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 →

Another #LostModernism office block - Pearl Assurance, cnr Bourke & Queen Street was completed in 1961, and designed by #LeslieMPerrott (later most famous for the Gas & Fuel towers). Nice but not the most outstanding of the mid century curtain wall office blocks. Unusually big and striking signage, and there was also a pearl on … Continue reading Lost (but not) Modernism →

Repost this day 2019: The most famous thing in #DrummondStreetCarlton : “Although once known as the old 'Weather Bureau', the building never served that purpose.” It was just a house, but a quirky one ! Built 1866. Also known A’s ‘Cinnabar’. Very unusual cantilevered balcony, and that cute tower topped by a #weathercock (originally an … Continue reading (Not) Old Weather Bureau Carlton →

A bit of industrial #facadism I posted this day in 2014! Young Street Fitzroy. And #streetview has it a bit earlier, just a wall (and theres a matching one behind in Kent Street). Makes me think of the olden days when people actually converted factories into houses, very spacious, with timber trusses etc, instead of … Continue reading Industrial facadism in Fitzroy →