22 August 2020: Nice big Victorian house in #BurnettStreetStKilda with a bit more richness than usual - double height arcaded verandah, with barleycorn columns and balustrading, including under the window ledges, which have cast iron frills too. Colours a bit gaudy - they are heritage colours but the Victorians would not have painted it two … Continue reading Victorian villas, Burnett Street St Kilda →

Repost 2017: The #LawrenceHouse built in 1860 in Queen Street near the #QueenVictoriaMarket has seen better days - when I took this in march, clearly the stone of the #cornice was flaking off and probably had more knocked off before it fell off- and it had been empty at least a year (it was melb's … Continue reading Lawrence House, Queen Street, 1860 →

Repost 2018: #ManchesterHouse, #FlindersLane, 1912, #BatesPeeblesandSmart, nice late Edwardian #redbrick, a bit Chicago School big bay windows too. Thought it was Manchester the city but no, it used to mean #householdlinen, which btw is mostly cotton not linen. Flinders Lane was home to the #ragtrade mainly warehouses but also workshops, from the 1900s to the … Continue reading Manchester House, Flinders Lane, 1912 →

Repost this day 2 years ago : A lot of fuss today about ‘heritage listing a freeway’ but it’s actually the bridges on the #EasternFreeway that are focus of the listing, and they’re great ! The first and last time engineers were asked to make them interesting ‘without regard to cost’. The lead design engineer … Continue reading Eastern Freeway – heritage ? →

Pics 2024, words from 2019: Marion Terrace in Burnett Street St Kilda, 1883, always a fave, and a bit of a surprise in a street of Vic and Edw villas and postwar flats. Presumably the developer here thought just being grand 10 room #terracehouses in #StKilda wasn’t enough, they needed something extra - they’re up … Continue reading Marion Terrace, St Kilda →

Repost 7 years ago in 2014: When I first went by this one a few years ago I though it was a 60s office block I had somehow never noticed before, all gridded, plain, #straightup from footpath, no setbacks; but no, just an earlyish one of many the new #apartmenttowers in the #victoriamarket area that … Continue reading 60s style apartment tower →

Repost this day 2018: The fine #ElsternwickPostOffice, built in 1891 in the then new #QueenAnne style; the Victorian #PublicWorksDepartment under #JHMarsden from 1890 went all experimental, abandoning the clearly Gothic or Italianate for Romanesque, Queen Anne, Flemish, Scottish Baronial or an eclectic mix- this one clearly QueenAnne/Flemish. Originally it had cute verandahs each side, clearly … Continue reading Elsternwick Post Office 1891 →

20 August 2021 A short survey of what was lost for the #melbournecitysquare - and before sounding off at @cityofmelbourne, note that the wonderful Victoria Buildings and #QueensWalkArcade on the corner were bought, and demolished by a developer in 1966, and it was only then Council decided to buy it and put the much talked … Continue reading What was there before the City Square ? →

20 August 2018: The former #ElsternwickFireStation, built 1896, one of 32 new fire stations built between 1892 and 1896 by the newly formed Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade. Before that it was volunteer brigades or competing insurance brigades (they’d ignore you if you weren’t covered). Great #RomanesqueRevival or is it #QueenAnne with a #Moorish #horseshoearch, let’s … Continue reading Elsternwick Fire Station, 1896 →

The fabulous Pasadena Mansions, built c1918, ‘on the corner of St Kilda Road and Commercial Road’- but as far as I can work it out, actually located along the block next to Fawkner Park. Think it later got an extension on the corner, possibly called Coronado. In the 50s it got converted horribly into offices, … Continue reading Lost St Kilda Road →