Launceston Architecture B

A tour of Launceston's architecture, from the 19th to the 21st centuries (Part B)

Launceston Architecture B

Launceston, Tasmania 7250, Australia

Created By: University of Tasmania

Tour Information

This is a walking tour in two parts of central Launceston's architecture, including buildings from the 19th to the 21st centuries. This is Part B (though you can do them in any order). The tour has been designed for architectural history students but others should find it interesting and enjoyable.

Acknowledgements to information checked with previous surveys of Launceston architecture, notably M & R Morris-Nunn/Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery's Twentieth Century Architecture in Launceston (1985), and Stuart King/University of Tasmania's Victorian, Federation and Interwar Launceston Walking Tours (2015).


Tour Map

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What You'll See on the Tour

Location: City Square (St John Street side) Year: 2018 Landscape Architect/Designer: Aspect Studios/City of Launceston Style: Expressionist/Neo-Modernist Notes: A blend of colourful street furniture, shelters and landscape, suggestive o... Read more
Location: Paterson Street/Civic Square Year: 1983 Architect: Glenn Smith/Robert Morris-Nunn Style: Postmodernist Notes: Pointed-arch forms employed to represent the form and structure of the adjacent church, with steel structure and gl... Read more
Location: Cimitiere St/Civic Square Year: 1977 Architect: Public Works Department Style: Modernist/Brutalist Notes: Note the texture of the off-form concrete and articulation of concrete frame and brick infill panels, as well as the ro... Read more
Location: Charles Street/Civic Square Year: 1830/2020 Builder (original building): John Sprunt Architect (additions): HBV (Heffernan Button Vos) Style: (original building) Georgian vernacular, (additions) Modernist/Minimalist Notes: T... Read more
Location: Charles Street/Civic Square Year: 1983 Architect: Peter Partridge Style: Brutalist Notes: Launceston's most polarising major building, a ziggurat of concrete on massive splayed supports, originally designed to be softened byÂ... Read more
Location: 46-54 Charles Street Year: 1990s Style: Postmodernist Notes: Note the relationship between the simple brick trabeated form of the façade and the applied decoration of the steel structure that echoes neo-classical neighbouring... Read more
Location: 107 Charles Street Year: 1914 Architect: Thomas Searell  Builder: Harry Goodluck Style: Art Deco/Neo-Classical Notes: No longer used as a theatre, but the auditorium is still intact (though you'll have to wait to see insid... Read more
Location: 73-5 Paterson St Year: 1911 Architect: Harold Masters Builder: J & T Gunn Style: Neo-Romanesque/Art Nouveau Notes: A flamboyant composition. The arches of this building also recall the 'Indo-Saracenic' British architectur... Read more
Location: corner St John and Paterson St Year: 1836 Architect: Samuel Jackson Style: Gothick Notes: In a style already out-of-date when completed. On the site of a former watch-house. 
Location: corner Brisbane Street and St John Street Year: 1885 Architect: Reed, Henderson & Smart Style: Neo-Classical Notes: Designed by Melbourne Architects (still in business as Bates Smart). Look closely at the rusticated quoini... Read more
Location: 88 Brisbane Street Year: 1932 Architect: Colin Philp Style: Art Deco Notes: The original ground floor altere beyond recogntion, but the upper floor has metallic elements, slightly evocative of international Art Deco such as ... Read more
Location: 70-72 Brisbane Street Year: 1888/1916/1978 Style: facades from 1888 (former Brisbane Hotel) and 1916 (former Majestic Theatre): Neo-Classical; arcade from 1978: Brick Vernacular Notes: The former Majestic Theatre, designed by ar... Read more
Location: Quadrant Mall Year: various Style: various Notes: There are several shops of architectural interest, particular above the ground floor. Look up at the distinctive window in the shape of an old analog television above one shop and ... Read more
Location: corner St John St and The Quadrant Year: 1923 Architect: H.S. East Style: Art DecoArt Nouveau Notes: A prominent and strikingly composed building. Note the details that utilise vegetal motifs in a manner reminiscent of ancient... Read more
Location: 111-113 St John Street Year: 1970s Style: Brutalist Notes: Trabeated composition of precast concrete panels with textured surface, including C-shaped vertical blade/column elements in front of floor-to-floor glazing ...
Location: 90 St John Street Year: 1940 Architect: Roy Smith and Willing Builder: Hinman, Wright & Manser Style: Art Deco/Streamlined Moderne Notes: A fine composition of horizontal and vertical elements (also see the Star Theatre ... Read more
Location: corner St John Street and York Street Year: 1960s Style: Modernist Notes: An interesting composition of curved and angled walls, as well as a mixture of panelled, glazed and brick wall treatments
Location: St John Street Year: 1844 Architect: Richard Lambeth Style: Egyptian Revival Notes: A rare example of this style, though the Hobart synagogue is in the same idiom. Use of the Egyptian idiom makes symbolic reference to Jewish... Read more
Location: corner St John and Elizabeth Streets Year: 1829 (plus several more recent additions) Style: Regency/various Notes: The oldest parts of this church - the west end and tower are in Regency (early Georgian) style but the rest of ... Read more
Location: 163 St John Street Year: 1927 Architect: Thomas Tandy Builder: J & T Gunn Style: Neo-Romanesque Notes: The entire façade makes single symmetrical composition around an arched entry, with a semi-circular window and pedi... Read more
Location: St John Street, Canning Street and Charles Street Year: various Style: various Notes: Take a walk up St John Street, then turn right down Canning Street and then left up Charles Street to see a sample of th range of styles of L... Read more
Location: 249 Charles Street Year: 1840s Style: Regency Notes: Simple but elegant pair of houses, representative of early Launceston domestic architecture in the refined Regency/Georgian style prevalent in Britain just prior to colonisa... Read more
Location: 254 Charles Street Year: 2019 Architect: Cumulus Studio Style: Expressionist/Pop Art (interior)/Utilitarian (exterior) Notes: Unassuming exterior to a functional brick building has an recently completed expressive and spatial... Read more
Location: 261 Charles Street Year: 1882 Style: Gothic Revival Notes: An fine and elaborate example of 'gingerbread Gothic' domestic architecture with extensive timber fretwork decoration to gable ends, a mixture of pointed and ogival ar... Read more
Location: 262 Charles Street Year: c1990 Architect: Robert Morris-Nunn Style: Postmodernist Notes: The horizontal banding of brick and stone and the curved façade that arcs into the entry evokes the architecture of James Stirling (ref... Read more

 

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