8 August 2025

Hadn’t really noticed this one before, but there it is, sticking up above the now very expensive Victorian cottages off Victoria Avenue, Albert Park. Like all the other Housing Commission towers, it would have been built in the 60s (update it was 1966), using the same pebble-dash precast panels from their factory in Holmesglen. One positive thing is that that finish seems to stay quite clean, it looks pretty much like it did in the c1970 photo.

It’s called Layfield Court, and replaced maybe a dozen cottages with 140 flats, mostly bedsits, presumably for older singles, since that’s who it houses now according to @cityofportphillip.

Not one of the 44 proposed to be demolished.

November 2025

I was wrong, it’s all 44 towers including this one that are to be demolished, eventually (Homes Victoria provide a useful map).

As outlined in the Age recently, the elderly residents are now living in uncertainty. I can understand that on the big estates there’s room to build new social housing and some private as well, doubling the number of units, and losing a lot of open space (though it’s mostly little used grassy areas) – but these single ones for the elderly are on small sites, amongst old terrace houses, so unless you built the same height but fatter you wouldnt get the extra numbers. You also have to break up a community and move the elderly, possibly twice.

Yes better housing would be nice, but maybe it’s a better idea to upgrade these towers ? But without an open discussion of the options, not to mention canvassing the opinions of residents, we’ll never know.

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