1 February 2025

Rather fabulous townhouses in Brighton Road Balaclava, corner of Albion Street, where all wall surfaces including the chimneys are made up of crazy-paved brick/blockwork, in a range of sizes and colours, including bricks with impressed patterns. And that’s on top of also going all Art Deco, with nearly every corner delightfully curved, and there’s a lot of them because it’s on an acute angle and fills up most of the site. ‘Mid-Mar’ was built in 1937, and designed by Leslie Reed, who also designed in Tudor and Spanish styles. Inside is pretty good too, the front unit with 3 big bedrooms, great etched glass doors, and an amazing Deco sideboard heater thing, which I presume is original, and so is the main bathroom. The second unit also 3 beds, but not quite as big or spectacular. I now realising that maybe St Kilda and area seems to have a higher density of not only exotic styles, but more extreme versions, and not only for flats. Or maybe it’s just that I live here !

Update : I’m told they were only recently subdivided into two lots, but the real estate ads didn’t seem to have dates.

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