The #ThornburyPictureHouse is a small cinema cum bar in an old garage ! The very early kind that was a drive through on a corner, with an office or residence upstairs, back when petrol still came in cans, and they poured it in for you (I think). The TPH website says it was built in … Continue reading Garage cum Cinema in Thornbury →

Rather elegant bit of design in #HighStreetThornbury from c1970 I’m guessing. A social hall for the United Villages of Florina, that being a town in northern Greece. Update : I’m told by a local it was a State Bank, and it looks more like a bank than a social club, so I guess they bought … Continue reading Modernism in Thornbury →

Repost from March 2018; plus current sale images of the penthouse owned by John Denton of #dentoncorkermarshall, who’s owned it since 1991, and I’ve been to a party there, possibly that year, I don’t recall ! He bought it with #MorrySchwartz (#AnnaSchwartz took the ground floor as her gallery). They also bought the building next … Continue reading Flinders Lane penthouse →

10 September 2019 : The delightful #SapphireHouse, in #CrossleyStreet. Not protected until 2016 when #BourkeHill #heritageprecinct was reviewed. Built 1957 for the #Hurwitz family jewellers and traders, with the ground floor rented to Pellegrinis until the 90s as a larger (more expensive) serve yourself affair. The building hasn’t changed, entry looks original too, including #terrazzo, … Continue reading Mid century in a city lane →

Repost this day 2018 (about something nearly 10 years old now): Building/Sculpture; the concrete knot that #ARMarchitecture added in 2012 to the #MelbourneArtsCentre, which actually houses an outdoor/indoor lift. At first I thought it was going to be too big/distracting, but it isnt really, and makes an interesting foil to the perfect geometry of the … Continue reading Hamer Hall concrete lift →

Yet another #losttheatre that nearly made it through - the #MetroCollins was created in 1934 in Collins Street by completely rebuilding the 1913 concert hall that gave the Auditorium Building its name (but was a complete failure showing films from 1914). The cinema was designed by #CNHollinshead, same year he rebuilt Her Maj in Art … Continue reading Metro Collins, 1934-82 →

May 2021 Another #losttheatre, but it hung on longer than most - until 1983!- and if it had hung on a bit longer ? Built as the #HoytsRegent in Johnson Street Fitzroy just off Brunswick Street, it opened in 1931 as one of the largest suburban cinemas, seating 2000, and one of the most luxurious, … Continue reading Regent Theatre, Fitzroy, 1931-83. →

Repost this day 2018: Some #ArtDeco lovelies in #AclandStreet, both 1936, and the ones on the north side by #LeslieMPerrott, the cake shop south side ones also probably Perrott. You’d think that being in such a busy place in an historic suburb like #StKilda that places like these would have been restored by now - … Continue reading Art Deco in Acland Street →

The #ThorburyTheatre is a live entertainment venue that was actually built as a theatre ! A cinema anyway, and is in large part intact, one of the most intact left in Melbourne that doesn’t have any interior protection. Built in 1925 (and possibly a rebuild of an Edwardian era hall) it was pretty big, and … Continue reading Regent Theatre, Thornbury →

22 August 2017: I do love a good #HolgarAndHolgar! The 1975 Saade house in #BlackRock, elevated for beach views, with their fave flattened out #OscarNeimeyer curved T shaped supports. Built for a well to do Lebanese family who wanted modernism and glamour, they naturally turned to Polish born husband and wife team of John and … Continue reading Holgar & Holgar by the beach →