21 August 2024

Looking a bit sad in 2014, Brooks Building on Smith Street is a relatively rare example of Gothic applied to a shopfront. Built in 1885 presumably for Mr Brooks, it was occupied by the Fitzroy Furnishing Co, perhaps one of the first of the many furniture emporiums to concentrate here. The shop l, over two floors, goes right back to the rear lane, where there’s a pretty elaborate and intact facade too (pic from streetview). They offered ‘time payment’ otherwise known as hire purchase. There’s a great photo from the 1980s from the Fitzroy library of the stairs inside which still had painted ads. It’s been a gay/queer venue for ages, Sircuit downstairs and Mollies upstairs, taking advantage of the the open floor plates, and the timber ceiling and the remaining cast iron columns downstairs must be original ! And now I look there’s even a painted sign for the business above the front door. It was repainted about 2019, but in bright white and a sort of grey yellow, yuk (pic 3, streetview). Entry and interior shots from Google maps, havnt been inside myself for a long time. Apparently the Victorian stair is still there, down the back.

6 August 2025

Something I posted in 2013, not very good shots, and all I said then was ‘Fave facade smith street. Plus overly decorated tram. Note vaguely ochre colour – remnants of stone colour limewash from who know the 1910s ? Can’t find exact date built.’

But now through the easy magic of Trove I can say it was built as the Stanford block in 1883, presumably built by Mr Stanford, and designed by William Pitt, early in his career. The local paper called it an ‘ornament to the city’, and noted the fine views from the top floor, including the Kew Asylum ‘an object that but few people wish to contemplate’.

It was built with two double width three storey shops in the middle, one of which was a new home for Ackmans Furniture Arcade – they later went to what became the facades above the Woolies. This was all the beginnings of Smith Street becoming a home for large furniture retailers and also Foy & Gibsons, the street rivalling the city for many decades, now not so much. This building today still looks untouched.

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