So finally got to see for myself what’s left of the former Le Louve boutique for myself - though it looks fine, the only original thing is the 1920s shopfront. This was a famous invite-only boutique, operating here from the 30s until 2013, run by Lillian Wightman, who refused to sell to Nauru House in … Continue reading What was Le Lourve, now all new →

Repost from 2016: Spier&Crawford #winemerchants rather elaborate 1888 #warehouse on William Street, near Little Lon, designed by the young #NahumBarnet in a distinctively chunky over-scaled Victorian #mannerist style, with fun grapevine detail! Always liked it, but only see it a few months/year thanks to the #peskytrees. #Latergram from 2011 taken as part of the listing … Continue reading Mannerist warehouse on William →

1 March 2022 I’m worried not only for the people of Ukraine, but their fantastic architectural heritage too, not only old Baroque churches and Neoclassical palaces, but Kyiv is also actually full of great old apartment buildings from the 1880s-1910s, when the Russian Empire finally had its industrial revolution and the middle class grew a … Continue reading Ukrainian architectural heritage →

February 2022 Woy Woy, Marine Parade, Elwood, 1936. Photo Rohan Storey, 2019, just after renovations and repainting. Last year I went to photograph Woy Woy, the bold blocky 1930s Modernist apartment block on the Elwood foreshore, and discovered it had just been renovated; painted white after years of being a muddy yellow, suddenly it looked … Continue reading Geoffrey Harley Mewton, Modernist Pioneer →

Repost 2019: Coming up Jackson Street in the late afternoon, the #StKildaCoffeePalace in Grey Street often looks so impressive. And nicely worn, not overly restored, cos it isn’t. It’s one of the first ‘temperance hotels’, created in 1883 by extensively rebuilding something that had been built as an ‘assembly room’ in 1871. The rebuild was … Continue reading St Kilda Coffee Palace →

Flinders Street Station has always been a sense incomplete. The design was won in a competition in 1899 by architects Fawcett & Ashworth (who both worked for the Railways), and the State Library has their elevations, the only drawings thought to survive, which show the Flinders Street and Swanston Street sides but nothing else. The … Continue reading Flinders Street Station – as it might have been. →

Repost 2019: The most fabulous #shopfront in #Melbourne, possibly Australia, in #RipponleaVillage, an elaborate creation in coppered metalwork, #leadlight, and timber, described as a ‘showpiece’ for #BrinsmeadsPharmacy, built in 1918, fittings by #ThomasDuff & Sons. The building was designed by #SydneySmithandOgg - not for Mr Brinsmead, but for Mr Dalton who had bought the business, … Continue reading Brinsmeads Pharmacy Ripponlea →

The Corkman pub has been rebuilt ! But as an art work, 3/4 scale. Called ‘Distant Things Appear Suddenly Near', by Irish artist, Sean Lynch, and funded by the City of Melbourne, it sits at the north end of University Square, facing the empty pub site, now a temporary park. This is temporary too, looks … Continue reading Corkman rebuilt ! →

This incredible thing in pic 1 is the first approved design for Parliament house in Melbourne, from 1855 – when Victoria only had 200,000 people. It was designed by Peter Kerr and John Knight, who oversaw the building of the chambers and library 1856–1860, then nothing happened for 18 years. In 1879 Peter Kerr alone … Continue reading Parliament House, earlier designs →

Repost from 2018: The #PamelaAndersonHouse, Canterbury Rd, #StKildaWest, by #CassandraFahey (practice name #CassandraComplex haha), built 2000 for (in)famously misogynistic ex (#AustralianRules) football player #SamNewman, who never actually lived there. After doing a string of award winning projects in the 2000s, I heard she gave up #architecture for a while, now she’s Lead Architect at Woods … Continue reading Pamela Anderson House →