Repost this day 2019 :

Great photo in the #MelbourneUniversityArchives of an 1850s/60s house in #NicholsonStreetFitzroy that’s still there showing it had some kind of slatted ? canvas ? screen wall with arched openings following the arches of the verandah – no idea if that was 1850s too, but it shows that the Victorians had methods of sun screen we’ve all forgotten- this faces west so would have got a lot of afternoon summer sun. They also used pull-down / roll down canvas blinds on the verandah, shops did too, very few still exist, but plastic varieties are popular now. Windows often had external blinds too, with elaborate timber hoods, also usually gone. Shutters weren’t at all popular here, not sure why.

The photo is one of 4000 taken in the late 50s/early 60s by John Lockyer O’Brien, an historian at the Uni, who lived in a Victorian terrace in Hanover Street in Fitzroy and took a liking to all thing Victorian and local, just before so many got demolished ! There were a few others doing the same thing, all they could do really before #heritagelisting was a thing, and thank goodness, they created quite a valuable record.

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