5 December 2016: The fabulous Fooks House in Howitt Road, North Caulfield. Open as part of a special exhibition last weekend. Built by Jewish Czech/ Austrian emigre architect Ernest Fooks as his own home in 1966, which he shared with wife Noemi; she was there until 2012 passing away at 102, and kept everything perfectly … Continue reading Ernest Fooks House →

4 December 2024 This former Freemason’s Hall, now the Melbourne Camera Club in Ferrars Street South Melbourne is a very fine example of Renaissance Revival, with a rusticated ground level front, and Corinthian pilasters on the first floor, where the hall was. Also helps that it’s never been painted or pretty much changed at all. … Continue reading Camera Club/ Masonic Hall →

4 December 2013: New #architects Institute of Architecture HQ #exhibitionstreet, or rather the back facing the #lane, by @lyonsarchitecture. Looks aggressive from this angle, and looking up it feels like a set of hacksaw blades. I don’t hate it though. The front is the same, but trees and scaffolding. Update : can’t find any explanation … Continue reading Architects Institute, sharp →

3 December 2024 Bit surprised by this one, jammed up against the 96 tram line at South Melbourne, though I’d seen the other side in passing. I suppose I shouldn’t be, there are others almost as close. And then more surprise, it was designed by @sixdegreesarchitects, and won the Australian Institute of Architecture National Award … Continue reading Award winning on a tight site →

3 December 2024 I went to a lecture a long time ago where it was proposed that Art Deco arrived in Melbourne in 1926 with this bathroom, just one year after the Exposition in Paris made the style famous. But all we have is this photo from Robin Boyd’s 1947 publication Victorian Modern, where he … Continue reading First Art Deco in Melbourne? →

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 →