Repost this day 2019: Truly appalling bit of modern signage completely dominating the original 1872 arched timber #VictorianShopfront in #BourkeHill. Was cream which was slightly better than the current dark grey. New #heritageguidelines coming up for the CBD day things like ‘signage should not dominate, be respectful, etc’, can’t wait. A very rare surviving Victorian … Continue reading Bad signs →

Repost from 2016: A bit of the fully intact #redbrick #facade of the old 1911 Footscray Grand #cinema in #paisleystreet downtown #footscray peeking from the decaying but once groovy #fiestabingo sign, which looks very 60s, prob when the cinema became just the upper half, not closing until 1987. Last one in the west, until the … Continue reading Hidden heritage – Grand Theatre Footscray →

Repost from 2016: we nearly got this for the #CitySquare! When it was being developed in the late 1960s, the closure of the Regent Theatre in 1970 was seen as an opportunity to make it even bigger, and it was bought by the City Council with the idea that it would make the perfect site … Continue reading City Square shocker 1972 →

Repost this day 2019: The rather delightful Wesleyan Chinese Mission Church in #Chinatown, built in 1872, designed by #CrouchAndWilson, who did a lot of churches, often #polychromebrick like this one. Still a mission church. Part of a great bit of streetscape. Also, the google camera captured the almost cartoonish two-guys-and-a-ladder painting something. Repost this day … Continue reading Chinese Mission Church/ Commit no Nuisance →

10 November 2024 Possibly the largest abandoned historic building in Melb, above the first floor anyway. Appropriately but unimaginatively named, ‘the Big Store’ opened in Chapel Street in 1902. Run by Maclellan & Co, related to Foys of Smith Street, it was the biggest department store in Chapel Street, which like Smith Street rivalled the … Continue reading Big old Chapel Street Department Stores →

Repost this day 2019: Architect #MordechaiBenshemesh. made quite a splash back in 1961, with #EdgewaterTowers, one of the first high rise apartment developments in #Melbourne, rather oddly located at the far end of #StKilda. But then seeing as it was part of Melbourne’s Jewish history, designed by and bought by postwar (and sometimes prewar) Jewish … Continue reading Edgewater Towers, 1961 →

Repost this day 2019: I don’t hate the #SmithAndCo redevelopment in #SmithStreetCollingwood; the #streetscape is appropriately varied rather than monolithic, though it is a bit of a mess really, with taller bits justified by the long lost #FoyAndGibson store. However they should never have got a permit to demolish and rebuild the Victorian facade - … Continue reading Fake facadism on Smith Street →

Repost this day 2017 (and nothing at all has happened since): #wintersun in #SpencerStreet on the rather gaudily painted former Falstaff #CoffeePalace, built 1891, and the 1913 #CharlesHothanHotel beyond, both by the prolific #WilliamPitt (21 years apart). Both #heritagelisted in 2013, both sold recently, but sadly might just mean facades with towers behind / a … Continue reading Falstaff Coffee Palace/ Peoples Palace →

Posted 4 March 2021: More #NorthCaulfield #midcenturymodernhomes up for #heritagelisting - a row of four at 43-49 #AroonaRoad. I’ve posted them right to left, starting with one I snapped in 2019 (but streetview is better), by #HolgarAndHolgar, 1971, love that whacky sculpted pillar. The row goes the Holgars, then Ernest Fooks, then Holgars and Fooks … Continue reading Mid Century Modern Caulfield heritage listing →

Posted 9 March 2021: Since I totally neglected to celebrate #InternationalWomensDay yesterday, here’s something by our first female architect #MarionMahonyGriffin; the interiors of the #CapitolTheatreMelbourne are sometimes ascribed to her alone, but there’s no evidence Walter didn’t help (or rather it was a collaboration), and after all she wasn’t an interior designer, she was a … Continue reading Marion Mahoney Griffin →