July 2021:

Another bit of #LostMelbourne, which only lasted about 25 years, and was demolished over 80 years ago ! An Edwardian ‘chambers’ for doctors and dentists, built 1912, designed by Oakden & Ballantyne.

It’s nice enough though a bit unresolved as they say, it gets plainer going up except then there’s an extra floor above the side arches, and a curbing wide balcony, and piddly pediments either side. Or are they Mannerist games ? Anyway, in 1928 the large new T & G Building opened next door, which expanded to twice the width in 1938, and so the chambers disappeared.

Repost 2021:

Long lost Collins Street – Zercho’s College, next to the T&G, built around 1911, and designed by the prolific Nahum Barnet, with some lovely curley almost #ArtNouveau details, and a bay window flanked by turrets, on another one of those tall thin frontages that used to be common in the CBD. Also occupied by the Alexandra School of Music, Zerchos Business School was a place for secretarial training, which was big business, grew a lot from 1912 on, lots of branches, good work for young women, a great step up from factories. This photo is 1971, in fetching shades of blue (not original), then by 1984 the facade was replaced with slick glass (why??), then it was demolished in c1989 for the pomo expansion of the T&G building (which I quite like). Photos 1-3 @library_vic c1970, pic 4 City Melb Libraries, last streetview.

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