October 2025 The all new Melbourne Walk development on Bourke Street, which looks very nice, does all the right things - except that only facades and some side walls were retained from the 5 heritage buildings there before (blue bits on the plan, and I’ve got some before pics interspersed). They were abandoned above the … Continue reading Walk arcade redevelopment →

October 2025 After a large site on Fitzroy Street near Grey Street was subdivided and sold in 1879, a row of six grand mansions were built, all a similar size, with matching garden setbacks. From the 1910s to the 1950s, they all disappeared behind shops built over the gardens, leaving some of them intact, and … Continue reading Hidden mansion row, St Kilda →

October 2025 The beautiful Royal Arcade, which looks much like it’s ever done, elegant shopfronts, marble floors, glass roof on decorative cast iron trusses, lights on curly brass fittings - but actually it’s changed a bit from the 1870 original, designed by Charles Webb. Back then it had a slate floor and flat timber shopfronts, … Continue reading Royal Arcade →

October 2017 new pics 2025: Always loved this old bank down #LittleCollinsStreet; a bold classical front, but setback cos the streets so narrow, allowing for that grand door on the corner, round to The Causeway, a tiny 3m wide pedestrian laneway. Built for the Union Bank with rental office above, 1939, architects #AandKHenderson. This was … Continue reading Grand little bank →

October 2025 Some nice but not extraordinary Art Deco flats in Creswick Street Hawthorn, on a sloping site looking to the river. The only notable style elements are the broad horizontal stripes versus the stepped facades with chamfered corners creating windows on the angle. Not heritage listed so no existing research, but checking Trove contemporary … Continue reading Flats controversy in Hawthorn →

October 2025 This photo from 1984 popped up Facebook recently - it’s the South Yarra Arms Hotel, which once stood on the corner of Chapel Street and Toorak Road, and gathered lots of comments from people who fondly remember it from the 70s and 80s as a popular pub with live bands and a disco. … Continue reading South Yarra Arms →

October 2025 Spotted this rather gigantic house in Anderson Street South Yarra opposite the gardens, and thought it looked maybe Tudor revival but without the cute details - turns out it dates from 1907, designed by Klingender & Alsop on Arts & Crafts style, and comparing to the early photo, it’s been sadly rather altered. … Continue reading Arts & Crafts, altered →

October 2025 A cute little group in Elizabeth Street just up from Collins, pretty unchanged. The one in the middle was a new home for Alexander’s, rebuilt in 1938, designed by the very busy Harry Norris in a restrained Deco style. Still got the signage ! But needs a clean. They started out as tobacconists, … Continue reading Alexander’s Elizabeth Street →

October 2025 Impressive house at 768 Malvern Road Armadale - it’s got the format of many two storey Victorian houses, a bow window poking forward to one side with a double level verandah, but here it’s done in masonry arches instead of the usual cast iron. And the arches are kind of wide, so they … Continue reading Good arches →

October 2025 Seem from the tram, finally had a look - a very unusual flat development in Balaclava Road, East St Kilda, called Greyfriars, which has a gravelled central carpark area accessed through a simple brick sort of classical screen. It was built 1949-50, early in the pickup of postwar flats, and was touted as … Continue reading Courtyard flats, East St Kilda →