Remember Batman Records ? This is at 215 Swanston St when it was one of three city stores, photo taken as part of the 1985 Central City Heritage Review. A great place to get your second hand vinyl, or rent a record, take home and tape it ! And just discovered I had a photo of it taken six months ago; looked much better before, with a 60s shopfront and nice colour scheme – I think that’s some terrible textured render over everything, maybe they were trying to make it look antique or something.The building dates from 1854, gold rush era, once one of four.
Batman started as a book club in 1934, Melb’s Centenary year, so prob it’s named after our putative founder; expanded into records in 1947, when Hugh Fowler took over the business, and he was still there in 2003 when it went online, doesn’t seem to exist any more. First photo Graeme Butler for the City of Melbourne. Interior of Little Bourke store, looks like 80s. Pic of Mr Fowler 1998 @nationallibraryaus.
Storey of Melbourne 