November 2025 Offington was one of the grandest mansions in St Kilda Road, and was demolished in 1971 - but the point of this post is that it looked completely different by then, having been rebuilt as flats 1932, the bricks rendered and losing the verandah. It was a grand important house in its day, … Continue reading Offington, St Kilda Road →

November 2025 Read about this house at 81 St George’s Road Toorak so had a look - it was sold in 2020, and the overseas owners started renovations then changed their plans, so it’s pretty bare, but the main house is intact. It was built in 1934, architect unknown, but it was by the builders … Continue reading Tudor bereft →

November 2025 A proper Toorak Victorian mansion I hadn’t seen before - Chastleton, cnr of a road the same name and Orrong Road. What we see isn’t all actually Victorian though - the house was first built in 1887 in a very picturesque rustic Italianate style, with a cute verandah, and a ballroom wing to … Continue reading Chastleton Ave Toorak →

November 2025 Spotted this in May this year in Alma Road St Kilda, clearly it was a mansion converted into flats. Now it’s up for sale, so we can see a bit inside - it was until recently the Scottsdale Supported Residential Service, I think run by the Uniting Church, so it’s got loads of … Continue reading Mansion to flats to boarding house … →

November 2025 Found myself near that house in South Melbourne that was featured in Restoration Australia last year, which I only watched recently - as soon as they showed how decayed it was, I thought it’s probably so rotted that you might as well dismantle and rebuild mostly new - and that’s almost what they … Continue reading South Melbourne restoration / reconstruction →

November 2025 RMIT’s Building 1, all brooding Gothic/Romanesque, softened by trees on both sides, my pics from this year back to 2016. The great #RomanesqueRevival tower (described at the time as (‘Scotch Gothic’) and the #LatrobeStreet frontage completed 1892, designed by #OakdenAddisonandKemp. The bit on the far left, in fact the whole rear half, was … Continue reading RMIT Building 1 →

2 December 2025 I thought the spaces underground at the new Town Hall Station might be vast, and they are ! Firstly there’s the cavern under the city square, with those forked beams, very grand, but strangely all one colour and relatively low lighting (update: the end wall will be one horrible giant ad screen … Continue reading Metro Tunnel stations →

November 2025 If you’ve ever gone up Auburn Road Hawthorn you’ve probably seen this fantastical mansion, which is now up for sale. ‘Talana’ was designed in 1899 by John Beswicke, who lived a few doors down the side in Harcourt Street, and had designed just about all the big houses in that street in the … Continue reading Edwardian mansion Talana →

November 2014 Lambs on Lygon Street, the long term late night souvlaki shop, has an actual stained glass window of lambs above the corner door - I thought this might be a coincidence, maybe it was once a butchers, but there a another two with different lambs - so I guess the shop commissioned them … Continue reading Lygon Lambs →

November 2025 Rather cute little building I’d never seen before just popped up on Facebook- the Fine Arts Society (update I’m told this wasn’t a society but a private art gallery run by William Gill and his son) started in 1917, and in 1920 built this Adam /Regency style place in Exhibition Street near Little … Continue reading Fine Arts →