14 June 2014 :

This is my local #coles #supermaket. Housed behind the retained facade of a #cabletram #enginehouse – which once housed giant #steamengine that ran the cables underground that pulled the trams along. It was designed by the tramways architect Alexander Davidson, in an elaborate polychrome Gothic, and built in 1887; it served the Johnston Street route via Lygon Street which was closed in 1939 and replaced with buses.

The facade has actually changed a lot – by 1970 (b&W pic) the left bay had been opened up then I filled in, then the big openings either side of the middle were made maybe in the 80s, and from 1994-2004 it was the Bullring night club. I never went there, but was surprised to see during demolition in c2007? that there was at least one huge elaborate cast iron Corinthian column and big riveted beam, which of course went to scrap. But nice to see they reconstructed the windows in the left bay, though by using the bases of the right hand windows, so not much is completely original. Pics 2 from Yarra heritage listing c2007.

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