East Melbourne, George Street 125a, 125b

Single storey timber and brick villa, and two storey brick cottage

Martin Bartley notified the Melbourne City Council on 31 January 1853 that he would build a house on his land.  This is the house now known as 125a George Street. It appears in the 1854 Valuation Books as a four roomed wooden house.  In 1856 it is given the specific address of 76 George Street by which it was identified until 1900 when the street numbers were changed.

Martin Bartley arrived from Co. Clare, Ireland, aboard the Thetis on 6 February 1842 as an assisted immigrant.  He was 22 and gave his occupation as labourer.  He could read, but not write. In 1845 he married Hannah Joyce at St Francis Church, Melbourne. Around 1860 he seems to have moved to NSW and died at The Commonage, Hamilton, NSW in 1877.

An advertisement in the Argus of 3 June 1853 read: ‘A quarter acre allotment of land in George Street, east Melbourne, upon which is erected a four-roomed cottage.’ This almost certainly is Bartley’s land. The house apparently did not find a buyer and was rented out until George Clayton is given as the owner and occupier in 1858.  This could mean that the transaction actually took place in 1857 as in June of that year Clayton advises that he will build a kitchen and stabling. This is quickly followed by a wood building. This could be the same building advertised in the Argus of 2 March 1861, ‘FOR SALE, cheap, to be taken away, nice two-roomed wooden HOUSE 76 George street, East Melbourne’.

The beginnings of 125b remain a mystery.  It appears to have started out as a single storey cottage and is first mentioned in an advertisement in the Argus on 22 June 1858, ‘TO LET, a Two-roomed brick COTTAGE. Apply 76 George-street, East Melbourne, near Bishop's Palace.’ According to historian, Winston Burchett, he had been told by a relative of the Matthews family, who later bought 125a and 125b, that the cottage had once been a single storey stable. This could tie in with Clayton’s stable of 1857, but conversion to a residence by 1858 seems unlikely. 

About 1868 George Clayton moved out of 125a and his brother, Richard, a carpenter, moved in. George moved to Brighton where he died in 1910. A short obituary in the Argus on 3 Aug 1910 tells us that he ‘arrived in Melbourne by the ship Ben Nevis in January, 1853, and had been a resident of Brighton for the last 42 years. In the latter end of 1853 he owned an iron works in Bourke-street, opposite where the Theatre Royal is now and supplied all the ironwork for the first Theatre Royal built in Melbourne’. George retained ownership of the properties. 

On 25 January 1875 notice is given to the council of more activity.  This involved ‘taking down wood front and side of kitchen 76 George St and rebuilding with brick’. This is how the house presents today. It also explains where the kitchen referred to in the 1857 notice was built. 

On 23 February 1880 Richard Clayton advised that he would ‘self build two chambers for cottage 76 George Street.’ Could this be the second floor addition to 125b? 

125b had not been recorded in the rate books since about the mid-1860s. The land measurement given for 125a of 48 by 80 feet would indicate that 125b was included as part of 125a. 

As previously mentioned, Joseph Matthews bought 125a and 125b about 1889. He had owned the block next door to the west since he bought it in the crown land sales of 18 November 1852. He applied to build his first house on the land just two weeks before Martin Bartley. The 1856 electoral rolls described him as a carrier. He claimed to have a ‘larger number of teams (his bona fide property) than any carrier in the colony,’ He operated out of an address in Flinders Lane West. He died in 1899 and the two cottages passed to his daughter, Mary who sold them in 1917 when they were advertised as, ‘125a off George St.; D.F. W.B. Villa, 7 rooms, and Bk. House. 5 rooms, 47 x 93’. They remain to this day on the same title. 

125a now is recognised as the oldest private house still standing in East Melbourne.  In The Herald of 16 July 1953 an article appeared claiming that 125a was the oldest house but showing a picture of 125b. Perhaps the photographer did not realise there was another house out of sight. Over the years this has led to some confusion.