November 2018: This is the Tennis Pavilion at Labassa, a very rare thing indeed, since similar garden things from other large mansion estates are long gone. It was probably added when Alexander Robertson revamped the house to what we see today in 1890, and probably designed by JAB Koch, who did the house. The tennis … Continue reading Tennis anyone ? Labassa pavilion 1890. →

#AugustusFritsch really went to town on this one, his first major church, #StJosephsMalvern, built 1908-8. He did at least one earlier design that was boldly red & white (‘#bloodandbandages’), a bit more Edwardian, this one a mad combo of #Romanesque with stepped Flemish gables and #Baroque domed turrets; the @nationaltrustvic listing notes it’s part of … Continue reading Another Fritsch – St Joseph’s, Malvern, 1908. →

I do love a good suburban #MockTudor #PetrolStation- especially converted into a cafe ! Built in #GlenEiraRoad in 1935 (with attached shops and residence) as the Tudor Service Station, renamed #GloversServiceStation in 1961 apparently - maybe they changed the word Tudor to Glover ? Anyway, great details, chunks of ‘exposed’ bricks, some ‘cracks’ in the … Continue reading Mock Tudor Petrol Station →

#StKildaTownHall toilets have #floortiles in #StKildaFootballClub colours ! (At least the men’s do). This is in the #postmodern section by #ARMarchitecture from 1994. #PeterCorrigan did the same thing 2 years earlier at #RMITbuilding8, though he did different clubs on different floors and not so obviously.

The #iceskating girl #neonsign up on a wall in the lobby of the #StKildaTownHall that I went to the launch of last month has quite a history. One of two put up on the 1922 dance hall building on the #UpperEsplanade when it was converted into the #StMoritzIceSkating rink in 1939; It closed and was … Continue reading St Moritz Skating Girl skates on ! →

Original post 1 December 2018: In Montague Street, #AlbertPark, there’s a set of great, elaborate #Victorian terraces; in fact there’s two blocks of them exactly the same, one a row of 8, the other 10. They're mostly intact (though two seem to have had the parapets replaced with gabled roofs), but many urns have disappeared, … Continue reading Albert Park Victorian →

Victorian crinkly bits; these #terraces in #AlbertPark are all the same, but each has its own #wingwalls, for that extra level of elaboration. Hmm not wing walls, maybe party walls ?

#OurLadyofMountCarmel, completed 1928, rearing up in the middle of #MiddlePark; surprisingly for a quiet suburb it replaced a church that was already pretty big (maybe it was bigger families ? Or because it’s home for the #Carmelites ?) anyway it’s by #AugustusFritsch who did about a dozen impressive churches pretty much all in a similar … Continue reading Fritsch and Prenzel : Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middle Park, 1928. →

Nov 2020 : The Canterbury, on Canterbury Rd, #StKilda, weirdly tall and skinny, built 1914, amongst the first wave of flats built in Melbourne, when still at the experimental (for Melbourne) early stage. This was built like 3 single storey terrace houses on top of each other, though it’s a tiny site, smaller than the … Continue reading The Canterbury St Kilda : early flats, high rise to boot ! →

You can tell this was made in the 1970s - the last part is ‘#ComputerAge’ 😁. It’s the huge #mosaic ‘#HistoryofGeelong’ that runs the whole length of the foyer of the #GeelongStateOffices, made 1977-80 by state artist #HaroldFreedman. I seem to have photographed the ladies that feature, like the bikini girl, the 30s dancer and … Continue reading Biggest mosaic ever ! History of Geelong, Harold Freedman, 1980, Geelong State Offices. →