This building was initially a bakery owned by Francis Clark who built the Devonshire Arms Hotel. This building was likely built in the early 1850s.
“The building permit for the bakery on the south west corner of Gertrude Street and Fitzroy Street is recorded on the Burchett index as being applied for in 1853, and Jill Robertson records the iron ovens as being cast for Francis Clark in Port Melbourne (then known as Sandridge) in the 1850s (2008). Despite all the changes in Fitzroy over the years, this building remained a bakery for over 135 years and seems to have had remarkably stable tenancy, with only a handful of families baking here from the 1850s until the 1930s.
Originally listed as a “bakery, house, shop and stables” occupied by John Burke, Francis then rented it to William Shurey, it then passed to Jonathon McDonald and the Gearon
family till the late 1930s (Melbourne Rate Books,1845-1858). In the 1960s the Mooncrust Wholemeal bakery was based here. In the 1980s Potts Bakery— which had the distinction of being Melbourne’s largest commercial bakery still using wood-fired ovens
(those installed by Francis over 130 years earlier) were baking here (Robertson 2008). ” (Francis Clark: A man of his time (1820-1896), by Alison M Hart)
More recently it has been the Turning Point Drug and Alcohol Centre.