Joseph Reed (architect)

Joseph Reed (1823?-1890), a Cornishman by birth, was probably the most influential Victorian era architect in Melbourne, Australia. He established a practice, Reed and Barnes in Melbourne in 1852. The practice now known as Bates Smart is one of the oldest continually operating in the world.

Reed's buildings represent an impressive body of work much of which still exists today. They include the classical State Library of Victoria (1856), Collins Street Independent Church (1867), Frederick Sargood's Rippon Lea Estate (1868) and Melbourne Trades Hall (1873). In contrast to the polychrome Romanesque of Rippon Lea and the Independent Church is the stern Gothic manner of Scots' Church (1871-4) across the road; the energetic spire was for the last decades of the nineteenth century Melbourne's tallest structure. The Trades Hall is grandly palatial, the world's oldest and probably most splendid trades hall. In the fashionable Second Empire style Reed also designed Melbourne Town Hall (1870); the World Heritage listed Royal Exhibition Building, completed for the 1880 International Exposition in Melbourne; and the now demolished Menzies Hotel (1867). Reed completed the building of St Paul's Anglican Cathedral to the designs of William Butterfield after that architect resigned the project in 1887. Reed was faithful to the original design, but provided most of the furnishings, including the elaborate pulpit. He died in 1891, soon after the completion of St Paul's.

Full List of Works

* Collins Street Baptist Church (1845)
* State Library of Victoria (1854)
* Geelong Town Hall (1855)
* Wesley Church (1857)
* Royal Society Buildings (1858) (Reed & Barnes)
* 157 Hotham Street, East Melbourne (1861) (attributed)
* Commercial Banking Company of Sydney (1862) (demolished 1956)
* St Michaels Uniting Church (1866)
* The Menzies Hotel (1867) (Reed & Barnes)
* Rippon Lea Estate (1868) (Reed & Barnes)
* Melbourne Town Hall (1869)
* Melbourne Trades Hall (1873) (Reed & Barnes)
* Scots' Church (1873) (Reed & Barnes)
* ANZ Bank, Collins Street (1876) (Reed & Barnes)
* Faraday School, Carlton (1876) (Reed & Barnes)
* Eildon Mansion (1877) (Reed & Barnes)
* Eastern Market (1877) (Reed & Barnes) (demolished in the 1960s)
* Wilson Hall, Melbourne University (destroyed by fire in 1952)
* Royal Exhibition Building (1879) (Reed & Barnes)
* Ormond College, Melbourne University (1881)
* Holy Trinity Church, St Kilda (1882-1889) (Reed & Barnes)
* Old Pathology Building, Melbourne University (1885) (Reed, Henderson & Smart)
* Lombard Building (15-17 Queen Street) (1887) (Reed, Henderson & Smart)
* Baldwin Spencer Building, Melbourne University (1887) (Reed, Henderson & Smart)
* Old Physics Conference Room and Gallery, Melbourne University (1888) (Reed, Henderson & Smart)
* Sacred Heart Church, St Kilda (1891) (Reed, Henderson & Smart)
* Mutual Store, Flinders Street (1891) (Reed, Smart & Tappin)
* A.C Goode House (1891) (Wright, Reed & Beaver)
* Metropolitan Gas Company (1892) (Reed, Smart & Tappin)
* Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Carlton (1910) (Reed, Smart & Tappin)

Gallery of work