Original post 11 February 2020
Right next to the #ShamrockHotel in Bank Street #SouthMelbourne is this little cutie, an Art Deco style ex-plumber. Also looks out of place in a street of houses but just noticed next to this are two ex-shops, and another on the opposite corner, so I guess it was once a tiny commercial precinct; the Victorians didn’t care too much what went where, no zoning back then, but sometimes random shops were built but they might never have operated. This guy was possibly here as early as 1894, as the #ghostsigns imply. The Melbourne Circle blog tells me that his name was “Frank Cullen, faintly visible in white lettering. The business was still here in 1946, according to the Sands & McDougall directory. He was licensed by M.M.B.W., the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works, which was responsible for the city’s water and sanitation from 1891 onwards. Cullen’s phone number was MX2436.”
Storey of Melbourne 