August 2026

Saw this on Facebook and it said it was the Hoadleys Factory built in 1913 in St Kilda Road, but I’d never seen it before, where was it exactly …. turns out it burned down only 6 years later, so there’s only this one photo of it.

It was a very cheery design by Coles & Joseland, in white and red bricks with a nice corner turret – built to house the growing confectionery arm of the business, which had a larger place on Southbank.

It was on the south corner of Park Street, so quite prominent, and after the fire there were comments in the newspapers that St Kilda Road shouldn’t have factories at all. Meanwhile Hoadleys had immediately built a replacement factory on Kingsway, completed in a record 34 days by none other than Howard Lawson. The old site then seems to have become a site for the Repat, and looked a lot like a house. This and more around it became the unexciting Travelodge in the 60s or 70s, later turned into equally unexciting apartments.

Abel Hoadleys brand name was Violet, his wife’s favourite flower, and it was here that he first produced the Violet Crumble.

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