4 October 2015: Ignore the big ad and cluttered shop windows and you can see an interesting little shop/offices from c1971, half behind a tree in Elizabeth Street opposite the GPO. Lots of detail when you stop to look, like projecting first floor display window, which leans out, with inset corners and tiled edges to … Continue reading In Orbit →

3 October 2013: The mail was once Royal. Double #postbox, I think the only one like it in #victoria. 1920s. Outside the town hall, #swanstonstreet. Update : I wrote an article on ‘Pillar Post Boxes’ for the @nationaltrustvic in 2000, noting there were only about 200 left, many disused, and Australia Post had a policy … Continue reading Post box, double →

30 September 2024 George Mateers Victoria Bakery, Johnston Street, Collingwood, 1888. Quite a statement for a baker, but that’s what they did in those days. The designer was Norman Hitchcock, whose style was quite unusual and often very elaborate, with unique elements which means you can spot them, like the stumpy pilasters, with brackets on … Continue reading Ornate bakery →

30 September 2024 Denton Hat Mills, Nicholson Street, Abbotsford, a wonderful huge wall of late Victorian polychrome brick. Designed by the versatile and prolific William Pitt, seems built in stages, two storeys by 1883, three by 1888. Apparently rare as a clothing factory powered by steam, but I think steam was also/mainly used to shape … Continue reading Big polychrome wall →

29 September 2024 Rusty remnant on Punt Road, near Bridge, photographed in Nov 2017; great overgrown garden. Untouched since perhaps the 60s, no sale or rent ads I can find.

24 September 2014: I think this is a very early cover, for the first Melbourne water supply system which was turned on in 1857 with water from the #yanyean #reservoir. That company was taken over by the MMBW (#melbourneandmetropolitanbaordorworks) in 1896, so it could just possibly be 1857. But probably later. Spotted on the footpath … Continue reading Pretty old service cover →

23 September 2015 Obligatory shot of the Beswicke Building in #brunswickstreet, 1888. Always thought that was just the #buildingname but actually thats the name of the #architect, John Beswicke, so it’s one of the few buildings named after its designer in Melb. Just read a book on his work by a descendant and he did … Continue reading Beswicke on Brunswick, and the Max →

23 September 2024 Ex-North Melbourne State School, Queensberry Street, designed 1883. In 2015 when I took the pics it was the Bastow Institute of Educational Leadership, named after the first chief architect of the education department Henry Bastow, who is said to have designed 600 schools after primary education became compulsory in 1872. He based … Continue reading North Melbourne Bastow School →

22 September 2024 I took these photos of what I thought was some cute Deco or maybe 50s flats in Queensberry Street, North Melbourne in 2015, but thanks to the hyperlocal @housesofnorthandwestmelbourne I now know it was a house ! Built in 1962 for the Lamberti family, who had a music shop in Victoria Street, … Continue reading Brick box mid century →

21 September 2024 Not Melbourne and only real estate pics but - wow ! Noorlim, near Murchison, is one of the grandest mansions in the countryside; built 1879 for local pastoralist William Winter, it’s got an arcaded verandah on two levels wrapping around three sides, the obligatory tower, then a lobby, foyer and hall all … Continue reading Noorilim →