Geoffrey Harley Mewton

Geoffrey Harley Mewton (1905–1998) was an Australian architect and leading proponent of modern architecture in Melbourne during the 1930s. He is best known for the Woy Woy flats at Elwood, Victoria, amongst the first flat blocks in Melbourne to show the influence of the European Modern movement.

Personal life

Geoffrey Mewton was the youngest child of William Arthur Mewton and Violet May Ratcliff Ford (1868–1953). His siblings were Beryl Harley Mewton (1898–1982) and Roydon Harley Mewton (1900–1964). Born on 21 January 1905 in Brighton, Melbourne, he was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne. In 1938 he married Elma Ellen Gotz, and they lived in Sandringham in a house he designed for the next 20 years. He also won a scholarship later that year. After graduating, in mid 1928 Mewton and Grounds set off together on a 'world's tour', first to London with another student Oscar Bayne, where they all shared 'digs'.

On returning home to Melbourne, Australia on 13 September 1932, Mewton set up his own office. Their partnership was informal and each worked individually, collecting their own profits. This was followed in 1934 by the Milky Way Cafe in Little Collins Street, a venture of the United Milk Producers Society to encourage milk consumption, with modern tubular steel furniture and flush recessed lighting panels, and both projects may have been Mewton's. Some of the other designs by the partnership were rustic gable roofed designs inspired by the work of William Wurster, most of which it is accepted were by Roy Grounds'

In about 1937 Grounds left for another overseas trip, leaving Mewton to practice alone, though the partnership was not formally dissolved until 1939, when Mewton began a partnership with Edward Billson that lasted to 1942. working on mess halls and field hospitals.

Later in 1945 Mewton joined the firm Godfrey & Spowers, along with Eric Hughes and John Lobb, together forming 'Godfrey, Spowers, Hughes, Mewton and Lobb'. An early notable project was the Babel Building at Melbourne University in 1947. Expanding in the 1950s, the firm began to undertake industrial and office buildings such as Allan's Music Building, Collins St (1956), National Mutual Centre Melbourne (1965, demolished) and Dallas Brooks Hall (1963–1969, demolished). as part of the Ideal Home Exhibition held in February 1936. The modest house, composed of low interlocking and rectilinear volumes including a walled garden was built of strikingly modern white bricks. Woy Woy, 77 Marine Parade, Elwood, was built in 1936, and is the earliest example of Modernism in flat development in Melbourne, along with Cairo Flats in Fitzroy of the same year, and both are amongst the few of any pre-WW2 apartment developments in the city to display this influence. Aphrasia Street, Geelong VIC (1934, demolished) Milky Way Cafe, 300 Little Collins Street, VIC (1934, demolished) Concrete House, Centenary Homes competition (1934, no prize) Evan Price House, Essendon, VIC (1935) Watt House, Toorak VIC (1936, altered) Scout Settlement Home, 313 Nott Street, Port Melbourne VIC (1936)

Attributed to both : 'Portland Lodge', Henty House, 1 Plummer Avenue Olivers Hill, Frankston VIC (1934) (this is adjacent to Grounds' 1953 Henty House) Fairbairn House, 236 Kooyong Road, Toorak VIC (1935–36) Flats, 2-6 North Road, Brighton VIC (1936, altered). House, 493 Kooyong Road, Elsternwick VIC (1936)

Geoffrey Mewton

Riviera Court Flats, 156 Church Street, Brighton VIC (1938) House, Findon Ave Caulfield VIC (1939) Ryan House, Yarradale Road, Toorak VIC (c1940, demolished) Griffith House, 1 Lisbouy Court, Toorak VIC (c1940)

Geoffrey Mewton

House, 21 Summerhill Road, Beaumaris VIC (1950, demolished)

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