Remember Batman Records ? This is at 215 Swanston St when it was one of three city stores, photo taken as part of the 1985 Central City Heritage Review. A great place to get your second hand vinyl, or rent a record, take home and tape it ! And just discovered I had a photo … Continue reading Batman Records in 1985 in a nice ancient terrace in Swanston Street →

Repost 2019: Recently repainted, #CurtinHouse, #SwanstonStreet, still a sort of #beigebrown scheme, as it has been as long as Ive known it ! Since the 80s, when it was cheap office space, long time home of the ‘genies’, the #GeneologicalSociety, wonder of they’re still around what with ancestry.com etc ? Now of course it’s a … Continue reading Tattersalls Club, 1922. →

17 March 2025 My all time favourite High Victorian discovery, a series of branches built for the Melbourne Savings Bank, all designed by Wright & Lucas, and all built 1889-1890, at the peak of the boom. All versions of each other, they’re a bit Mannerist, with heavy piers, chunky base levels, pediments open in the … Continue reading Wight & Lucas – Mannerism plus! 1889 →

Gong Hei Fat Choy ! Ok, that doesn’t mean happy new year, more like Good Fortune in Cantonese, but that’s appropriate for this #MelbourneChinatown landmark - it was built in 1888 for Lowe Kong Meng, who I knew nothing about until a minute ago - turns out he was the de facto leader of the … Continue reading Sum Kum Lee, Chinatown, 1888 →

#StKildaPrimarySchool, with its #GothicRevival rocket I mean tower. It’s another one of #HenryBastow’s reputedly 600 schools he designed as architect for the Education Department after school was made compulsory in 1872. This one in the first batch, completed 1875, though only one storey then; the middle upper floors and tower added 1888 (and most of … Continue reading Henry Bastow school No 3, St Kilda Primary, 1874. →

All that’s left of the #DentonCorkerMarshall interiors of the #AdelphiHotelMelbourne, a revamp of an Art Deco 1938 #FlindersLane warehouse by #JosephPlottel. DCM added the steel tiles and stair treads here, and the characteristic angular sticks. I loved their 1992 interiors, complete with angular bespoke furniture in primary colours, meant to get it heritage listed at … Continue reading Adelphi Hotel, in memory of the DCM interiors. →

Always thought the #AlbertParkHotel was a bit plain, turns out because it’s meant to have a bold contrasting #colourscheme, love the huge lettered name, twice, wonder how the smaller one got changed. Also, it's obvious it was once Victorian, and the #StKildaHistoricalSociety has a photo, it was rather nice, but not outstanding, and I suppose … Continue reading Albert Park Hotel, a Deco makeover →

Here’s something I didn’t know - our fabbo Gothic Bank had siblings ! Architect William Wardell did more work for the ES&A bank, starting with the Adelaide branch in 1883 (sadly demolished in 1965); it had very similar feel, matching first floor windows and balconettes, and a similar door, very fine. He then designed our … Continue reading William Wardell x 3 →

1 February 2019 You might have wondered what these fine #castiron gates on #LonsdaleStreet near the County Court are doing here, since they open onto a modern walkway. The answer is that they’re all that’s left of a fabbo #VictorianMansion that once stood here. It was called #Rostella, and was built in 1869 for eminent … Continue reading Rostella, Lonsdale Street, 1869/1887 →

Holt’s Chambers in #ChapelStreetPrahran is I think the only large pre WW2 #officebuilding outside the CBD - thought it was a department store like the other big buildings along here, but no, it’s a Chambers, which had 4 shops, electric lifts, and the Gainsborough Photographic Studios on the top floor. Designed by A H Fisher, … Continue reading Holts Chambers, Chapel Street Prahran, an Edwardian office block →