20 May 2024
The ex Masonic Club Building in Flinders Street, which has just had a refresh, looks nice, though it’s not terribly architecturally interesting. Completed in 1927, the design was by Joseph Plottel, who won a competition (and went on to do many flats city buildings and the Footscray Town Hall); the style is rather flat stylised classical. The club was just a bar I think, on the fourth floor, it wasn’t actually a Masonic venue. I remember a bit of one of the brackets under the balcony fell off some time ago, now they’re both missing – you can just see them in the 1980s photo from @heraldsunphoto_retro. I also remember for a time in the 90s the bar floor was the Temple nightclub, with gay night on Sundays ? It was great fun. Now it’s the flat with the nice arched windows. Movida has been on the ground floor corner for ages.
Storey of Melbourne 