State Savings Bank, Yarraville

State Savings Bank, Yarraville
Location within Melbourne
Interactive map of the State Savings Bank, Yarraville area
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Bank branch Residence
Architectural style	Romanesque Revival Art Nouveau
Location	13 Ballarat Street, Yarraville, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Coordinates	37°48′59″S 144°53′28″E
Completed	December 1909
Opened	7 March 1910 (1910-03-07)
Cost	A£1,966
Client	State Savings Bank of Victoria
Technical details
Material	Red brick; timber; plaster; glass; tiles; wrought iron
Floor count	2
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Sydney Smith and Ogg
Other designers	Robert Haddon
Victorian Heritage Register
Official name	State Savings Bank (former)
Type	Registered place
Designated	22 February 1989
Reference no.	H0723
Heritage overlay on.	HO24
Categories	Finance Commercial
References

The State Savings Bank building is a former branch office of the State Savings Bank of Victoria, and now a commercial building and private residence, located at 13 Ballarat Street in Yarraville, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia. Built in 1909 as a bank branch, the building has variously been used as a residence and retail use.

The property was added to the Victorian Heritage Register on 22 February 1989; and was also added to non-statutory lists by the Victorian branch of the National Trust and the City of Maribyrnong on unknown dates.

Description

The State Savings Bank of Victoria branch in Yarraville was designed by Sydney Smith and Ogg in the Romanesque Revival Art Nouveau style. The building was completed in 1909 at a cost of A£1,966. Smith and Ogg employed Robert Haddon as a contract designer, and his book on Australian architecture illustrates similar bank and office designs.

The building is a key element of the established commercial district of Yarraville. The building is a notable and intact example of the banks designed by Sydney Smith and Ogg and an important commercial building in the western region of Melbourne.

Opened on 7 March 1910, the structure consisted of a two-storey red brick building. The ground floor banking chamber was entered from Ballarat Street, whilst the four-bedroom residence for the bank manager, located above, was entered via Canterbury Street. The Ballarat Street façade has an arched entrance and wider arched window opening surmounted by florid Art Nouveau style rendered ornament. Decorative wrought iron railings are mounted on the plinth in front of the ground floor window. The first floor features an oriel window with leadlight glazing and a smaller circular ‘port hole’ window with a rendered keystone. The residential entrance is surmounted by an elaborate terracotta spandrel panel and an arched leadlight window to the first floor stair landing.

Whilst the former banking chamber has been renovated extensively, the building's exterior has remained relatively intact since 1909, with the exception of some port-World War II additions to the south side of the original structure. The building was renovated in 2015 and in 2024, the owner made an application for further renovations for the former banking chamber to be used as a café/bar.

See also

• Architecture of Melbourne
• List of places on the Victorian Heritage Register in the City of Maribyrnong

External links

• "Yarraville's Former State Savings Bank Suburban Icon Poster" (contains contemporary and historical stylised images of the building's facade). HistoricalPrints.com.au. n.d. Retrieved 28 June 2026.