August 2026 This rather Colonial looking mansion painted a fetching green (not) is Marlton, the house that gives its name to Marlton Crescent in St Kilda, which runs off Wellington Street, and is where St Michael’s school started. It was built in 1864 (possibly an expansion of an 1855 house), designed by Lloyd Taylor in … Continue reading Marlton →

1 aug 2026 The State Theatre is going to reopen in October, some months earlier than projected, and it’s going to look pretty much exactly the same. The great huge brass-bauble ceiling, like a section of a gigantic chandelier, has been cleaned and the gilding behind re-done. The only change is that the underside of … Continue reading State Theatre →

July 2026 Abandoned looking house in Blenheim Street Balaclava, complete with truck. But maybe it’s lived in since behind the screen door it seemed to be open, though there’s no path through the garden…..anyway, these situations are usually an older person who doesn’t want to or can’t tidy up, maybe hasn’t got any family, could … Continue reading Looks abandoned … →

July 2026 Malvern Station, 1913, built at the same time as Glenferrie Station posted a few weeks ago, but that one looked much nicer somehow - this one certainly hasn’t seen paint for a while, and lots of extra tubes everywhere. The one really nice bit is the curly grill over the down platform entrance. … Continue reading Malvern, Toorak and Armadale Stations →

July 2026 You really do have to say ‘what were they thinking ? If it was curves and green balconies maybe no one would mind the scale, in fact a couple of narrower but taller towers would have been preferable. But no they went for angular pointy huge black brooding. Hmm the architects were jcb, … Continue reading Clunky crystalline →

July 2026 A delightful bit of street furniture but sadly just rotting away. The tram shelter on Dandenong Road at the corner of Hawthorn Road was built in 1912 for passengers on the rapidly expanding electric tram network being built by the Prahran & Malvern Tramways Trust. Not sure what exact routes they had, but … Continue reading Tram Shelter, rotting →

July 2026 Got into Stanhill, the fab flats in Queens Road designed by Frederick Romberg and finished in 1951, first time opened as part of Closed. We got taken up to the level 7 access balcony across the back, with its horizontal lines, great views, stairs up and down to the various penthouses, and the … Continue reading Stanhill tour →

July 2026 Snuck a few pics of the public toilets outside the GPO. I’ve always liked the railing, with its open circle tops and wiggly spike thing, and the signs are nice too. But of course the main interest is that they’re old street toilets, built in 1910, something rather unusual. In fact they’re so … Continue reading Underground conveniences →

July 2026 The Mad Max carpark at Melbourne University is a wonderful thing ! It was completed in 1972, and used for the film only 7 years later. I don’t think it was designed in order to be so atmospheric, it was just what happened when someone came up with the idea of wide curved … Continue reading Mad Max carpark →

July 2026 Neptune Street is a narrow St Kilda road running parallel to the much grander Robe Street, and it’s lined with cottages - on a heritage walk by StKilda Historical Society a very long time ago they said ‘the servants had to live somewhere nearby’. Which they did if they didn’t live-in, but of … Continue reading Neptune →