23 June 2018: Right down the far end of the Docklands is this ! The (abandoned) Shipping Control Tower. Plans for one of the last bits of the Docklands recently approved (with buildings higher than originally envisaged of course); but at least they clearly show the retention of the 1966 Shipping Control Tower, never officially … Continue reading Shipping Control Tower →

Mon Reve, by fave architect #IGAnderson, 1937, Hampden Road, Armadale. Another one of the few 30s Modernist houses in Melb, though leaning heavily to Art Deco too. Been meaning to see it for ages - disappointing that there was a great big skip and tree right in front ! 2nd image from @geoffreygoddardphotography much better. … Continue reading Mon Reve modern, 1937 →

One of Melbourne’s few houses that really channels interwar Modernism, though more the British version than German (with plenty of Art Deco flourishes too). On the corner of Toorak & Hopetoun Roads, it was built in 1936 for Dr Graham Boyd, and the architect was A Mortimer McMillan (I don’t know anything else he did). … Continue reading Dr Graham Boyd House, Toorak Road, 1936 →

Does anyone like this thing, in #BourkeHill ? I guess I dislike with extra sauce because I vaguely always knew it shouldn’t have happened. Built 1983, it unfortunately snuck in just before the precinct was #heritagelisted, replacing a bunch of Victorian shop/terraces, the biggest ones actually part of the #WilliamAngliss meat supply empire that started … Continue reading 80s unlovely in Bourke Hill →

Repost this day 2019: Truly appalling bit of modern signage completely dominating the original 1872 arched timber #VictorianShopfront in #BourkeHill. Was cream which was slightly better than the current dark grey. New #heritageguidelines coming up for the CBD day things like ‘signage should not dominate, be respectful, etc’, can’t wait. A very rare surviving Victorian … Continue reading Bad signs →

Repost from 2016: A bit of the fully intact #redbrick #facade of the old 1911 Footscray Grand #cinema in #paisleystreet downtown #footscray peeking from the decaying but once groovy #fiestabingo sign, which looks very 60s, prob when the cinema became just the upper half, not closing until 1987. Last one in the west, until the … Continue reading Hidden heritage – Grand Theatre Footscray →

Repost from 2016: we nearly got this for the #CitySquare! When it was being developed in the late 1960s, the closure of the Regent Theatre in 1970 was seen as an opportunity to make it even bigger, and it was bought by the City Council with the idea that it would make the perfect site … Continue reading City Square shocker 1972 →

Repost this day 2019: The rather delightful Wesleyan Chinese Mission Church in #Chinatown, built in 1872, designed by #CrouchAndWilson, who did a lot of churches, often #polychromebrick like this one. Still a mission church. Part of a great bit of streetscape. Also, the google camera captured the almost cartoonish two-guys-and-a-ladder painting something. Repost this day … Continue reading Chinese Mission Church/ Commit no Nuisance →

10 November 2024 Possibly the largest abandoned historic building in Melb, above the first floor anyway. Appropriately but unimaginatively named, ‘the Big Store’ opened in Chapel Street in 1902. Run by Maclellan & Co, related to Foys of Smith Street, it was the biggest department store in Chapel Street, which like Smith Street rivalled the … Continue reading Big old Chapel Street Department Stores →

Repost this day 2019: Architect #MordechaiBenshemesh. made quite a splash back in 1961, with #EdgewaterTowers, one of the first high rise apartment developments in #Melbourne, rather oddly located at the far end of #StKilda. But then seeing as it was part of Melbourne’s Jewish history, designed by and bought by postwar (and sometimes prewar) Jewish … Continue reading Edgewater Towers, 1961 →