Author: Rohan Storey
28 October 2018 In the #IanPotterMuseumofArt at #MelbourneUniversity you’ll see all that’s left of the first #WilsonHallMelbourneUniversity, a great #GothicRevival edifice built in 1878-82 and mostly destroyed by fire in 1952. It's all about the 6 days of creation. My closeup is of #Ceres (the Goddess of fecundity), and #Prometheus (who brought down the Divine … Continue reading Napier Waller Wilson Hall stained glass, 1935
Victoria House, 220 #ClarendonStreetEastMelbourne, built 1914. The first flats built in Melbourne, just before during and after WW1, were often in this severe #redbrick form, rather than Edwardian or Arts & Crafts style, don’t ask me why! This one was designed by #PhillipHudson, best known for later joining with Janes Wardrop and winning the 1924 … Continue reading Early flats : Victoria House and Clarendon, East Melbourne
This rather nice c1910 #ArtsandCrafts clock with #Australiana motifs in the #NationalGalleryofVictoria has a direct #FlindersStreetStation connection - it was designed by #JamesFawcett who designed that famous landmark ! (Along with HPC Ashworth). Fawcett was a champion of the Arts & Crafts and designed all the #ArtNouveau stained glass and pressed metal ceilings inside. Not … Continue reading James Fawcett, Flinders Street Station architect.
3pm and the sun shines right through the 1889 #MelbourneGPO #clockfaces. And the bells rang too ! Havnt heard them for years ....in 1986 I was doing final year architecture and had a shared studio in #HardwareLane, and when I heard the midnight bells I’d drop my pens and run to Flinders Street Station to … Continue reading GPO clocktower
Chart House c1940, architect unknown - pretty radical for 1940, looks so 50s, except for the #steelframedwindows, with opening leaves, 50s would be aluminium frames. I don’t love it, but it’s very interesting. Rather oddly the heritage study by @lovellchen says the front was altered in the 50s, but the side wasn’t, so only the … Continue reading Chart House c1940 and Melbourne House 1923, Little Bourke Street
John Donne & Sons sold charts and maps and globes and published stuff, located here at 356 Little Bourke Street since at least the 1890s, rebuilt in c1940 - think this #shopfront is original, they left here only maybe 10 years ago, seem to be in Bentleigh now. #WilkinsandKent left the sign which is nice.
#RankinsLane at 2.30 pm and earlier at 12.30 today - all this nice #sunlight would be blocked by the 20 storey tower proposed for 360 #LittleBourkeStreet - you’d think there’d be rules protecting the sun in this popular residential and business #laneway just up towards #HardwareLane but you’d be wrong ! There’s a 15m limit … Continue reading Rankins Lane overshadowing
116 little Bourke. So named cos once was private museum of antiquities. Saw it on a school trip in the 70s. Now seems all locked up. Instagram post 3 May 2013. Update Oct 2018 : built 1915, possibly as church hall, now houses Urban Seed, an outreach and education arm of the Collins Street Baptist … Continue reading Ancient Times House, Little Bourke Street.
#MiddleBrighton #OldEnglishStyle, a bunch of modest and larger sized English cottage style houses here, like the middle ring eastern burbs and middle north that immore familiar with- Brighton isn’t all over-sized houses (though there’s plenty even here). Probably 1930s, judging by the generally restrained detailing.
Here in Victoria, we call this style #lombardicromanesque, even though sometimes it's Italianate or Gothic. Anyway it's a special melb invention, a blend of influences - wonderful #polychromebrick, round arched windows, varied massing, #jerkinhead roofs, and of course a #tower topped with #mansard roof and #widowswalk. Even the ornate #castironfence is intact. My favourite sort … Continue reading Harston, Brighton, 1885
If the Nazi's never took power, would Berlin have Europe's tallest skyscraper and East Prussia be a honeymoon destination ?
Storey of Melbourne 