A FASCINATING SCOTCHIE ’ S STORY COMES TO LIGHT
SCOTCH ’ S ‘ CRICKET ARCHITECT ’: THE FLAMBOYANT GEORGE ‘ DIAMOND ’ BROWNE
For many ( verified ) Scotch boys of the 1860s , the only record of their attendance is one line in the Scotch Register , such as :
George Brown [ allegedly ] aged 14 , entered 22 January 1862 , Methodist , enrolled by C . Brown of Ramsden Street , East Collingwood . I recently properly identified George Brown and learned his fascinating story .
Born at Melbourne on 10 November 1846 , the son of Charles and Mary ( nee Fletcher ) Brown , George ( and his three Brown cousins ) only attended Scotch in 1862 . A year at Scotch was often enough to get a boy a white-collar job .
Fascinating and creative , mysterious and flamboyant , he was known as ‘ Diamond ’ Browne ( he used the name Browne in adulthood ), given his penchant for diamonds . George was typical of the many Old Boys whose stories are yet to be learned .
By 1868 he described himself as an architect and surveyor . Fitzroy ’ s first Presbyterian Church ( now Uniting ), in Napier Street , was designed by George in 1871 and opened on 21 April 1872 . It is considered a significant example of an intact English Gothic church .
George attracted the patronage of William John Turner Clarke and his son , Sir William John Clarke , designing their city houses and commercial buildings . George ’ s greatest enduring legacy is ‘ Rupertswood ’, the Sunbury mansion designed in the Free Classical style for the junior Clarke ( four of whose sons later attended Scotch ). Built between 1874 and 1876 , it remains one of Victoria ’ s largest houses and has national significance and heritage protection .
Rupertswood is best known as the birthplace of the Ashes urn , which was handed to English captain Ivo Francis Walter Bligh after a game of cricket played while his team stayed there during Christmas 1882 .
In 1872 George designed the new Theatre Royal in Bourke Street , replacing its predecessor , which burnt down . It seated almost 4000 people . Movies hastened its demise , and it was demolished in 1934 . He designed Ballarat ’ s Academy of Music ( now Her Majesty ’ s ), which opened in 1875 and is said to be Australia ’ s best-preserved and oldest continuously operating theatre .
George designed the MCG ’ s first grandstand , the famous Reversible Stand , in 1876 . Its seating could be reversed by a gang of men in half a day , using an ingenious system of ropes and pulleys , so spectators could view football games at adjoining Yarra Park . Seating 2000 spectators , it overlooked the first official game of Test cricket against England in March 1877 . At that Test ( after wining and dining the English team ), George presented at least one gold medal , engraved with crossed bats , stumps , and a ball , to English cricketer Henry Rupert James Charlwood . The stand burnt down on 31 August 1884 .
In 1875 George took on an apprentice , William Pitt , who eclipsed him in Melbourne architectural fame . From 1878 George worked in New South Wales , designing homes in Sydney ’ s best suburbs , but also donating his services to design Newcastle ’ s Coutt ’ s Sailors Home in the Victorian Italianate style . It opened on 17 March 1882 and now has heritage protection . Eventually based at 100 Castlereagh Street , Sydney , his commercial buildings included the Mercantile Building Land and Investment Co ’ s headquarters ( 1885 ) on the southwest corner of Castlereagh and Park Street .
References to George mostly dry up after 1885 . When his Australian Riding School building in Bank Street , Melbourne was offered for auction in 1907 , he was erroneously referred to as ‘ the late George Browne ’. He died at the Fulham Workhouse , London , of gastric carcinoma on 21 January 1911 .
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