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Cremorne railway station

Disused railway stations in MelbourneMelbourne rail transport stubsPages with no open date in Infobox stationRailway stations closed in 1860Railway stations in Australia opened in 1859
Use Australian English from February 2015Victoria (Australia) railway station stubs

Cremorne railway station was an inner suburban station in Melbourne, Australia. It was on the Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company’s line from Princes Bridge station to Windsor station, and was located just north of Balmain Street on the Melbourne side of the Yarra River bridge, in a part of the suburb of Richmond which is now known as Cremorne.The line was opened as far as Cremorne station in December 1859. One of the station's main functions was to encourage visitors to Melbourne's Cremorne Gardens. George Coppin, who was the proprietor of the attraction, lobbied the Melbourne and Suburban Railway Company, and then entered a financial arrangement with it, to expedite the building of the quarter-mile, four-minute extension from Richmond railway station. Often the price of admission to the gardens included free return rail ticket from the city to Cremorne station. Trains continued to stop at the station after the railway bridge over the Yarra from Cremorne to South Yarra was completed a year later.The Cremorne Gardens closed in early 1863, and the last known train to stop at Cremorne station was on 23 November 1863, the day of the auction to dispose of the goods that remained in the Gardens. In 1890, Richmond residents lobbied the Victorian Railways Commissioners to reopen the station, but their request was refused as the station was deemed 'unnecessary'. There are no remains of the station and subsequent track expansion now covers the area where it once stood.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Cremorne railway station (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Cremorne railway station
Balmain Street, Melbourne Cremorne

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Latitude Longitude
N -37.83 ° E 144.994 °
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Balmain Street 71
3121 Melbourne, Cremorne
Victoria, Australia
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Cremorne Gardens, Melbourne
Cremorne Gardens, Melbourne

Cremorne Gardens was a pleasure garden (now referred to as amusement parks) established in 1853 on the banks of the Yarra River at Richmond in Melbourne, Australia. The gardens were established by James Ellis who had earlier managed and leased similar gardens of the same name on the banks of the River Thames at Chelsea in London. He had been declared bankrupt and emigrated to Australia to take advantage of the business opportunities made possible by the Victorian gold rush and its accompanying population explosion. His first venture in the entertainment world in Melbourne was Astley's Amphitheatre, but his experiences in catering in London inclined him to a profit making business with a wider basis. Because of previous experience he had established contacts in the theatrical world of London. He took advantage of them to create a venue with viable entertainments to divert the population of the rapidly expanding capital of the new Australian state where entertainment was demanded by a predominantly male society. The wowser element in Melbourne did not approve of the pleasure gardens. Ellis had invested much money in them and they were very popular, but criticism of the availability of liquor and the use of the venue by prostitutes went against him. Ellis had tried to gain social favour by donating percentages of profits to charity but that did not help him. The disapproval was an attitude which had frequently been taken against the large pleasure gardens in London on which Ellis had based his colonial duplicate. It would not, however, have been beneath Ellis to take advantage of the needs of diggers holidaying in Melbourne and on the hunt for a bit of fun. His detractors forced his sale of Cremorne Gardens but they survived in the hands of someone who had the skill and experience to administer and develop them. Ellis went on to own a hotel in Fitzroy. The gardens were acquired by the popular theatrical entrepreneur and local identity George Coppin who expanded them significantly using even better contacts in the world of English theatre than Ellis enjoyed. Cremorne was Coppin's indulgence and hobby and he poured money into them without applying business acumen. For a time he lived on site. The residence had been built by the Colonial Architect, Henry Ginn, who had originally established the gardens as part of his up-river retreat in the mid-1840s. Entertainment provided included a Cyclorama, bowling alley, menagerie, dancers and nightly fireworks. In 1856 he opened his Royal Pantheon Theatre, initially managed by R. Younge (brother of Fred), followed by J. P. Greville. Coppin continued the presentation of the annual panoramas introduced by Ellis. Patrons arrived by riverboat or by train at the purpose-built railway station. The gardens were notable as being the location of the first balloon flight in Australia when in 1858 Englishman William Dean floated seven miles (11 km) north to Brunswick. In 1859 Coppin imported six camels from Aden as exhibits for the Cremorne Gardens menagerie and in 1860 he sold them to the Exploration Committee of the Royal Society of Victoria who used them on the Burke and Wills expedition. With the rise of Puritanism in the 1860s, the Gardens became hugely unprofitable and could no longer be maintained; Coppin closed the doors in February 1863. The land was sold and became an asylum which itself closed in the 1880s. The land was then subdivided for housing by Thomas Bent. With the turn of the century much of the housing gave way to small and large industrial establishments but much of the small working class housing remains today and has been progressively gentrified. A small park is at the southern end of the area previously occupied by the gardens and a plaque marks their location and the place from which the hot air balloons were launched. The site of the gardens no longer fronts the river because of the construction of the South Eastern Freeway in 1961. The area of Richmond in which the gardens were located was formally renamed Cremorne in 1999 and is used by locals as much out of historical respect as to avoid the old working class implications of the name Richmond. A view of Cremorne from South Yarra can be found in the works of S. T. Gill and the site is described in Louisa Ann Meredith's description of her stay in Melbourne with her husband and son in Over the straits: a visit to Victoria. The site now holds an artwork by Ugo Rondinone called 'Our Magic Hour'

Bryant and May Factory, Melbourne
Bryant and May Factory, Melbourne

The Bryant and May Factory, located in the Cremorne area of Richmond in Melbourne, is notable for its distinctive red brick buildings, and as the location for the manufacture of Australia's most popular brand of matches through much of the 20th century. Bryant and May adopted the brand name Redheads in 1946, and it is still the most popular match in the country, although now manufactured in Sweden.Bryant and May are also notable for operating as a model factory, providing workers with conditions and amenities which even today seem generous. These included a dining hall and sports facilities such as a tennis court and bowling green which were constructed in the 1920s.Bryant and May ceased Australian match manufacture in early 1987 as a result of import competition. Their iconic Redheads matches are now imported from Sweden. The complex has since been converted for use as offices and showrooms but is extremely well preserved. It is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The Bryant and May complex at 560 Church Street, Richmond, comprises a series of factory buildings, dominated by a major freestanding redbrick 3-4 storey building, complete with clock tower, running back from the Church Street frontage. This is visible from some distance on three sides across local streets and carparks, and from the nearby elevated rail lines. The front 3/4 of the building running back from Church Street was the first built, in 1909, designed by prolific Melbourne architect William Pitt. It is a typically Melbourne Edwardian design, in bold red brick with cement dressings, with bays defined by red brick piers which are carried through the rendered balustrade, creating a long rhythmic facade on the south side. The front facade features finer piers, spandrels with Art Nouveau foliated decoration, a large entry arch, the lettering B & M above, topped by an unusual pierced arched pediment. Other smaller buildings were added across a small lane on the north side in 1910 and 1917 in a matching style. A large addition was made to the rear (west) of the building in 1921-22, designed by Klingender & Hamilton, in matching red brick but in a Stripped Classical style. This addition has an extra floor, with prominent signage, and a clock tower on the north side and the clock face bears the name BRYANT AND MAY in place of numbers. A new chimney stack, boiler house, offices and Brymay Hall, also designed by Klingender & Hamilton, were also added at this time.