Author: Rohan Storey
16 December 2019 #ChristchurchStKilda, pass it often, today the sun just right, making the Sorrento sandstone (almost) glow. Designed by #PurchasAndSwire in 1854 (#AlbertPurchas wasn’t quite 30 years old), this front and the nave built by 1857. It’s a bit severe I think, though that’s not a bad thing, #EarlyEnglish style was rough with small … Continue reading Christ Church St Kilda
#BirdsonaWire - some #RainbowLorikeets in Victoria Street #StKilda, boy are they noisy ! But delightful. Don’t know if St Kilda has more ? Didn’t see them this much in Fitzroy. Or maybe it’s #climatechange, I don’t remember them being here in the early 90s. Hmmm
December 2019 #BoerWar Memorial, #AlfredSquare, #StKilda, 1905; designed by #ArthurPeck, though its assumed that it’s probably also/mostly #RobertHaddon, who consulted a lot. He was almost the only architect in Victoria to fully embrace #ArtNouveau, and this has all the sinuous lines and vegetal motifs of that style. Also, it’s green, so green. No idea if … Continue reading St Kilda Boer War Memorial – Art Nouveau by the beach.
#FootscrayTownHall, #JosephPlottel, 1936. A delightful essay in a very American mode, a combo of Bryzantine and Florentine, it’s more about effect than an accurate style, with lovely variegated brickwork and very crisp detailing in buff-coloured #faience, which goes a bit Celtic. Plottel had done the St Kilda Synagogue in the 20s in a more clearly … Continue reading Footscray Town Hall, exotic styling from 1936
Footscray Junior Technical School, 1941, #PercyEverett at his finest, a grand entry set on and inside corner, with curves and counter-curves, a circular vestibule, some great brickwork, topped by a pair of flagposts - the only thing is there’s trees in front, and a big newer block, and a slight slope down, meaning it doesn’t … Continue reading Footscray Junior Technical College, 1941.
I think I’m right to be jealous of the @cityofsydney’s mandatory design competition process for large projects (policy here) - look at all these lovely projects, all that brick and timber, and nicely scaled public space - ok they need the spaces more than we go what with the narrow streets in the CBD, but … Continue reading Something Sydney can teach us – Design Competitions as part of the planning permit !
December 2019 There's this excellent Milky Way Cafe photo in the State Library Collection - but what ? where ? Well it was designed by Mewton & Grounds, and this is from the Wikipedia entry for Geoffrey Mewton (which I just wrote): “This was followed in 1934 by the Milky Way at 300 #LittleCollinsStreet, a … Continue reading Thoroughly Modern Milk Bar
Not my photo but I couldn’t wait - just discovered that #MewtonAndGrounds did a ‘Scout Settlement’ project in #NottStreet, #PortMelbourne in late 1936, and it’s still there ! The Scout Settlement wasn’t the Scouts, but similar, providing recreation rooms for boys ‘from the more congested suburbs’ in this case the very working class Port Melb. … Continue reading Geoffrey Mewton discovery !
December 2019 A Melbourne#castiron #pissoir, one of 8 left, this one outside the Royal Artillery Hotel #SouthCarlton (now the #LastJar) and quite unchanged, still with the entries facing the gutter, and the cresting intact. I think the white porcelain is original too. It was quite smelly inside ! They all date from 1903-18. The idea … Continue reading Taking the Pissoir.
November 2019, updated 2025 The fantastic long demolished Fish Markets once at the far end of Flinders Street; one of the great loses, but then in the 1950s there was no such thing as heritage listing, and Victoriana was actively disliked. Ive collected a whole bunch of images, mainly via Facebook, mainly originally the State … Continue reading Fish Market, Flinders Street
If the Nazi's never took power, would Berlin have Europe's tallest skyscraper and East Prussia be a honeymoon destination ?
