26 September 2018:
Dr Bowens surgery and townhouse, later known as Portland House, built in 1872, architect #LloydTayler. The facade was restored by @aboderestoration and @opataustralia in 2015, see my photo from 2013 (one of my first instas !), which shows the ivy that had been there for decades. Just wish they’d restored/improved the 1960s ‘regency’ ground level windows – you can see the original ground level in the 1956 image.
The house was paid for by very wealthy financier Henry ‘Money’ Miller, after the good Dr married Henry’s daughter. What a wedding present. One of a small number of the townhouses and surgeries left that once dominated the last 2 blocks of the #parisend of #collinsstreet.
14 December 2023
The beautiful Portland House at the very top of Collins Street is proposed to have a 10 storey office block built behind, and I think it’s perfectly ok. Unless it was winter and you’re standing in the right spot, you probably wouldn’t notice it.
Portland House was built in 1873 by financier Henry Miller, who started the Bank of Victoria among other investments, for his daughter who married Dr Aubrey Bowen, and the townhouse also served as his consulting rooms. It wasn’t a huge house, two rooms deep with a short rear wing.
In the 60s that wing was replaced by new construction, and the front ground floor windows were replaced by Georgian-ish shop windows. The new tower will replace the rear wings without touching the main house, and they would restore the front windows, and the cast iron fence, which would be nice to see.
I’m not sure why the new part is only 10 levels when there’s no height limit, but it’s a narrow site and above 40m they have to set back 5m on at least one side, perhaps that’s why. The architects are @dentoncorkermarshall, not the best thing they’ve ever done, but it’s ok.
The original house, by architect Lloyd Taylor is really quite delightful, loads of great detail.
Storey of Melbourne 