30 November 2017
One of the buildings in Swanston Street about to be demolished for the metro tunnel has quite a few layers of history, like most buildings in the retail heart of town.
21 Swanston was built c1915, and looks to have been refaced in the 1930s, and by 1950 was known as the Downyflake Restaurant. Not sure if this is the same Downyflake that had a number of outlets in Melbourne in the 1950s and 60s, where they had a machine in the window where you could watch the donuts being made on a machine. Anyway by 1961 it was a commonwealth bank, which it remained until the recent closure, and at some point the facade was stripped of detail.
One commenter on Instagram in 2024 said yes she remembers seeing donuts made here on a machine.
Storey of Melbourne 