The #SirCharlesHotham hotel has seen better days. Designed by #WilliamPitt, one of his last designs, built 1913, it’s looked like this for 30 years at least. But that means it’s never been upgraded inside, as far as I can see it’s pretty well all original (except the corner bar), but I couldn’t actually get in … Continue reading Sir Charles Hotham Hotel, holding the corner of Spencer and Flinders since 1913. →

See the #horsie ? 😮😁 There’s rather happy looking ones at the top and bottom of the windows of the former #VictorianClub in Queen Street. Built in 1927 for Victoria’s #bookmakers, designed in an elaborate classical style by #JosephPlottel, Bunnett and Alsop. They did their ‘settling’ here in the main room, which was working out … Continue reading Horsies ! Victorian Club, Queen Street, 1929 →

21 February 2019 So many great details in the 1936 #ACAbuilding by #HennessyandHennessy; the #blackmarble with thin horizontal white banding is perfect for that luxe #ArtDeco look. The white marble floor isn’t original, but suits, same with the light fitting over the #directory. For some reason the #mailbox in the 1937 #ACAbuilding in Queen Street … Continue reading ACA building interiors, Hennessy & Hennessy, 1936 →

A great row of #Edwardianshops where the tram turns at the #CaulfieldEast shops in Derby Road next to the station. The three on the left are one row, with quite different skylines, and one has the faded yellow and black of a #StateBankOfVictoria...on second thoughts those letters don’t quite fit - ah, it’s #ESandABank ! … Continue reading Edwardian shophouses, East Caulfield →

The #bankchamber of the Western House branch of the #BankofAustralasia in Collins and William was pretty stark originally, a kind of very #strippedclassical, like the exterior. I think the counters are the original ones, but with vertical bits and a new top (it was timber) added, maybe in the 80s ? Which would make them … Continue reading Art Deco bank chamber. →

This is another case of how #ArtDeco was turning into #Modernist just before WW2, though in this case, being a back street #warehouse from 1939, extra flourishes weren’t warranted. Architects #AandHPeck. In #LittleBourkeStreet, this is opposite the 1920s Melbourne House for which there’s a permit to replace with 25 floors meaning no sunlight here for … Continue reading Art Deco Warehouse, Hardware Lane precinct. →

17 February 2019 The very bijou ex-#BrightonCourtHouse - here’s what I said last time I posted it in 2017 : Brighton Court House, 1936, by the versatile #PercyEverett who had been appointed #ChiefArchitect of the #PublicWorksDepartment the year before, and wasted no time. Cubic and formally planned, but with decorative touches like the brickwork, a … Continue reading Brighton Court House, Percy Everett, 1936 →

February 2019 Great details on this little #ArtDeco Commonwealth Bank in Hampton - look at those wild square things on the #verandah brackets ! Hmmm actually thanks to @harperandcharlie who pointed this out they’re prob 80s or 90s cos these Comm Banks didn’t have awnings. At lest they left the unexpected delight of the #wroughtiron … Continue reading Art Deco Commonwealth Bank, Hampton style. →

February 2017: #ACABuilding, 1936, designed by the Sydney architects Hennessy and Hennessy, best known for a series of matching Gothicish office blocks for #CML dotted around Australia. Like this one, they're all built in #BenedictStone, a precast pressed cement product incorporating crushed Brisbane Tuff, a business owned by the Catholic Church, as was this building … Continue reading ACA Building Queen Street. →

14 February: The #OsloHostel on its way to becoming #theBlock2019. The cypresses are gone, the Deco extension is next, and the fence is dismantled for future reinstatement when it becomes five huge houses again, as it was in 1861 (but with more rooms !) when it was built as Westbourne Terrace. 13 March 2019: The … Continue reading The Block 2019, transforming the Oslo / Westbourne Terrace →