This fine building on Mercer Street #Geelong was rescued from near collapse a few years ago- and just as well, cos it’s a very unusual #GoldRush #prefabricated #castiron and #corrugatediron building made by Glasgow firm Robertson & Lister in 1853. It was erected here the next year, as Brown Brothers Store. I see they reproduced … Continue reading Prefabricated Cast Iron Store, Geelong West, a symphony in brown. →

The best older building in Geelong ? The great #TandGbuilding, one of the nearly 20 small-to-large T & G buildings dotted around Australia and NZ, all built 1924-1940, many with distinctive stepped towers, (almost) all designed by #AandKHenderson, the Geelong one was their first foray into #ArtDeco, and remarkably built pretty much during the #GreatDepression, … Continue reading T & G Building, Geelong, 1934, A&K Henderson go Art Deco →

28 November 2018 The impressive and unusually detailed original buildings of the #GordonTechnicalCollege in #Geelong. Looks like all one piece but actually three stages - far left by #AlexanderDavidson in a rather special ‘#ScotsJacobeanRevival’ was the first building of the college in 1887; the middle bit by another architect, EM Blake, similar but not as … Continue reading Gordon Tech, 1887, Scots Jacobean in Geelong →

Once voted Geelong’s ugliest building (I think) Ive always always liked this one, the #GeelongStateOffices, completed 1979. Or rather, I've always been impressed by the chutzpah required to actually design it and build it - and it was the State Government ! Guess they wanted to make a splash. Plus the Victorian #PublicWorksDepartment was totally … Continue reading Brutalist Beauty – State Offices, Geelong, 1979. →

It is a splendid thing, all #EdwardianBaroque curved bits and knobs and ins and outs - and I was surprised many years ago to see a photo showing that inside the clock mechanism is a tiny box ! 1910 electric clock tech. #FawcettandAshworth, HPC Ashworth was an engineer, so guess he knew what he was … Continue reading Flinders Street Station Clocktower. →

23 November 2018: Didn’t know this large elaborate Victorian thing in #ToorakRoad was #CoffeePalace, until I edited the Wikipedia article on Coffee Palaces (like you do) where it’s clear the Melbourne was the epicentre for the movement to build residential hotels that didn’t serve alcohol (the most visible result of the #temperance movement, hoping to … Continue reading South Yarra Coffee Palace, 1887, still there – oops now just facades. →

The impressive Richard Allen & Sons warehouse in #FlindersLane is a case of perfectly fine #heritagecompromise - a whole 18m depth was kept, as well as the lane, #RamsdenPlace to one side - from an old #Mahlstedt map I can see that this is half the building - it had a big brick wall in … Continue reading Richard Allen & Sons, Flinders Lane, first Romanesque →

#TheComoCentre, #ToorakRoad #SouthYarra, always think it’s odd, a suburban shopping mall transplanted to the inner suburbs, where there’s arnt many, don’t like them but I know that's how most people actually shop. This one always seems empty, but then I only see it when I go to a movie in the evening. The complex in … Continue reading The Como Centre mall, South Yarra, stylish-is but always empty. →

21 November 2018 #ClarendonStreetSouthMelbourbe is very intact because of its unique history - the whole block, the #EmeraldHillEstate, was originally the Melbourne Protestant Orphan Asylum, till 1877, when they sold the middle bit for the #SouthMelbourneTownHall, but hung onto the rest, leasing the blocks for 50 year terms, so it was pretty much all built … Continue reading Emerald Hill Estate, South Melbourne →