3 December 2024 Great polychrome church hall attached to St Mary’s Caulfield, which is big but rather uninteresting. It was designed by Reed & Barnes and built 1870-71, would have been better if the spire had been built. Nice spacious grounds. Interior looks spacious.

30 November 2017 One of the buildings in Swanston Street about to be demolished for the metro tunnel has quite a few layers of history, like most buildings in the retail heart of town. 21 Swanston was built c1915, and looks to have been refaced in the 1930s, and by 1950 was known as the … Continue reading Downyflake →

29 November 2024 Impressive house in Glen Eira Road Elsternwick that relies for effect on the sparing polychrome brickwork and a varied roofline rather than lots of decoration. Plus a generous garden setting. Henry Langdon bought the surrounding 7 acres in 1886, subdivided it, and built this house called Hengar in 1890 ‘for the unmarried … Continue reading Dower house →

29 November 2024 I’ve seen a LOT of old photos of Melbourne but there’s still plenty of buildings I’ve never seen - this is another photo from the Communications Museum collection, via @bigstachebearau, from the back of the roof of the 1930s Little Bourke Street Telephone Exchange, showing a cute little office block on the … Continue reading Cute mid century long gone →

24 November 2024 A bit of groovy 80s St Kilda, which is still there, and heritage listed (!). Cafe Maximus in Acland Street opposite the McDonalds was created in 1988 by converting earlier shops, and was designed by Allan Powell, who also did Di Stasio in Fitzroy Street the same year. Both were part of … Continue reading Cafe Maximus →

23 November 2016: The grand City West Telephone Exchange, #JSMurdoch, designed 1929, but not built until 1935-7, looking like a bit of Manhattan. Tall stylish #GeorgianRevival facade rather hard to see properly in narrow #littlebourkestreet, near the Supreme Court - in fact it was one CBD building I didn’t know at all until it turned … Continue reading Telephone Exchange Little Bourke Street/ Lonsdale Street →

21 November 2024 All that’s left of the 1938 Victoria Car Park in Little Collins Street, something we failed to save while I was at the National Trust. The Scots Church on Collins Street, who own everything down to George’s, first proposed a tall hotel in the 90s, despite a 30m height limit, but we … Continue reading Victoria Car Park facade →

19 November 2024 Yes it’s a bit dire, but it is called ‘la piazza’, so a lot of concrete makes sense ? It’s actually behind one facing the street called ‘la fontana’, and there is in fact a fountain. Think I just like the crazy boldness of those balustraded balconies. Possibly an Italian migrant builder … Continue reading 70s Italianate →

19 November 2024 Posted this place next to Florentino in Bourke Street in 2014 when the heritage precinct was being reviewed, and when I looked closely realised it was a new mid century facade on a revamped shop-house, which would have originally been like those either side. Don’t know the architect, but it dates from … Continue reading Mid century shopfront in Bourke Street →

18 November 2024 Something I found by accident- Victoria’s first prison farm ! A semi circle of individual huts, laid out so the central office looked out on them all; another very geometric creation by PWD Chief Architect Percy Everett (probably). Located at Cooriemungle, just inland from Port Campbell, it was built in 1939-40, and … Continue reading Semi-circle prison →