26 February 2024

A very fine Renaissance Revival style facade in King St near Flinders, with typical rusticated base, and prominent first floor windows, all in carved bluestone. A style common for warehouses (indeed many building types) in the 1850s that just carried on, this one designed by A L Smith in 1873 for Zander’s Bonded stores, a business run by Cecilia Zander for 20 years after she became a widow. Later it was Doyle’s, gaining the nice bronze doors perhaps in the 1920s. then a big fire in 1954 leading to a completely new interior (an early case of facadism!), and it became a nightclub in 1978. This whole strip of old warehouses became nightclubs about then, helping to preserve them, and most still are. Listed by Heritage Victoria early on, in 1978. B&W image @library_vic, 1949. The first floor sign was painted on.

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