The tower of Lonsdale House, sadly demolished in 2010 for the Emporium, despite local heritage listing - probably the last really big heritage issue to galvanise Melburnians. It was created in 1936 out of two Victorian buildings, and designed by #IGAnderson. He also did #Dorijo in East Melbourne I recently posted, which has a similar … Continue reading Lonsdale House
Tag: LostMelbourne
Queen Victoria Building and Queens Walk Arcade
The delightful Queen Victoria Building, once on the corner of Swanston and Collins, in a close up of a painting from 1889 by Jacques Carabain, a French/Belgian artist who made a living going round the world and painting street scenes (usually exotic locales though). Then a scan of a slide of the building from the … Continue reading Queen Victoria Building and Queens Walk Arcade
Lost Melbourne – St Patricks Hall
1 September 2022 A still from ‘Lost Melbourne’, a great little doco by Gus Berger about much that we lost - and I’m in it ! Coming to cinemas. This is St Patricks Hall being demolished in 1957; it was on Bourke Street, the hall built by the Irish community in 1849, and was where … Continue reading Lost Melbourne – St Patricks Hall
The Australian Church, Flinders Street, 1887-1920s
Original post 8 July 2020 I had not found a photo of this till @heraldsunphoto_retro popped up with a photo showing the ‘Australian Church’ on #FlindersStreet near Spring - it was built in 1887, but was gone by the mid 20s, a church and building that came and went rather quickly. It was established in … Continue reading The Australian Church, Flinders Street, 1887-1920s
Premier Permanent, Collins Street, 1887, not so permanent.
Original post 9 April 2020 When I first saw a photo of this I was like OMG what a feast ! Delicious ! It seems like most of the really OTT #highvictorian things were lost on the 1950s-60s, and this was right up there ! The #PemierPermanent Building Society, on #CollinsStreet south side just down … Continue reading Premier Permanent, Collins Street, 1887, not so permanent.
Oxford Chambers, Bourke Street, 1889-1970
First posted 1 February 2020 While I’m on #lostmelbourne, there’s the famous ones, but there were quite a lot of ornate #highvictorian ‘chambers’ like this that mushroomed in the 1880s and disappeared in the 50s-70s, mostly with only a few photos now in archives - and @heraldsunphoto_retro has a great collection slowly filling up their … Continue reading Oxford Chambers, Bourke Street, 1889-1970
Australia Hotel, Collins Street 1939, glamorous and gay.
First posted 31 January 2020 This is the third luxury hotel that #LeslieMPerrott designed, the #HotelAustralia in the middle of #CollinsStreet, opened June 1939, and hard to believe it was demolished in 1989. I remember being shocked when I heard (this was just before I started working at the NationalTrust), I guess it wasn’t highly … Continue reading Australia Hotel, Collins Street 1939, glamorous and gay.
Fish Market long gone but not forgotten
Fantastic rendering of the long demolished #MelbourneFishMarkets in #FlindersStreet by @coloursofyesterday from 2015. One if the great losses of the 50s-70s. Built 1891-2, designed by R G Gordon in a fabbo Italian Gothic fantasy of towers and turrets. The fish market was actually in a bit built on the riverbank, almost no photos of it, … Continue reading Fish Market long gone but not forgotten
Cliveden Mansion
#LostMelbourne (well, there's bits left) #ClivedenMansion was built 1887-88, designed by #WilliamWardell for ‘Australia’s only Baronet’ Sir William Clarke, with the usual 20 bedrooms, ballroom, and craftsmen brought out from Italy to do the marble and stuff. In 1909 became luxury flats with an added floor, then dem in 1968 for Melbourne’s first #HiltonHotel, a … Continue reading Cliveden Mansion