3 Chetwynd Street

Holmes and Co. Built this shop and two residences (2 Stanley Street or 1-3 Chetwynd Street) for a cooper (maker or repairer of casks and barrels), Charles Barber, who owned the pair from their construction in 1867 until his death in 1897. Barber lived in 1 Chetwynd Street during that time and for a period is listed as also residing in 3 Chetwynd Street (1873-1882). For the rest of the time he leased it out.
Contributory elements include:

-parapeted, two-storey corner early Victorian-era house and shop and residence in a colonial Georgian style;

-walls of coursed random rubble basalt masonry (part tuck-pointed), with quarry faced quoins at the corners and openings, a gabled parapet to the north end with engaged chimney and parapet string mould;

-corrugated iron clad hipped and gabled roof;

-multi-paned double-hung sash windows;

-steel lugs on corner splay upper level one supporting a business sign for the shop;

-one six-pane early shop display or show window and one four-pane window located either side of the corner shop entry door facing Stanley and Chetwynd Street;

-four-panelled door pair with toplight for the corner shop entry, differing from the four-panel doors to the residential entries adjoining;

-siting on the street alignment; and

-early enamelled blue and white street name plate, fixed to the wall in the traditional way.

This is a major corner building at the brow of the Chetwynd Street hill, linked with the later 9 Chetwynd Street, and 5, 7 and 8 Stanley Street by period detail and parapeted form: a key part of this significant streetscape.

How is it significant?
Charles Barber’s shop and residence row is significant historically and aesthetically to West Melbourne and the City of Melbourne.

Why is it significant?
Charles Barber’s shop and residence row is significant.

-Aesthetically, the building has a high integrity to its construction date, with an uncommon and well-laid wall material (basalt) that is closely identified with stone quarries in western Melbourne, also an unusual combination of uses for the area, a visibly early construction date by the use of face stonework and occupying a prominent corner site in a significant streetscape; and

-Historically, owned and occupied by Barber over a long period, as a successful West Melbourne cooper, an essential trade for the nearby manufacturing works.

source: West Melbourne Heritage Review by Graeme Butler & Associates, 2015.