26 September 2015

Delightful! The Exhibition Boot Co in #BourkeStreet, near Russell, built 1904, designed by William Webb, with that fantastic sunburst motif – is it an early Australian #risingsun ? nothing to do with shoes anyway.

Became Coons Shoes by the 20s, all painted white by 1937, then brownish (Graeme Butler, 1984), restored by Mariana Hardwick when she was starting out in 1987, thankfully still the same.

Also, not only is the big copper framed shopfront intact, with the doors, and floor tiles, but so is the great huge old school skylit interior, like some county town general store, complete with pressed metal details (but sadly painted black).

2015

2019

2019

Can anyone think of a similar spectacular ceiling and skylight like this ? I feel like maybe in some country town….anyway, this is on #BourkeStreet near Russell, and it’s currently a Korean place, but was built in 1904 as a new city store for the #ExhibitionBootCo, established 1869. By the 20s it was #CoonsShoes, there for ages, in fact I think I remember it (always thought it was a terrible name till I learned it was named after the Coon family, like the cheese). Pity it’s painted black, hard to see anything…!

• Uncategorized