Photography by John Gollings
A veritable Who’s Who of Melbourne’s cultural characters have collected, at one time or another, at a former pub, now dubbed The Lennox, at Richmond’s 208 Lennox Street.
The Lennox looms, somewhat imperiously, over its more domestic neighbours towards the top of Lennox Hill[i]. From its rear balcony it takes in the vistas of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the skyline of Melbourne’s CBD, while the view from the front room is dominated by the Jesuit-run St. Ignatius Church on its commanding site at the summit of Richmond Hill in Church Street.
But well before there was a Lennox, this was the realm of the on the Wurundjeri-willam people of the Kulin Nation. Not far from the banks of Birrarung (the Yarra River) it was a place of traditional ritual, hunting and day-day-life. The settlement and development of Melbourne by Balanda (outsiders) impacted heavily on the Wurundjeri-willam people and from the 1830s dispossession of land, dislocation, frontier clashes and introduced diseases led to a dramatic decline in the population. But the Wurundjeri survived and live in the region to this day.
Hunkered at the corner of Lennox Street and Rowena Parade, the building was erected in 1878 and rumours abound as to its chequered history, including the strong possibility it was a House of Ill Repute. Rumours also abide that it was a haunt of infamous Melbourne gangster, Squizzy Taylor. That it was a pub, or at the least a speakeasy, is beyond dispute. At the turn of the century the owner was George Pearson, variously described as a ‘bottler’ and a ‘spirit merchant.’
Officially dubbed The Lennox in 2020, the building at 208 is a thriving centre of artistic and cultural activity replete with an active exhibition space and room for an artist-in-residence to maintain a studio and residence.
In 1986 arts-patron Helen Bogdan secured the building on behalf of Bogdan Geier Productions and since that time, as both a studio and an exhibiting space, Lennox Street has established its own vibrant history. It has hosted decidedly eclectic exhibits by the likes of Mark Schaller and the late David Larwill (1956–2011) (coincidentally two of the founders of the notorious ROAR Galleries), Bernhard Sachs, Michael Staniak and James Clayden.[iii] A series of exhibitions hosted by David Moulbay of Lindberg Galleries, included Marc de Jong in 2019. An anarchic, but nonetheless elegant, group show in 2019 curated by young artist Ben Aitken was a hit. Colourful and at times challenging, Aitken made the most of the vast spaces(s), curating a cocktail of the emerging and the established. Amongst the artists included were Jon Cattapan, Kate Benyon, Leslie Rice, Michael Vale, Natasha Bieniek, Phuong Ngo and Sam Leach. Another highlight was Mark Schaller’s ‘Homage to Hydra’ in late 2019, a vibrant homage both to Greek mythology and to Hydra, an island Schaller has visited several times.
And while, since the restoration, most of the art shown has been determinably contemporary, more elderly treasures are a part of daily life. A large piece of Berlin Wall art bought by Helen and adventurer Gary Geier whilst they were in Germany and had shipped to Australia.
Another strange object that inhabited the space for a time was part of Chris Henschke’s exhibition, ‘Demon Core,’ in Hobart. Tony Lloyd curated the exhibition for MONA’s Dark Mofo Festival in Hobart in 2019 showcasing Henschke’s sculptural works. Lloyd and Henschke approached Helen for space to construct and test a new piece for the installation before its shipment to Tasmania.
A regular guest is photographer John Gollings who has worked with Helen on numerous assignments over the years in her role as an International Public Affairs Consultant. representing small independent governments in the Pacific region. Her successful career took her to many countries as well as to the United Nations and the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
The building was purchased, spontaneously by Helen Bogdan in 1986 as a potential production facility for the multi-media company Bogdan Geier Productions. After a period she offered it to Mark Schaller. Establishing a studio was Schaller’s first priority and the stable area on the side of the building provided the perfect site. “I put in a floor and a new roof and turned a kind of outdoor area into a huge studio with the approval of the resident spirits, which everyone was convinced still haunted the place.”
Lennox Street became a bustling social space for artists, musicians, writers and environmentalists. Plans for causes and trips were hatched there, most notably an artists’ journey with Schaller, David Larwill, Peter Walsh (1958-2009) and writer Ashley Crawford to raise awareness and funding to successfully draw attention to uranium mining in Kakadu in the Northern Territory and securing the area as a World Heritage Site. Similarly, the ongoing Artists For Kids Culture Trust was hatched at the premises. Artist Lisa Roet, who lived in the space briefly after a sojourn in Berlin, described it as “old-fashioned-style artists’ colony.” Well-known musicians such as Rosie Westbrook, Spencer P. Jones (1956-2018), Maurice Frawley (1954-2009), and Charlie Owen became regulars and the famed Skyhooks used the space to record their first reunion song in 1990.
Helen Bogdan fully intends to encourage The Lennox, with its rich bricolage of art, music and performance history, to continue as a space of both challenge and entertainment for years to come. “It’s been a wild ride,” she says. “And there’s more to come.”
Special thanks to: Ashley Crawford, Simon Strong, John Gollings, Andrew Landy and the late Nick Danyi.