The impressive #RichardAllenandSons warehouse in #FlindersLane is a case of perfectly fine #heritagecompromise – a whole 18m depth was kept, as well as the lane, #RamsdenPlace to one side – from an old #Mahlstedt map I can see that this is half the building – it had a big brick wall in the middle (no doubt for fire purposes) and its this wall that you can now see almost all of from inside the newly redeveloped #TandGbuilding (did I get that right @tandg_melb?)- mind you they prob only kept it originally cos they had to keep the similarly deep substation across the lane. But I’m pleased to see the pedestrian pathway though the building is now more obvious (sad that T&G building itself was totally #facaded in 1989).

And funny but info on the Richard Allen building is hard to come by – found a ref to #BatesPeeblesandSmart, but the year ?? c1906 ? The top two floors definitely 1912…okay, found it, firstly a huge #fire destroyed their previous warehouse here in Nov 1896, which they were renting from Beath, Shiess & Co, for whom a tender for a new warehouse was advertised by #ReedSmartandTappin in March 1897, so that must be it ! (Bates Peebles etc was a their name after 1907). So, this is the first #tallarchedredbrick #RomanesqueRevival warehouse in Melb, beating the much more adventurous Sargood Warehouse by a few months. Reed Smart would repeat this form, but without the red brick, the next year in Flinders Street with the store for #BallandWelch.

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