Repost 2019: The first one is the 1888 #BallaratStarHotel, corner #LittleBourkeStreet, by #TwentymanAndAskew just before they did the Block Arcade. Doubt it had a lift, so the rooms on the 4th floor would have been cheaper ! Recently the exterior was repainted, looks nice though really shouldn’t be white and maybe still missing a top … Continue reading Two ex-hotels on Swanston Street →

12 August 2021 The Langham, cnr Grey & Robe Streets, St Kilda, 1919, architect unknown - a curious melange of styles, Edwardian/ArtsAndCrafts with some added classical elements like the wreaths and abstracted cornices, the uncertainly reflecting the newness of flats to Melbourne, and architects. It would have looked more Edwardian originally with a domed Belvedere … Continue reading Early flats on Grey Street, St Kilda →

August 2019, updated 2025 A wonderful bit of #streetfurniture on #BalaclavaRoad, North Caulfield. There’s three of this type of #TramShelter, all built in 1916/17 by the #PrahranAndMalvernTramwaysTrust, the municipal body that built much of the tram system in the east and southeast suburbs in the 1910s, so their increasingly suburban citizens could get around. Built … Continue reading Tram Shelter, Caulfield →

Repost 2018: The most excellent #CaulfieldTechnicalSchool extension by the ever creative #PercyEverett, chief architect of the #publicworksdepartment. Streamlined Modernist designed during ww2 and built 1947, by when it looked a bit retro. The #hexagonal feature may or may not be inspired by the the #RussianConstructivist #melnikovhouse, since percy went to russia in 1930. A landmark … Continue reading Caulfield Tech, 1947 →

13 August 2018: #LindHouse, #DandenongRoad, #NorthCaulfield, #AnatolKagan, 1955. Realestate pic, and today’s pic from the driveway; a #midcenturymodern delight. Undercroft, #creambricks, #butterflyroof, #glasscurtainwall, #stonewalling, loads if decorative features inside, parquetry, panelling, built in shelving, even padded bed head. You can almost forgive #heritagevictoria for describing it as a ‘collection of disparate elements’ and refusing to … Continue reading Lind House, Anatol Kagan, 1955 →

A nice probably 1930s set of #SpanishMissionStyle flats in #BeaconsfieldParade - at least they would be nice if not for that clunky added ‘matching’ floor. Seems to have happened just after 2010, found a before image. Don’t know how it was allowed, since Port Phillip #heritageguidelines say additions should be under a line taken from … Continue reading Interwar Beaconsfield Parade →

Repost this day 2019 : Great photo in the #MelbourneUniversityArchives of an 1850s/60s house in #NicholsonStreetFitzroy that’s still there showing it had some kind of slatted ? canvas ? screen wall with arched openings following the arches of the verandah - no idea if that was 1850s too, but it shows that the Victorians had … Continue reading 19thC sun shading →

I was surprised recently to find out my great grandfather Elsdon Storey lived here ! In a big terrace house called Romanby on #BeaconsfieldParade, Middle Park, not far from me, from c1901-1920. In fact he might have built it; though it looks maybe 1860s it was actually built some time between 1900 and 1905, at … Continue reading Ancestral home on the beach →

Repost this day 2019: Very cute ! #Anselm, architect #RobertHaddon’s own house from 1906 in a little street in Caulfield just south of the Glenferrie and Dandenong Rd corner. Great details inside apparently. Love the spindly weathervane, the #terracotta on the turret and the gate is good too (with an angel holding a church ??). … Continue reading Anselm, Robert Haddon, 1906 →

Repost 2018 : Travancore, 1899, #RiversdaleRoad, down the hill towards the Alamein line crossing, designed by #UssherandKemp. This features as the archetypal #FederationQueenAnne house (Victorian version) in the 1970s ‘Architecture in Australia’ (though they don’t all have a fabbo corner turret); anyway they’re usually single storey, with a tall hip roof in red #marseillestile (imported), … Continue reading Travancore, 1899 →