March 2026

Further info on the Chapel Street store a couple of days ago – it was built for ‘the well known drapers’ Brown Corke & Co, who seem to have been mainly in the Goulburn Valley area. But more interesting is the date, I would have guessed 1905, with that great two tone Edwardian look and a dash of near east style – but it’s 1895!

A time when not much was being built due to the big crash of the early 1890s. Pic 3 is how it looked up to 2003, better than now but it was all painted.

The architect was Beverley Ussher, who was essentially one of the main inventors of the Edwardian / Queen Anne style house that became standard from the late 1890s, and his first foray was in 1891. But seems he was also an innovator in commercial work with this one, which I’d say influenced many later shops. The banded arches are a bit of early Edwardian Baroque, ultimately derived from the 8thC Moorish mosque in Cordoba Spain, reused as a church.

There’s one further down Chapel Street in Windsor which is pretty similar but I could never find a date. And others dotted around Melbourne like pics 6 and 7 in Bridge Road.

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