Original post 7 December 2018:

Harcourt & Parry Drapery, 1888, by #CrouchandWilson, sits very grandly in Park Street #SouthMelbourne, near the Town Hall; and unusually the facade is made of carved stone, and there’s a little tower, and you can see ‘H&P’ in lovely curly script up there. It was I guess a mini department store for cloth. Always thought it was Patross Knitting Mills, but that started here in the early 30s. The cloth-based uses still continue, with the #VictorianTapestryWorkshop setting up here in 1976 soon after the State Government bought that whole block of South Melbourne from the Anglican charity that had owned it since 1855. Lovely example of Gothic Revival, or maybe Medieval Italian – the round arched window with a pointed arch above was a particularly popular motif in Victorian Melbourne. Update : it’s now the Australian Tapestry Workshop.

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