Nahum Barnet (16 August 1855 – 1 September 1931) was an architect working in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia during the Victorian and Edwardian periods, best known for his extensive legacy of commercial buildings in Melbourne's CBD, as well as his last design, the Melbourne Synagogue.

Barnet was born in the Melbourne Hospital on Swanston Street, the son of newly arrived Isaac Barnet, a Polish-born pawnbroker, tobacconist, and later a noted jeweller. Isaac was an active member of Melbourne's Jewish community throughout his life, as well as civic affairs, becoming a Councillor in the City of Collingwood in 1879.[1][2]

Nahum Barnet began practicing as an architect in 1879, and was an early advocate of red brick and terracotta, then gaining popularity in England, rather than the ubiquitous stucco or stone.[3] By the late 1880s he produced some major commerical works, including Rosaville, an unusual and highly decorated two storey terrace in Carlton (1883),[4] the Renaissance Revival style Her Majesty's Theatre (1886), and the Austral Building (1891) in Collins Street, one of the first to introduce the red brick Queen Anne style to the city's streetscapes.

Barnet was active in Jewish life like his father; in 1882 he was elected secretary of the Anglo-Jewish Association, and was honorary architect to the Jewish Philanthropic Society, doing work at the Jewish almshouses (later the Montefiore homes). He was to develop an extensive Jewish clientele, designing many houses and a number of tobacco warehouses and factories.[1]

Unlike some other boom era architects, he weathered the crash of the 1890s, was again prominent after 1900, producing some of this most original and attractive designs. These include the Romanesque / Queen Anne Alston's Corner (1904), the Edwardian Baroque Empire Building (1905) on Flinders Street, the unusual red brick Wertheim Piano Factory (later used as the studios for television station GTV-9) in inner suburban Richmond (1909), the Romanesque / Queen Anne Auditorium Building (1913), the Gothic Revival Francis & Co Chemist at 280-282 Bourke Street (1913). Other designs in this period include the rebuilt London Hotel in Elizabeth Street (1911), and the Young Women's Christian Association clubrooms in Russell Street (1913, demolished), and an early block of flats Florida Mansions[5] in St Kilda Road (1916, demolished). In 1903 he designed a new front for the St Kilda Synagogue (demolished), and his last work was the Melbourne Synagogue (1929) in South Yarra.

Barnet's Edwardian-era work commercial work was often designed in the local version of the Edwardian style popular in the period 1899-1913. This was derived from the American Romanesque Revival, combined with elements of the Queen Anne, characterised by the use of red brick and tall arches. Barnet decorated some of his essays in this style with Art Nouveau details, relatively rare in Melbourne.

The popular claim that there was not a street in the Melbourne central business district where a Barnet building could not be found was coined by his friend Isaac Selby and reiterated in Barnet's obituary in The Argus in 1931[6]. The obituary relates that when challenged with the street "Carpentaria Place" (a short street opposite the Windsor Hotel, now pedestrianised), the reply was "You are wrong. You have overlooked the cabman's shelter." Barnet had designed this in 1898, and it still exists, though relocated to Yarra Park along Brunton Avenue some time in the interwar years.[7]

In 1885 Barnet married Ada Rose Marks in the Great Synagogue, Sydney; they had four daughters and from the mid 1890s lived next door to his parents in Alma Road St Kilda. He died at home in St Kilda on 1 September 1931.[1]

Gallery of works

References

  1. ^ a b c Miles Lewis: Nahum Barnet at Australian Dictionary of Biography, access date Jan. 2010.
  2. ^ "Collingwood Notables Database". Collingwood Historical Society Inc. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
  3. ^ "BUILDING MATERIAL". Argus. 20 September 1881. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
  4. ^ "Rosaville". Victorian Heritage Database. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
  5. ^ "Florida Mansions". Victorian Heritage Database. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
  6. ^ "DEATH OF MR. NAHUM BARNET". Argus. 2 September 1931. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
  7. ^ "Landmarks". The Age. 11 June 2005. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
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