3 February 2024

I read today the Hill of Content is likely to close, because the building is to be sold. It’s a nice bit of 1920s architecture, with fat pilasters framing generous windows, a little pediment and original verandah. The store was started here in 1922 by A H Spencer, from Sydney, who came to melb in order not to compete with his previous employer Angus & Robertson, and chose the raffish top end of Bourke, amongst the theatres and wine saloons, and named it after being inspired by a walk through the Fitzroy Gardens (but not much of a hill, and is it content, or content ? 😊). He did well pretty quickly, dealing in antiquarian as well as books, and in 1928 he convinced the owners to build a new three storey premises. He ran it until 1951, when it (and the building I think) was sold to Collins, which let it operate independently, but went largely bust in 2005, resurrected as a smaller business, but it seems the building remained with the family of the Collins founder, Frederick Slamen, who are now selling. I see from an oldish photos that the nice 1928 signage was repainted at some point, and also that the original timber stair is still there. The shopfront was updated perhaps in the 60s or 70s, it’s quite nice too. Think there used to be a separate entrance to upstairs. I’m not such a big book person but it was always nice to browse, and the staff very helpful. 1928 photo and interiors from Hill of Content FB page, earliest photo @library_vic, from the front of Spencer’s memoir, info mainly from their Latrobe Journal, 2007.

Update : it was sold in April 2024 to overseas investors, and in November they’re still there.

October 2025

The Hill of Content in their new location – it’s a pity they had to move, but it wasn’t far ! And inside it feels much the same, they’ve reused or repeated the timber framing and globe lights, which were maybe c1970 ? The new spot is in a row of shop/houses built in 1892, designed by Edward G Kilburn, who did some other more exciting work, but nice enough and quite intact.

I see they’ve repeated the nice red colour from the previous 1928 shop, but that means the row isn’t all the same now. And the end one is actually part of the Palace Theatre /Hotel site, and it’s also different colours. Oh well, none of the colour schemes are at all like Victorian ones, and many terraces are painted different colours. Upstairs is all rebuilt as apartments.

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