17 February 2019

The very bijou ex-#BrightonCourtHouse – here’s what I said last time I posted it in 2017 : Brighton Court House, 1936, by the versatile #PercyEverett who had been appointed #ChiefArchitect of the #PublicWorksDepartment the year before, and wasted no time. Cubic and formally planned, but with decorative touches like the brickwork, a bit of stepping at the top and of course the #RoyalCoatofArms. A grand composition in miniature. Not sure why they needed to build a separate building in the lawn next to the town hall, and not combine with the town hall or a police station or something, but anyway, there it is. Now a campus of the Bayside #UniversityoftheThirdAge.

17 February 2025

I have since discovered Percy did four other courthouses that are all versions of Brighton, three now demolished. Dandenong was pretty much a repeat, but with simpler stepped top detailing and more vertical ribbing, Red Cliffs was much simpler, with the side volumes moved forward and few details, Cobden was a repeat of Dandenong but in brick, and all three were built in 1940. Sandringham was built during the war, I think completed 1944, even simpler, but in two tones of brick. It was built as a tiny formal complex, with a police station on one side, and possibly police residence on the other, with the courthouse up the axis. Only Brighton and Red Cliffs survive. B&W photos @vic_archives, Red Cliffs @jdflemington, and colour one of Sandringham from their historic society, just before it was demolished in 2007.

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