In #HopeStreet #Brunswick, there’s this ! A #retorthouse, built for the #BrunswickGasWorks in 1891. This was the building in which the coke (a type of coal) was heated to produce the gas that went on to fire up street and domestic lights. It was designed by engineer Stephen Hutchison, big bold and simple in two … Continue reading Brunswick Gas Works, 1891
Victorian parapets No. 5
Great 1880s #parapet/s, those deep holes defining the #scrolls are a signature of #NormanHitchcock, who would normally make the whole thing far more elaborate, so might be him, might not. #SydneyRoadBrunswick.
Chef factory 1963, fun modern from Theodore Berman.
8 January 2019 The excellent #CraigAndSeeley factory offices in #Brunswick, built in 1963, designed by #TheodoreBerman, one of the mostly Jewish postwar #EmigreArchitects (or @othermoderns). Love it, all that colours! Intense green, patterned, and bright red, over black and white (incl white mosaic tiles on the columns). C&S made Chef brand stoves, taking over from … Continue reading Chef factory 1963, fun modern from Theodore Berman.
Fire Station Modern
#BrunswickFireStation, 1937, designed by #SeabrookandFildes, who did a few around town but this is the best. They got famous for introducing a bricky brand of European Modernism in 1934 with #NormanSeabrook’s design for #MacrobertsonGirlsHigh. This is bit more #ArtDeco by comparison, but very stripped back and rectangular. Thanks as usual to Grant for the drive … Continue reading Fire Station Modern
Jobbin’s best Bank, Racecourse Road.
Excellent bank in Racecourse Road #Flemington by #GeorgeJobbins from 1889 for the #ColonialBankofAustralasia; his most elaborate, in fact one of the most elaborate banks from the time - banks were often very restrained compared to the #HighVictorian madness going on around them in the 1880s. Great details such as the delicate #ioniccapitals and the little … Continue reading Jobbin’s best Bank, Racecourse Road.
Front portion preservation
There’s a lot of #frontportionism in #DorcasStreet, #SouthMelbourne near the market. This is my ideal kind of compromise, keeping a good chunk of the old, the new doesn’t overly #dominate. Though maybe it does a bit given these two are on corners. And the second one unfortunately includes a lower not to the left that … Continue reading Front portion preservation
Tudor style house called Tudor House by John Beswicke 1883
IRepost 2019: Everymans home is his Tudory castle. Built in Pasco Street, Williamstown, in 1883, this impressive house was designed by #JohnBeswicke, and it’s one of the best things he did. Also quite unusual for the 1880s, when nearly everything was elaborate #Italianate, or polychrome brick- this is chaste by comparison. It’s called #TudorHouse (surprise … Continue reading Tudor style house called Tudor House by John Beswicke 1883
Percy Everett in Willy
Lunch in #Williamstown, so had to have a look at #PercyEverett’s addition to #WilliamstownHighSchool, and excellent as always, looking like a superior 1930s office block almost, but it’s actually 1948 - Percy seems to have ignored modernism almost completely (#RobinBoyd etc must have been shaking their heads in disbelief). But it’s very nice, well built … Continue reading Percy Everett in Willy
Tallest shop top in Melbourne ?
#FabulousFacade to a shop in #ChapelStreetPrahran, so vertical and spiky, with lashings of #ArtNouveau; sadly some of the (red?) tiles falling off, the rest painted out beige. Can’t find much about it, but looks c1910; in 1905-8 there was an #OysterSaloon, raided for gambling, and for “horribly offensive” oysters (!), then by 1912 it was … Continue reading Tallest shop top in Melbourne ?
More Mock Tudor in Toorak
#Picturesque but actually #symmetrical - the 1934 #MockTudor shops on the corner of Toorak Road and Grange Road. Designed by Leslie Reed (not #RobertBellHamilton as previously thought), they were built in front a Victorian house, you can see the chimneys round the side, where they just plastered the walls with #halftimbering. The front much more … Continue reading More Mock Tudor in Toorak









