23 March 2019
On CarlisleStreet Balaclava is one the best of those late 30s Commonwealth Banks, cos it’s on a corner, with a great circular corner tower element. It’s got one of those great wrought iron screens too, though mostly not visible, being a curved sliding gate thing by the looks. Hmmm the one in #highstreetpreston is pretty much exactly the same arrangement but this one has the horizontals and verticals overlapping, so a touch more interesting.
It’s been the highly regarded Ilona Staller restaurant for a while.
6 October 2023
The very excellent Art Deco grill on the entrance of the corner Commonwealth Bank on Carlisle Street, Balaclava. There’s a whole series of similar Comm Banks in Melbourne, all built late 1930s; there’s a very similar one on the corner of Sydney Road and Separation St, Northcote. All presumably designed by the design section of the Victorian branch of the bank, and all have (or had) similar very stylish grills. Ilona Staller closed in 2020, it’s now a restaurant called Moonhouse, and painted all white.
Storey of Melbourne 