11 April 2025
Sadly these striking modernist units on the rise of Barkers Road in Hawthorn just over the river were destroyed by fire early yesterday morning. Others altered me to news footage and the destruction is pretty clear.
They’re often said to be Robin Boyd, but the Frederick Romberg book says they’re his design, from 1955. A pretty simple row of 4 bedsits, nice big windows to the view. Covered by a local heritage listing. Real estate pics from a sale last year show a big deck was added, and how people actually lived in them. @9newsmelbourne says police say the fire was deliberately lit, and at least one unit was occupied, but they were out.
A lot of reaction :
October 2026
The charred remnant of the modernist flats on the hill of Barkers Road Hawthorn that burnt down in April last year. Luckily no one was home. It was treated as suspicious so I guess while investigations are ongoing it’ll stay like this. They were built in 1955, designed by Frederick Romberg, and you can see just how simple they were – double (concrete) brick walls, front wall of windows, and a skillion ceiling / roof held up by slim trusses. Doubt it would meet structural codes today. I also got some shots of those vertiginous concrete stairs I’ve passed a million times but never walked up. Great views.
Very sad to see this destruction. The flats reminded me of another I believe Romberg designed block at 150 Power St, not far from this one. A friend lived there in the 80s and we all thought it was a pretty cool flat, none of us aware of the architect at the time.
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Yes he did those, about the same time.
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Is it possible to OUT the ‘developer couple’ who have owned the site since 2024? Can someone supply names? Public knowledge may create a small cause for justice from what is a terrible injustice. Can we spotlight these real-life ‘scoundrels’ in Melbourne’s corrupt property development industry?
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