#LostMelbourne (well, there’s bits left) #ClivedenMansion was built 1887-88, designed by #WilliamWardell for ‘Australia’s only Baronet’ Sir William Clarke, with the usual 20 bedrooms, ballroom, and craftsmen brought out from Italy to do the marble and stuff. In 1909 became luxury flats with an added floor, then dem in 1968 for Melbourne’s first #HiltonHotel, a bricky brutalist thing, that included the ‘Cliveden Room’ reusing some of the best bits, that were sold off last year, except for some floral windows and a pair of newel posts. I had meant to nominate them to the #VictorianHeritageRegister ages ago but too late now !

Rather shocked when I went in 6 months ago looking for the Cliveden Room to discover that only last year most of the 19thC items in the Cliveden Room were sold off at auction last year as part of a sweeping renovation by #RotheLowman of what’s been known as the Pullman in the Park for a few years now. The best bits went to auction at #Aingers in March 2017. At least not destroyed, but lost from public view. Update : the fabbo big window, the doors and the fireplace were purchased by the Campbell-Pretty Family, presumably at the auction, then donated to the #NationalGalleryVictoria, and the big window is on display at the Ian Potter right now.

The NGV are calling it the Welcome Window, and they say its 1887, John William BROWN (designer), JAMES POWELL & SONS aka WHITEFRIARS GLASS WORKS, London. Photo of the window in its new home set into a wall at the NGVA.

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