October 2018
Mosspennoch, #EastMelbourne, looking fine now that it’s all restored and subdivided neatly into mansion flats; my first pic is from 2015 when it was still just empty as it had been for 20 years.
They built a mid rise block of flats (by #BatesSmart) in what was garden but, after wanting to knock it down, left the 1890 ballroom wing and in fact restored it including the Edwardian alterations.
Built in 1881, it was designed by #CharlesWebb, who pretty much recycled the bow front design that he used at #MandevilleHall in 1877 – perhaps the owner, solicitor JL Purves, said ‘I want it just like that one’. I love the bulging verandah idea perhaps as much as he did ! It was enlarged to the north and south in 1890, so it feels rather squeezed into the block.
Mosspennoch in June 2015.
The whitish gridded thing is the Bates Smart block
I was sure there were some great huge mantles, but none now it seems, but they did restore a fair amount of great woodwork, and reinstate the fence. The stairs had been replaced ages ago, do they put in a Victorian style one. Restoration by Lovell Chen, woodwork by Charles Sanderson
Storey of Melbourne 
I’ve long been in love with this fantastic building; many moons ago I lived in a flat not far from Moss Pennoch just further up in George Street. Katherine Fitzpatrick’s memoir of his childhood contains a very interesting and atmospheric description of the brief time her family lived in Moss Pennoch when it was a hotel of sorts known as The Ritz, worth having a read. Thanks so much for the great photographs you posted on this piece – a friend and I went to have a look mid-the recent renovation as I was fearful this was going to compromise the building but it looks as though the result is top class.
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