Original post 29 June 2020
#TolarnoHotel in #StKilda is actually a fine example of #midcenturymodern, but even though the place is on the #VictorianHeritageRegister, exactly when it was built and who designed it isn’t recorded by them; it’s a totally an addition to the front of a guest house, itself converted from an 1884 house called Tolarno, and extended right back to the rear street in c1933.
Georges Mora bought the whole thing in 1965 without telling Mirka (😮); maybe it was going cheap since St Kilda was on the way down then, the nude reviews opened up the street soon after, but they liked it, Mirka painted lots of murals, and I’m sure plenty of people came for the authentic French cuisine. Hmm just found a postcard image which is dated c1954, and some Insta followers tell me they’re late 40s/early 50s models, so maybe built much earlier – just found a notice from 1952 ‘newly rebuilt and redecorated’ so reckon it dates from then. B&W pic @library_vic.
Tolarno in c1915 when it was a guest house combined with the two terraces still there to the south; looks like it was not particularly grand.
On the very back stairs, part of the 1933 addition, is a 19thC stained glass window depicting St George standing on a titchy dragon, which was either already in the house and relocated, or for some reason bought and installed then. Pic Expedia.
30 June 2024
Just went past Tolarno and took some snaps of the Mirka Mora murals, painted 1968-70. I like the main one, sort of painterly line drawings of cherubs and birds and flowers, a bit Chagall, a bit naïve, a bit Eastern European folk style, I think just expressing joi de vivre. Her work was not much influenced by then contemporary trends, and not taken that seriously at first, but she got more famous, and productive, in a wide range of media, through the 70s and beyond, becoming quite an institution. Quite an eventful life actually. In 2016 a new restaurant tenant started covering them up with a wall on one side, without a permit from HV, then had to take it down.
Update 2024: Recently the room has been empty, and the whole property sold last month, to Gordan Marolt, who owns ‘various backpacker accomodations’ and was once manager at the st kilda coffee palace (which is still backpackers).
Storey of Melbourne 