16 June 2024: Very interesting house at 38 Hotham Street, East Melbourne. Can’t find anything about it ! It’s clearly Edwardian but with unusual details, like the spindly verandah posts, on a verandah that’s just bracketed out, and an excellent asymmetrical arched entry porch. Must be by an architect who was looking at both English … Continue reading Edwardian with American influence →

17 June 2024 Distinctive house at 1 Loch Street St Kilda, with a very unusual rough face stone look, which I actually find a bit unattractive. It looks a lot like bluestone but it’s actually precast blocks of some sort, you can see that the pattern repeats; probably early concrete blocks, since machinery for making … Continue reading Edwardian concrete block houses →

16 June 2015: Grantown House Nicholson Street Fitzroy. Possibly the most ornate and impressive and impressively decayed single #terracehouse in #melbourne. Look at all those urns, delicate cast iron and stuff ! Started as two floors in the 1850s and extensively added to in 1871, and again in 1876, when the top floor and left … Continue reading Grantown House, Fitzroy →

15 June 2024: Interesting terrace house I snapped in 2014, quite vertical, and a rather simple example of polychrome brick. But I dont know where it is - anyone recognise it ? Update : thanks to @benjamin_frederick_art, it’s Highett Street Richmond, I’d never have guessed.

15 June 2018: Rather nice Victorian facade on Elizabeth Street, next to the side entry of the Royal Arcade, easily missed. Can’t tell you much about it, except probably 1880s, and a bit richer than many, complete with pediment, and unusual squared window surrounds. Update 2024: think the shop is empty but the whole thing … Continue reading Victoriana in Elizabeth Street →

14 June 2013: Help! Thanks to Eelenberg Fraser, City of Port Phillip, VCAT, or whoever is responsible. 50 Albert Road South Melbourne. 2016: O dear just discovered this one won the 2014 City of Port Phillip design award for tall buildings! Guess they didn’t mind the treatment of the terrace (it’s only 1 room deep … Continue reading Squashed →

13 June 2024 So this 1960 block of flats ‘Motstone’ in Walsh Street Sth Yarra was in @theageaustralia the other day because the resident owners opposed heritage listing - and I admit it’s certainly a surprising inclusion ! It’s somewhat interesting, featuring timber framed window-walls and perhaps an early example of being perched above parking. … Continue reading Six pack flats as heritage in South Yarra →

12 June 2016: Kodak House, #OakleyandParkes, 1935, on left, and #LyricHouse, #AandKHenderson, 1930 on right; a pair of the once common #tallthinfrontages of the #melbCBD, a result of early small subdivisions and later high rise technology. Kodak House was built for the eponymous company, and its stylish Art Deco with a dash of Modern, note … Continue reading Kodak and Lyric House →

9 June 2024 One of my early Instagram posts from 2013, when I just labelled it ‘urban decrepitude’. It was in Johnston Street Collingwood corner of Sydney Street near Hoddle, and despite being contributory in the Johnston Street heritage precinct was surprisingly demolished for a small retail /apartment building that looks like it’s maybe 1977 … Continue reading Nice old shops, gone →

8 June 2024 The final look of the Fed Square entrance to the Metro Tunnel station (though it still says ‘concept’). Basically it’s like the original image, which made the glass look invisible, but of course it isn’t, so not sure of the point of the zippy steel structure underneath. It’s pretty much the same … Continue reading Fed Square Metro entrance fail →