October 2025

After a large site on Fitzroy Street near Grey Street was subdivided and sold in 1879, a row of six grand mansions were built, all a similar size, with matching garden setbacks. From the 1910s to the 1950s, they all disappeared behind shops built over the gardens, leaving some of them intact, and surprisingly four are still there – Canterbury /Brooklawn, Strathmore, Glenroy, and Aberdour. An urban legend says one or other was once the French Embassy, but this is quite untrue.

The most northern one was Canterbury (later Brooklawn), built in 1880, the subject of another post. It was partly revealed in the 1990s by removing one shop, but had lost some detail.

Next door turns out to be even more intact. Strathmore was built in 1880, designed by Henderson & Smart in a grand classical style, with an elegant first floor cast iron verandah. Real estate pics show a fine studio flat downstairs (but must be a bit dim) and a nice one bed upstairs.

It was divided into flats probably in 1931 when the Spanish style shops were built in the garden, but kept free of the mansion itself. There’s a nice shopfront, curving back to the new entrance. Both, along with the next four mansions, were run as Mrs Irvine’s Establishment from c1905 into WW1 – advertised as ‘Mansion Home for Permanent Boarders and Visitors’, at a time when St Kilda had become a place for a seaside holiday. Both these houses are graded significant, but neither of them has a detailed citation.

Topolinos in Fitzroy Street is going to close and go up for sale, along with the four shops next door – and behind them is a hidden mansion, which seems to be very intact ! See pic from when the Pride Centre revealed it a bit, and pic from 1914. The house seems to be flats, and the stairs are intact too. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was revealed again, like they did with Brooklawn a few doors up in the 90s ? (last pic).

This site is graded significant but there’s no research, apart from an article in the St Kilda HistoricalSociety newsletter, which tells me it was built in 1882, and originally called Aberdour. I can’t find an architect. In 1897 it was briefly occupied by the Italian consul.

By WW1, along with the two houses to the south it was a guest house, ‘Irvine’s Establishment’. In fact those houses and the three to the north including Brooklawn were all built at the same time to the same setback – you can just make them out in the fuzzy 1920s pic.

The house right behind Topolinos is still there too, it was called Glenroy, built 1882, no architect I can find. You can just see a corner of the eave, but it’s lost the verandah, and I think the ground floor is incorporated into the restaurant. The frontage was built probably in the 1920s, and it must have always been large, since they had dancing after it opened as Kostos Cafe in 1933. Later it had different names.

Topolinos started about 1972, been there 53 years ! It had and has a 24hr license, and so was a place to go for hospo workers after their shift, musos etc. Started by Mathew and Chris Forte, from Sicily, it’s Mathew who’s selling up. Ps just been told Topolino means ‘little mouse’ in Italian and is their term for Mickey Mouse !

The next two mansions on Fitzroy Street, demolished long ago. The first one is where the Pride Centre is now, and was actually a pair of huge terraces, Voltaire and Racine, built in 1891 in a chunky Queen Anne style with a very open top floor verandah. The architect was Nahum Barnet, an early adopter of the style. By about 1905 they were operating as a single guest house by Mrs Irvine, and the photo is 1914, when she ran all six as one. I couldn’t find any other images.

Pic 3 is Mirka Mora standing on the heap of rubble after it was demolished in 1968 (the family was living in and running Tolarno across the street) – she’s holding one of the balusters, and it’s captioned ‘in the ruins of the French Embassy’, which might be where the urban legend comes from. I couldn’t find any reference to an embassy or even a consul on Fitzroy Street – maybe she was prompted by the French literary names of the houses.

The one next door with the more conventional but still impressive arcaded verandah was called Scarborough, built 1884, architect Frederick Williams. Again this is the only photo, but the @nationaltrustvic file has three photos of the interior, which looked very elaborate indeed ! (though most mansions in Melbourne once had extensive painted decoration). It was demolished about 1970 for a bank, now my local chemist.

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