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Jewell Station is one of several stations that form part of the precinct heritage listing for the 1880s Upfield Railway Line.

Jewell Station History.
Content via Lovell Chen.

The station started life as South Brunswick Station and was renamed in 1954 in celebration of James (Jimmy) Robert Jewell (1869-1949), Brunswick’s long-serving member of the Victorian Parliament.

Jimmy Jewell was also the focus of the interpretation strategy Lovell Chen provided for the station building, the surroundings of which were redeveloped. Through him, and the causes and campaigns of his political career, an understanding of life in Brunswick in the first half of the 20th-century was evoked.

Jewell was an active member of the Brunswick community, which was a working class suburb undergoing a development boom during the years in which he was its representative (1910-1949). He was also at various times a Brunswick City Councillor, Mayor of Brunswick, Vice-President of the East Brunswick Progress Association, on the Brunswick Technical School Council and President of the Brunswick Junior Football Club — making him an ideal prism through which to view Brunswick’s history.

The station complex consists of the red brick Late Victorian Gothic station building (mid 1880s), a later goods shed and warehouses. The warehouses are have made way for the construction of residential apartments as seen with our 17 Union Street by Neometro and BKK Architects Project we helped construct, and the station forecourt has been landscaped as a public community space landscaping by Glasurban The project has provided cultural spaces for the community and a more user-friendly transport hub, with a reactivated station frontage and redevelopment of the adjacent cycle path.

Manresa have proudly helped with the redevelopment of the station precinct which included restoration works of the heritage station itself. Some of the tasks being completed are as follows.
• Tuckpointing
• Timber Window & Doors
• Bluestone Sills, Plinths & Thresholds.

The relationship between Neometro and VicTrack is shaping and inspiring future development in Brunswick, and around other stations throughout Melbourne. A key focus for VicTrack as landowners is to unlock the potential of underutilised transport land to create better public spaces. Stations are the gateway to communities. Each station development must be of the highest quality and reflect the unique character of the local area. The vision of 17 Union Street at Jewell Station has been developed to truly represent the diversity and richness of Brunswick.

Lovell Chen created the interpretation strategy document including a thematically-based interpretative structure for the site, identification of the anticipated audience profile, and recommendations for the form, content and location of interpretative elements. Resulting in a fabulous space and restoring a beautiful part of Brunswick’s rich history.
Read entire article here: LOVELL CHEN NEWS

Stay tuned for completed photos soon of the Union Street Brunswick project.

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