February 2026

This fabulously elaborate Spanish facade is still there- well, mostly.

It’s at 261 Chapel Street, Prahran, and the old photo dated 1934 shows it was a Coles Store. Since Harry Norris did many Coles stores, and he also did elaborate Spanish styles (eg the Royce in St Kilda Road) maybe he did this too. But on the other hand all his designs for Coles in the 1930s were Art Deco. Can’t find any conformation, but never mind, it’s really great !

Update : the store was here in 1924, and Norris already working for Coles, so maybe… Also, the Prahran Mechanics Institute’s original 1857 premises was here, which got rebuilt in 1900, and they hung on to the property when they moved to high street in 1915, and still own it !

A bit more on Coles Chapel Street – in 1940 they built a new store just a block away, and it was definitely designed by Harry Norris. It was described as ‘the most modern’ of their shops, and it does look almost 1950s, with those narrow bricks and raised tiled middle bit. The inside however was like all the other 30s shops, with a raised section with skylights and rounded corners.

Later it was expanded to the left and got a big blank front, still there, until recently it was Dan Murphy’s. Pic three is dated 1974, but the style looks a bit 60s to me. It’d be nice to think the 1940 facade is there but I doubt it.

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