1 August 2024
Lost Sydney – someone said that maybe Melbourne’s losses were worse than other cities, and I said, well every city in the English speaking world lost a lot in the huge urban rebuilding of the 1950s-70s, before there was such a thing as heritage listing, so I’ve found a bunch of big CBD officeblocks and hotels from Sydney for comparison. Like Melbourne, they’re mostly 1880-1891, then lost in the post war years, but yes I think we had a lot more big Victorian office blocks, now gone, but we’ve saved 1 Victorian hotel to Sydney’s none, 2 arcades to Sydney’s 1, and 2 theatres to Sydney’s none, and a lot of interwar office blocks, not to mention the whole central retail area, with all the lanes and arcades. I couldn’t find a simple list anywhere, so hard to make a firm comparison, but I guess Im saying we havnt done too badly, and don’t forget to value what you do have, and not get too fixated on what’s gone.
88 Bridge Street, 1876-1960s
Storey of Melbourne 