Repost 2017:
The Wimmera, on Wimmera Place, one of the more interesting #ArtsandCraftsstyle flats in #StKilda. Built during WW1 in 1917, it’s relatively early for flats in Melbourne, and like other early ones, it’s a mix of stylistic influences, with Edwardian #redbrick piers creating a formal front of loggia/verandahs, but on the bay view side, there’s a sort of tower of almost circular rooms/ bay windows, clad in shingles. Another case of a big front bedroom and a tiny one at the rear, perhaps for a child, probably not a maid like I’ve said before (unless it was a holiday let?), or perhaps a guest room, or just a spare room. An early design by #HowardLawson, who went on the design and deveIop the famous Spanish style Beverley Hills complex in South Yarra in the 30s.
This ones a block of 6, and I remember back in the 90s when stkilda was cheap and friendly, I knew someone there who’d managed to move up the building to better views when the people above moved out. No informal rental auctions back then ! Whole block probably had a single owner.
Thanks to Richard Peterson and his chapter on this building in the st kilda historical society’s ‘A Place of Sensuous Resort’.
Storey of Melbourne 