April 2026 Howey Place is pretty unusual amongst the city’s lanes, part lane part arcade, with an old glass roof, Pomo details, looking like a dead end, but with many connections. The roof with its Art Nouveau front was created in 1896, when EW Cole extended his Bourke Street Book Arcade through to Collins Street … Continue reading Howey Place →

April 2026 Easthill House, a rather wild stylised Spanish thing nestled up next to St Vincent’s Private I snapped in 2014. I discovered back then it was a new front to a pair of terraces that got transformed, explaining its odd proportions, sort of, but not why there’s so much up top and so little … Continue reading Spanish mish mash →

March 2026 The Port Melbourne foreshore has these rather cute toilets, with quite separate blocks for men and women- the mens is smaller but more decorative, and they both have extra privacy fences added later, as were the multilingual signs. They were built in 1902, at a time when there were bands playing and amusements … Continue reading Port Melbourne foreshore →

March 2026 This is all that’s left of the Centenary Bridge that once formed the entrance to Station Pier - it was a rather huge thing, designed to carry motor traffic along the beach road - over the many rail lines that once ran to and onto the pier (pic 11) - and also down … Continue reading Centenary Bridge →

March 2026 So I won’t mind a bit when/if this one gets demolished - it’s in Dorcas Street South Melbourne, and it’s actually of some importance as the first high-rise tower built by the Housing Commission, completed in 1962. Designed by Bernard Evans, towards the end of a long career, its possibly in slip-form, a … Continue reading First high rise Housing Commission →

March 2026 Fun quirky house in Deakin Street, West St Kilda. Love the fish-scale shingles, still unpainted, and that they curve out. The heritage study says this is an alteration of a Victorian house from c1920, and some Victorian bits are still evident. They also say it’s ‘bizarre’, and that ‘its presence in the streetscape … Continue reading Edwardian West St Kilda →

March 2026 The quite cute but now long gone Duke of Kent pub in Latrobe Street, just up from Elizabeth. It was built in 1929 to a design by W + R Butler & Martin in a restrained classical style with a parapet that could be called Egyptian. It replaced a typical 19thC corner pub, … Continue reading Duke of Kent →

March 2015: Random #victorianmansion on a suburban corner in #hawthorneast near camberwell junction (Havelock and Denmark Hill Road). Built in peak boom 1889-91 like so many other mansions, it has the requisite tower and arcaded verandah. But what a verandah ! Wraps round three sides, double level plus a bit of basement, fat columns with … Continue reading Mansion in Hawthorn →

March 2026 The Maori Chief Hotel on Moray Street South Melbourne, looking splendidly prominent - but also rather forlorn, since it appears to be closed. It was built in 1875, replacing an earlier pub of 1867 (wasn’t that old, maybe it was a little timber shack?) and already sported the exotic name. Nobody knows exactly … Continue reading Māori Chief Hotel →

March 2026 Various photos of Bourke Street from near Queen Street in the 1940s. I know they must be after 1940, because that’s when the last cable tram ran, replaced by double decker buses. In the first image the rough surface must be the wood block pavers which were used to infill the road between … Continue reading Bourke Street double decker buses →