Speaker: Peter Beer

Peter has published the book: From cottages to Colosseums – Clements Langford – A Melbourne Master Builder’s Lasting Legacy.

Clements Langford is Peter’s great-great grandfather. Clements, aged 18 moved to Melbourne in 1868 with his family.  His father George became a grocer on the corner of Church and Kent Streets, Richmond. Clements became apprenticed to David Mitchell in 1879. While working under Mitchell, Clements would have worked on jobs such as Scots Church in Collins Street (1874) and the Exhibition Buildings in 1880. Clements entered a partnership with Robert and Henry Hutchinson, a Richmond father and son carpentry and building team.    Clements made significant progress and established his own business in Bridge Road, Richmond, with the factory extending around to Church Street. He was very involved in the Richmond community, the St Stephen’s Church and was responsible for the construction of many significant Richmond and Melbourne landmarks. Incorporated as Clements Langford Pty Ltd in May 1923, by 1930 it encompassed ‘shop and office fitters, plumbers, painters [and] decorators’, and boasted large joinery, timber-machining and plumbers’ shops.