Original post 18 December 2018:

Architect #NormanHitchcock wasn’t one for holding back – the #VictoriaBuildings in #SmithStreetFitzroy, built 1889, have mad fat pilasters with exaggerated entasis, so much wider at the bottom, plus his usual brackets on top of columns, loads of #vermiculation, and oddly non-symmetrical brackets under the cornice – which it turns out supported huge pediments placed over the join between two terraces; originally it was to have domed #mansards above every 3rd one as well. Apparently not built, but there were third levels at each end instead (though no photos not sure where I hit that info). Two terraces were demolished at one end in the 60s leaving 8 instead of 10, and the pediments were lost too. This terrace very similar to his design for the Jewish News in Faraday Street Carlton, later Brunettis. Original sketch from the great little book, ‘Fitzroy, Melbourne’s First Suburb’.

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