Original post 8 July 2020 This grand building for the ‘Australian Church’ once stood on #FlindersStreet near Spring though - the 1887 sketch is all I knew of it, and I wondered if it had ever been built. Then @heraldsunphoto_retro popped up with a great photo from c1900, showing it next to Griffiths Teas, and … Continue reading The Australian Church, Flinders Street, 1887-1920s
Port Melbourne Freemasons Hall, 1917
Original post 9 July 2020 The #PortMelbourne #FreemasonsHall in #liardetstreet is great, a bit #ViennaSecession, or maybe just jaunty Edwardian. It’s 1917 obvs, but that’s all I know. Update : there's a foundation stone behind that tree, the honorary architects were CEMerrett and supervising architect Frederick J Brearley, both of course were members and both … Continue reading Port Melbourne Freemasons Hall, 1917
Newspaper House, Collins Street, competition 1932.
Original post 8 July 2020 This is #NewspaperHouse, built in 1932-33 for the Herald as their city office as it is, and as it might have been; there was a competition, with 8 entries published, mostly quite conservative but all Art Deco more or less, showing how it had taken hold after first emerging in … Continue reading Newspaper House, Collins Street, competition 1932.
Victorian Pride Centre progress
Original post 7 July 2020 The #victorianpridecentre is nearly topped out- looking very tubular ! And big. And the back is pretty interesting too!
South Melbourne surf club pavilion
Original post 4 July Photos 18 June 2020 The new #SouthMelbourneBeach pavilion by @jcbarchitects is very minimalist, a simple very low profile and grey render (precast?), quite nice but I’d have liked a bit of something? Bright colours inside. Great that there’s a fair amount of under cover space on the beach, where there isn’t … Continue reading South Melbourne surf club pavilion
Fmr Methodist Church, Frankston, 1970
Original post 2 July 2020 The Frankston Methodist Church in 1970 is another exercise in minimalism by #BatesSmartMcCutcheon, but with rough faced concrete blocks, rather boldly monumental- but maybe in real life it’s not so impressive? It’s on High Street, a few doors up from the Uniting Church, and used by the Brotherhood for youth … Continue reading Fmr Methodist Church, Frankston, 1970
Catani Clocktower, 1932
Original post 3 July 2020 The #CataniClocktower on the #UpperEsplanade, one of largest memorials to anyone in Victoria, and definitely for an engineer! Catani was Italian, and studied in Florence, before coming out here in 1876, got a job at the Lands Department, and by the 1890s was responsible for big projects like draining the … Continue reading Catani Clocktower, 1932
Fourth Victoria Building, Collins Street
Original post 1 July 2020 The Fourth Victoria Building (society) in #collinsstreet is a rebuild of an 1880s building by architect #RobertHaddon in #1912 adding two floors, and a new plain facade, which #RobinBoyd described as a ‘fairly wheezy’ first breath of functionalism in Melbourne, but really it’s a fairly direct influence of the #ViennaSecession, … Continue reading Fourth Victoria Building, Collins Street
Myer clock close up
Original post 8 October 2019 Spotted out the windows of #MyerMelbourne Menswear on the 4the floor - the giant clock, placed there with the Bourke Street frontage, completed 1934. So, like the building, I presume it was designed by #TompkinsAndTompkins. Very #ArtDeco.
Prudential, Bourke Street, 1960.
Original post 29 June 2020 Great shot from @heraldsunphoto_retro of the Prudential Building, cnr Bourke & Queen only just demolished late last year; you can see the other 3 corners of this intersection are vacant, ready for the mid rise office buildings all constructed in 1960-63, three of them, like this one, by #BatesSmartMcCutcheon, this … Continue reading Prudential, Bourke Street, 1960.









