the joint efforts of Reed and William Sangsten, offer a path that links directly to the rest of Melbourne. In the twenty-first century, the gardens are composed of South and North Gardens: The South Garden, still a popular venue for exhibitions, was designed according to an axial layout and was part of the original facilities, providing a ceremonial route between the building and the garden. The North Garden was formed out of a wooded area after the annexes were destroyed. It was designed in the gardenesque style with formal flower beds, clusters of trees, two lakes, and three fountains.

In the original structure, the walls of the Royal Exhibition Building were left unpainted, and the windows and door joinings were green. Discoloration of the exterior heightened over time, and the building was painted in time for the 1888 exhibition. A new interior color scheme was also instituted. In 1901, the western annex of the Royal Exhibition Building underwent major renovations, including the addition of exterior lights, under the guidance of John Ross Anderson, to prepare it to host the Parliament of Victoria between 1901 and 1927. At that time, the dome was painted to mimic the color of the sky. The Federal Parliament continued to meet in the State Parliament Building in Victoria. The western annex was torn down in the 1960s. Sections of the eastern annex had been torn down a decade earlier to build the Convention Centre. That building was replaced by Museum Victoria in 1996.

Protection for the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens was enhanced in 1995 when the facilities were designated as a protected site by Heritage Age. Three years later, the facilities were added to the State Heritage Register of Victoria. Conservation of the area is the joint responsibility of the Australian and Victorian governments under the authority of the Burra Charter and the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens and World Heritage Environs Area Strategy Plans. The Museum Victoria is managed by the state museum system, and the gardens are managed by the City of Melbourne. The Conservation Management Plan was instituted in 2009.

Significance

In 2004, the World Heritage Site recognized the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens as an outstanding example of a secular structure. That inscription mean that the facility had met the standards for Criterion ii, which requires a site to demonstrate that it has furthered the ongoing exchange of human values in areas such as art, technology, and landscape design.

The Royal Exhibition Building is the only Palace of Industry that has survived since the world fair era. Most have been torn down to make way for other development, or they were originally built as temporary facilities. The Melbourne facilities have been preserved and have undergone necessary conservation and renovation over the years. For instance, the wooden staircases were replaced with concrete because of safety concerns, and other renovations have attempted to restore colors to their original schemes. The scroll and parterre gardens have also been repaired.

The German Gardens have been updated with a water harvesting and storage system designed to bring them back to their former beauty. The Westgarth Fountain has been relocated. In addition to illustrating the technologies and arts of the nineteenth century, the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens also make use of contemporary technologies. For instance, the building has been enhanced with fiber optics and digitally generated images.

The Victoria Museum was designed by the firm of Denton, Corker, and Marshall. In addition to preserving the history of the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens, it offers a record of the Bunjilaka, the aboriginal people who settled the area on which the museum is built. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, new attention was paid to the Poonah clay figures that were first displayed in 1880 and which were showcased in a 2008 exhibit on the history of Melbourne. When researchers began tracing the origins of the figures, they discovered that they were recorded as originating in West Bengal in British India. Similar figures are also on display in Salem, Massachusetts, at the Peabody-Essex Museum. The 143 figures at the Museum Victoria depict figures from daily life that reflect religious and caste cultures.

Bibliography

Busch, Jason T., and Catherine L. Futter. "Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World Fairs, 1851-1939." Magazine Antiques, vol. 179, no. 2, 2012, pp. 88–97.

"Carlton Gardens." Museum Victoria, museumvictoria.com.au/reb/history/carlton-gardens. Accessed 3 Dec. 2016.

Darian-Smith, Kate. "Exhibitions." Australian Historical Studies,vol. 32, no. 117, 2001, pp. 351–54.

Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens. World Heritage List. World Heritage Cultural Centre, UNESCO, 2016. whc.unesco.org/en/list/1131.

Smith, Charlotte H. F., and Michelle Stevenson. "Modeling Cultures: 19th Century Indian Clay Figures." Museum Anthropology, vol. 33, no. 1, 2010, pp. 37–48.