Monopole Cigars Sign 413- 415 Swan Street Richmond

Background story derived  from City of Yarra Heritage Gaps Study by Lovell and Chen 2012

Nos 413-415 Swan Street, Richmond is a Victorian two storey brick terrace pair of shops and combined residences. The ground floor shopfronts have been modified, but the rendered first floor facades are intact, with no. 413 remaining unpainted save for the c.1920s 'Monopole Magnum Cigars' sign, which adds distinction.

Nos 413-415 Swan Street is of local historical significance, as a pair of two storey brick shops and combined residences constructed for carpenter, J Wood in 1892. This was just after the period of commercial development consolidation in Swan Street, and unusually during the severe economic Depression of the early 1890s. The buildings were subsequently occupied by a range of retailers and commercial operations, typical for a main street of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.