One of the things I like most about the @library_vic is the chairs ! 107 years old now, still used, and still look vaguely ‘modern’, with simple lines and square cut-outs, in contrast to the very traditional carved and varnished decoration on the central lectern thing, where a librarian would sit in order to shush … Continue reading The State Library furniture is pretty old, and stylish for 1913. →

Obligatory shot of the #DomedReadingRoom attge @library_vic from the top- it’s actually very high up ! For a place that had to house thousands of books, that’s a lot of empty space ! But very glad it’s there. Designed by Norman Peebles of #BatesPeeblesAndSmart, #JosephReed’s firm as it was in 1913. At 35.5 metres it … Continue reading The impressive Domed Reading Room →

#MythBusted ! The StateLibraryofVictoria #domedreadingroom was not the ‘biggest (#reinforcedconcrete) dome in the world’ in 1913 at all ! Structurally complete late 1912, but so was the #CentennialHallWroclaw, which is 62m wide while ours is only a piddly 34.7m. The Wroclaw dome officially opened in May 1913, ours in Nov 1913, so way ahead. I’m … Continue reading State Library dome not the biggest in 1913 after all ! →

Aptly named #ThePebbles, this 1920 house on #GeelongRoad in #Footscray is a #CalifornialBungalow on steroids ! Fat pebbly piers supporting complicated woodwork with wildly cantilevered brackets and spiky edged pergolas, and all perfectly intact ! We learned about this in archi school but I’d never stopped to see it up close. Designed by #SchreiberAndJorgenson, not … Continue reading Cal Bung delight in Footscray →

14 January 2025 A grand block of 20s looking flats off the Esplanade in Brighton, which I posted in 2020 with many questions, still unanswered. It started out as a fine Regency style house, probably built in the 1850s, for James Webb, who bought the large lot from original Brighton developer Henry Dendy in 1848. … Continue reading Hidden Heritage in Brighton. →

I was just saying to Grant ‘everyone likes to do minimalist but they just end up with plain boxes’ and then this ! An elevated box of white sticks (which fold back to open up the windows) above a glass walled living area that opens to the north facing walled garden. Very nice. By @denatrisskurrie. … Continue reading Minimalism done well →

Chevy Chase and Ratho Park were built in 1881 only 100m from each other in Brighton by the two partners of Thompson & Niven book importers, sellers and publishers (business must’ve been good). Very curious, but presumably good friends, met on the boat out from Scotland only 8 years before when Andrew Thompson was barely … Continue reading Matching mansions ! →

Ive no idea what this was built as, looks sort of like a church hall, but no church nearby - but it’s nice. Definitely Edwardian. It’s just off the Armstrong Street shops in #MiddlePark. Update : thanks @anthgram for finding that in 1915 it was the #churchhall for the Methodist Church, which is on the … Continue reading A very stylish church hall in Middle Park. →

At the @library_vic just evidence of yet another bushfire, William Strutt’s huge canvas depicting Black Thursday, 6 Feb, 1851; burning an estimated 5 mill hectares, they were the worst fires until 1939, then 1983, then 2009, now 2019/20, burnt 6 mill hectares (by 8 Jan) so obviously accelerating ☹️. Black Thursday took place in one … Continue reading The bushfires of 1851 are no longer the biggest. →

4 January 2020 OMG isn’t this amazing ? I thought this was both beautiful and bizarre - a costume representing electricity (see the pylon headdress ?) worn by Jessie Clarke (nee’ Brookes) at the Pageant of Nations held at the Melb Town Hall as part of the celebrations for the #CentenaryOfVictoria. It’s at the @state_library_victoria … Continue reading A history of brown coal. →