Repost 2017: #Urbrea, #JABKoch, c1900, a pair of houses that looks like a single mansion - the #toweredentrance actually belongs to the #castironlace #verandah part. Done over in #cementitiouspaint in I think the 90s, looks like #limewash but takes far longer to actually wash off. Nice #patina. Reinstating the colour of which traces clearly there … Continue reading Urbrae Punt Road →

25 August 2019: The other kind of #MansionFlat; a #VictorianMansion turned into flats ! This one rather leaps out on #HennesseyStreet street in #Elwood, surrounded by interwar flats. Designed by #DavidAskew (of #TwentymanandAskew) and built 1891 for Joseph Syme, nephew of #DavidSyme who ran #TheAgeNewspaper for 30 years. For a while that was in partnership … Continue reading Rothermere, Elwood mansion flats →

Repost 2018: #GhostSigns on side of what was built as the #BlackEagleHotel in 1850, though it looks like shop with a matching house. #Delicensed in 1908 it was workshops longer than it was a pub. Looking a bit leftover with the construction of #JohnWardle’s #50Lonsdale in 2006, the signs once pointing to businesses down #LittleCasseldenStreet … Continue reading Black Eagle Hotel, 1850 →

Repost 2017: #CastIronStreetLamp, #WilliamStreetMelbourne, erected 1929/30, one of only 2 left of dozens that once lined the streets of the #MelbCBD. The other is across the road down the hill. Don't know why these two remained while all the others were replaced in the 1960s with modern street lamps. Many ended up in the gardens … Continue reading Old electric street lamps – double headed variety →

22 August 2021 It’s easy to overlook flats from the 50s like this one opposite the #StKildaBotanicalGardens in Dickens Street; a bit boxy and plain (with jaunty balustrade) - but often spacious and light inside, and quite spacious too, especially compared with current product. And there’s a large top floor one that’s got original cabinetry … Continue reading 50s flats Dickens Street, Elwood →

Repost 2018: The front on one, or the side one that doesn’t have buildings rising up behind ? #SalvationArmy Training Garrison, 1900, designed by Brigadier Edward Saunders, cofounder of the Army in Australia, and who clearly liked the #redbrick #castellated style, used on all the Army buildings in one form or another (at least in … Continue reading Salvation Army Training Garrison →

😮 repost 2019: This Is The Show. The #GeorgeBallroom in the early 70s was a #stripperbar, strictly #adultsonly, back when #StKilda was at its nadir (or peak ?) - I remember going to Luna Park as a kid being driven down #FitzroyStreet and mum saying ‘lock the doors’ ! It was called #TheBirdcage (though Les … Continue reading St Kilda Strippers →

This huge place on #BeaconsfieldParade was built in 1883-6 for the Carmelite sisters, who were attached to the Our Lady of Mt Carmel in Middle Park nearby. Like some other home for Catholic clergy like Presbyteries, it’s basically an Italian house, but with a solid Gothic arcaded verandah (the architect is unknown). It’s now occupied … Continue reading Carmelite Convent, Albert Park →

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 →